“So you’re just going to make a deal with him?”
“Yeah. We’re going to set the terms and if he doesn’t abide by them, he’s getting Thordin’s axe between his eyes.”
Neve chewed on the inside of her lower lip, hunched over slightly, her chin resting on the knee of her good leg. Her ribs hurt, ached, but somehow this position was more comfortable than sitting up straight—probably because it let her stretch out her back muscles, which were growing uncomfortably tight and stiff from laying on her back most of the time and hobbling around with the crutches the rest of the time.
“I don’t like it, Marin,” she said after a moment, lifting her gaze to regard the other woman seriously.
Marin looked up from the pile of fleece scraps in her lap, her nose wrinkling slightly. “I’m not sure that I do, either, but we took a vote and that’s how it went.”
“What happens if Thordin’s not here?” Neve asked. “What happens then? Who deals with him?”
“Thordin promised that he’s not going anywhere until Matt can safely plant a war-axe between Cariocecus’s eyes.” Marin shot her a smile before she laid a couple of the pieces of the fleece together and started to stitch them together with small, even stitches. “I don’t really foresee him going anywhere anytime soon, either.”
Neve shook her head slightly. “If Cameron’s going anywhere, I’m sending Thordin with him.”
“Well, I don’t see Cameron going anywhere anytime soon, either, so I think we’re safe on that front.” Marin smiled and reached over to squeeze her shoulder gently. “Neither of those boys are going anywhere until they’re confident that you’re going to be fine if they go.”
“They’ll go if they feel like they have to,” she said. “Cameron’s got a pretty impressive sense of duty. He might decide that he needs to go well before I’m healed up.” He’ll definitely make at least one trip away from here before I have this baby. I’ve got no doubt of that. It’s where, when, and who goes with him that’s in question. I’d want it to be Thordin, I think, and maybe Thom. Her gaze slid back toward Marin. The other woman probably didn’t want her husband going anywhere anytime soon.
Marin met her gaze, brows knitting. “Would you want him to? Would you let him go?”
“I don’t know,” Neve said softly. “I’ve thought about it. I think I’d have to, but…” Her voice trailed away and she sighed softly. “I think I’d have to whether I’d like it or not.”
“There are other people who would go—volunteer to do it, even.” Marin set aside the sewing and leaned forward. “Whatever burdens they think they have to shoulder—Cameron especially—they have to realize that they’re not burdens they shoulder alone.”
Damn, but isn’t that a familiar speech? Neve squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled quietly. “You know, my brother said that to me once.”
“Teague?”
She shook her head. “Seamus. Our older brother.”
“Oh.” Marin leaned back a little. “Phelan’s talked about him, but in passing. His death hurt you guys a lot, didn’t it?”
“It’s a miracle that we didn’t all spiral out of control,” Neve said. She sighed and eased back down to her pillows, slowly and carefully stretching out on her side to face her new friend. “It was a bad time for us. In a lot of ways, he was our anchor. My father couldn’t take it. He abdicated, went away. None of us will ever see him again.”
“Is he dead?”
“I don’t know,” Neve said softly. “And I never will.”
I don’t want that kind of mystery for my children. I want them to know where their father is, whether he’s breathing or not.
Bloody hell. Why did he have to be the one to claim the sword?
And why did I have to fall in love with him?
