Aislin of Arianrhod (Land of Alainnshire) (33 page)

“Jariath broke Aislin’s arm so badly...well...I knew it would kill her if I didn’t do something.” He turned his attention to Aislin. “Every Sylvan has the power to heal broken bones and wounds, but it can be fatal. Sometimes it’s fatal for us the first time we use that power. You never know. I know how important you are to Arianrhod, Aislin. I couldn’t let you die. I knew I had to heal that arm for you, even if it killed me.”

Aislin was crying now, big wet tears falling onto his chest and soaking into his shirt.
“You idiot
!” she sobbed. Then she collapsed across him. “I love you!”

Tristan caught his breath. She’d never said that before. He held her close to him and kissed the top of her head. “I love you too, Aislin. Always.”

Stanis, Roderic and Bryce exchanged embarrassed glances. “We’ll leave the two of you alone. If you need anything, just call,” said Roderic, as they backed out the door.

They lay quietly side by side, the storm over. Tristan finally looked down at her and said, “You disappeared from the dungeon. I found the rag soaked with bortroot. Did Duff take you again?”

She nodded. “I don’t know how he got into the manor house.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“I don’t think he had time. Jariath’s men caught him in the forest with me flung over his shoulder. I have no memory of any of it. Duff is dead. Jariath cut his throat. I hope they get the body out of the throne room and get that blood cleaned up before Mother and Gwen get back home. My mother will
not
be happy if that purple carpet gets stained.”

Tristan didn’t know if he should laugh or not. “So we no longer have to worry about Duff. That’s good.”

“I still don’t understand how he got into the dungeon and found me. It makes no sense.”

“It makes sense to me.”

She picked her head up and looked at him. “How?”

“I didn’t remember it until just now. Duff had the ability to put himself in someone’s presence just by thinking about them. I wonder how many times he tried it, only to find you in the presence of others. This may have been the one and only time he went looking for you and found you by yourself. He probably didn’t even know where he was—just that he’d finally caught you alone.”

Aislin laid her head back down on his shoulder. “That explains why Jariath didn’t say anything about you. He didn’t know because Duff didn’t know you were with me in the dungeon. I was sick with worry about you when I woke up in the throne room.”

“Did Jariath hurt you?”

“Other than the arm, no. I was sure I was going to Morrigan with him though. I was completely out of options until you showed up. I even tried to get him to kill me, but he wouldn’t do it.”

Tristan made a strangled sound. “Don’t say that. I don’t want to hear you say that.”

“I didn’t want to have to kill him, but this never would have been over if I hadn’t. He just never knew when to stop.” Aislin shivered in his arms. “It’s a strange feeling to kill someone. I hope I never have to do it again.”

“I’m very proud of you.” He kissed her forehead, letting his lips linger there.

“Thankfully, Wyndham’s army got here in time. Uncle Stanis said you delivered my mother and Gwen to them. Thank you for that.”

“No thank you necessary. I knew you’d want that done before I started looking for you.” Tristan smiled at her. “Gwen did everything I asked of her, but your mother is a piece of work.”

Aislin giggled. “That she is. What was her reaction when she saw your face?”

“She hasn’t seen my face yet, nor has Gwen. I kept the hood up the whole time. I didn’t have time to explain, and I didn’t want to scare anyone.”

“There’s nothing scary about you, but I agree about the explaining. Mother would have had a million questions.”

He tipped her face up to his and kissed her. “I fought it for the longest time, but I really think I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. I held you in my arms the night we caught you in the forest, and I knew I could never let you go.”

“I have to admit—it took me a little longer to fall in love with you,” Aislin laughed. “As I recall, you were very
mean
to me at first.”

“Mean? I’ll show you mean!” Tristan rolled over on top of her, biting gently at her neck as Aislin squealed with delight.

Chapter Thirty Eight

“A
T LEAST HE DIDN’T DESTROY the orchard. We can be thankful for that,” said Stanis.

Stanis, Bryce, Roderic and Aislin were taking a walking tour of the kingdom to assess the damage done by Morrigan’s soldiers. They were all surprised to see that, for the most part, everything remained intact.

“If Jariath had known you were on your way, every one of these trees would have been cut down,” said Aislin. “And the village would have been burnt to the ground. I have no doubt about that.”

“Will there be any repercussions from Morrigan when they find out Jariath has been killed?” asked Bryce.

Aislin privately hoped no one from Morrigan would ever find out Jariath was dead. She
specifically
hoped no one would ever find out that she’d delivered the deathblow.

Roderic and Bryce had quickly buried Jariath’s body in the loneliest corner of the family cemetery, hoping to keep things quiet, but there was still a niggling of fear in her heart. Jariath had brothers, but she didn’t know how many, or what they looked like. Would she spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder?

She’d barely slept a wink last night for nightmares. One in particular had sent her shooting off the bed, so terrified that Tristan had to catch her and hold her down, his hand over her mouth until she calmed down and stopped screaming.

A dead and bloody Jariath, a gaping hole in his throat where the pike had pierced him, had her trapped against the cemetery wall.

“
I will
never
stop hunting you.”

“I don’t know,” said Aislin, shaking her head to scatter the remnants of the nightmare. “I don’t know how much of an army Morrigan has left. They’re a vengeful and vindictive lot. I wouldn’t put anything past Boru.”

“I think it’s pretty clear, given the circumstances, that part of Wyndham’s army should remain here. Do you have any objections, Aislin?” asked Stanis.

“No. In fact, I welcome it. I never want to go through this again.”

She’d been feeling optimistic as they toured, but her heart sank when they visited the stables. Most of the horses were missing, the cattle driven off.

“All of those years of careful breeding, gone,” she said. “How will we rebuild the bloodlines we had here?”

“Not to worry. Wyndham has been the recipient of many fine horses from these stables. We can supply you with enough cattle and horses to start over,” said Stanis.

“Are there many villagers dead?” Aislin was almost afraid to ask.

“A few, but not as many as you’d think. Some of the women of the village were treated roughly by the soldiers, but none killed,” Stanis said delicately.

“Damn him!” Aislin swore, curling her hands into fists. She’d been unable to protect her people, and she’d been torturing herself with “what ifs” since they’d begun the tour.

What if
we would have had our own army?
What if
I could have stopped him before he did this?
It wasn’t rational, of course—she had no way of knowing Jariath was going to take things to such an extreme. Still, she kept thinking that she should have seen
something
that would have given her a clue that his behavior was becoming dangerous.

“And he did all this because you wouldn’t marry him?” Bryce asked, his eyes round with disbelief.

“That’s what
some
people will tell you, but it’s not the whole story. He may have thought he wanted me, but Morrigan is a swamp. He needed productive land in order to advance himself. I was just an incidental.”

“I disagree with that,” said Roderic. “I think you intrigued him. You were the only one who’d ever told him ‘
no’
.”

“He never understood that ‘
no
’ does not mean ‘
maybe, if you can bully me into it’
,” Aislin said vehemently. “And that’s the last I wish to speak of him. He’s already spent far too much time inside my head.”

“How is Tristan today?” asked Stanis.

“Still worn out and weak, but I think he’ll be fine. He was sleeping like a baby when I left him this morning.”

“I’m glad to hear he’s better,” said Roderic. “He had me scared for awhile.”

“Devin and Maeve rode in from Blackthorne two hours ago. They were on a white stallion that I would like to have for myself,” said Bryce, grinning. “Do you think Tristan would consider selling it to me?”

“I’ll ask him,” said Aislin. The love of a good horse had evidently passed from father to son. “Have you seen your mother and grandmother?”

“They’re already at the manor house resting. Encounters with Jariath left them both badly bruised, but they’re not seriously hurt. Both are dehydrated, but Cook is taking care of that with copious amounts of chamomile tea. I’d like everyone to get together for dinner tonight. I’d like it very much if you and Tristan would come,” Bryce said.

She could hear the hope in Bryce’s voice, but Aislin hesitated. “I don’t know about that. I don’t know how Mother will react when she sees him, and I don’t want to put him through that.”

“We were successful here in part because of Tristan. He’s a fine man...er...elf. I would appreciate the two of you being there,” insisted Bryce. “I’ll ask my mother to talk to grandmother.”

“You don’t know your grandmother like I do. I’ll speak to Tristan, but I can’t make any promises.”

“I can’t wear this! I’ll look like Devin! Where are
my
clothes?” Tristan held up the cream-colored shirt, with bishop sleeves and a ruffle at the collar that Aislin had picked out for him. He looked at it as though it were going to bite him.

Aislin ducked her head. She’d taken his Sylvan clothes down to the wash room. “They’re filthy! I wore your sister’s clothes. Can’t you just put them on for tonight?”

He grumbled under his breath, and she laughed. “What are you going to wear when you live here?”

He looked stunned. “What makes you think I’m going to live
here
?”

“Aren’t we going to live here together and...?”

“I thought we’d go back to Oakenbourne and live there.”

“I can’t leave my family now when the kingdom is in a shambles. How can you expect me to do that?”

Tristan gave her an angry glance as he pulled on the pants. “I’m the chieftain of my people. I can’t just run off and leave my obligations.”

“Well, I have obligations too. Can’t someone else do it?”

“Do you know how long it took me to be accepted as chieftain when my father passed his sword to me? Elvor had no other heirs beside me, and I’m not passing it on to someone else outside of my family.”

They stood staring at each other, completely at an impasse. “I guess we’ll have to talk about this later,” Aislin said.

“I agree.”

She finished doing her hair, and with one last glance in the mirror, held her hand out to him. “Are you ready?”

Aislin could see that Tristan was tense, could feel his apprehension through the hand that she held in hers.

Was it fair to drag him down there so soon? His experiences with her kind had left him scarred. Just because he loved her didn’t mean he had to accept them all.

And there was her mother.

Tristan was unlike anyone she’d ever seen. He was beautiful and exotic, but her mother had a problem with ‘different’. It was the way she kept her perfect little world in order. What would she say when she found out they were in love? If her mother had an opinion, she would blurt it out without hesitation. What would he do if that happened?

Aislin had a moment of doubt.

I can’t do this to him. I just want to take him back to Oakenbourne and spare him this.

Her elven warrior. He’d surrounded her with his love and protection, saved her life, even put his own life at risk to heal her. No one had ever loved her like that. The pull to go back with him was tempting and intense, and she almost had herself convinced. But first, they had to get through this dinner.

Tristan held her hand and watched the emotion play across her face. The one constant was the love he saw there in her eyes. For him.

How had he managed to convince this stunning woman he was worthy of her love?

It was true. He hadn’t treated her very well at all in her first days at Oakenbourne. He’d been so afraid of her, had fought so hard not
to
want
her. He’d wanted to hurt her, punish her for the things she stirred up in his head, make her just another human in his mind so it would be easier to do what needed to be done. She’d stood up to him, challenged him to look past the physical and see what was inside her instead.

Humans. His biggest fear. Even a moment of thinking about the night he and Starr had been hunted by humans in the forest made him shake. And here he was in love with one, and about to accompany her into a roomful of them. He wasn’t like them, and all eyes would turn to stare. He would just have to push through the fear.

I love her. I trust her.

“Are you ready?” she asked again, smiling up at him.

He thought for sure he was.

Aislin pushed open the big wooden door to the dining hall and stepped partially inside. Everyone was already seated. All eyes turned toward the door when they heard it open.