My Valiant Knight by Hannah Howell

Author:Hannah Howell [Howell, Hannah]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical
ISBN: 9781420128192
Google: FT5q19b0jsQC
Amazon: B008VGLS06
Publisher: Zebra Books
Published: 1996-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

Ainslee groaned softly as she was lifted from the saddle. She felt stiff and not as well rested as she thought she ought to be. As Gabel set her on her feet and turned to tend to his horse, she looked around and struggled to shake free of sleep’s fog. Her rest had been troubled by bad dreams. She could remember hearing Gabel’s deep voice as he spoke to her in soothing tones, so, she suspected that she had cried out at least once.

Seeing Ronald sit down beneath a gnarled, leafless tree, she walked over to sit down next to him. Ronald had protected her for almost her whole life, and she hoped being near him would ease the lingering fear that left a sour taste in her mouth. It was going to be hard enough to return to her father, without going to him shaking in terror of some unknown dangers her frightened mind had conjured up.

“Are ye sickening for something?” Ronald asked as he handed her a wineskin and she took a drink. “Beside that hulking great Norman, that is.”

“Nay, I dinna believe I am falling ill,” she replied as she leaned against the knotted trunk of the tree and ignored his last remark. “I am just weary.”

“Weary? Ye have slept away the whole of the morning.”

“I ken it, and I find it most irritating that I am not weel rested. Howbeit, it was a troubled sleep filled with dark dreams and fear of what is to come.”

“Mayhaps the dreams about your mother return because ye are drawing near to Kengarvey,” he said gently as he put his arm about her shoulders.

“I didna dream about my mother. I dreamt about us, all of us here now. I dreamt of the river,” she said in a voice softened by the remembered horror of the scenes in her mind.

“From the pale look upon your face, I guess we werena having a verra good time.”

“Oh, nay, we werena. Mayhaps ’tis just my mistrust of my father which causes me to see treachery and death.”

“Two things your father has reveled in his whole black life. What did ye see, lassie?”

“We were all there, the men of Bellefleur on one side and my kinsmen on the other. The river that flowed between us was neither gray nor blue, but red. Red with blood.”

“And where were you?”

“Standing in the very heart of it, watching it swirl about my knees and trying to stop its flow. ’Twas as if it flowed from me, yet I had no wounds.”

“A verra dark dream indeed,” Ronald said, and shivered a little. “I pray ye havena become sighted, and that it is some omen.”

“Ye canna pray for that any more than I do.”

He kissed her cheek as he watched Gabel stride toward them. “Here comes your braw lover, lassie. Go with him. He may weel take that lingering darkness from your mind.”

Ainslee allowed Gabel to draw her away from Ronald, but she doubted he could lift her spirits at all.

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