He sat beside her, his long legs stretched before him, his back against a rock. “I’d hoped to find things better between you and my brother, but they don’t look as though they are,” he said without preamble. “Why did you kill Demari?”
“Because there was no other way,” Judith said, her head bowed. She looked up, her eyes full of tears. “It is an awful thing to have taken someone’s life.”
; Raine shrugged. “It is necessary at times. What of Gavin? Didn’t he explain such to you? Didn’t he offer you comfort for what you did?”
“He has said very little to me,” she said bluntly. “Let’s talk of other things. Your leg is better?”
Raine started to speak, then they both looked toward the river when they heard a woman laugh. Helen and John Bassett walked along the edge of the water. Judith started to call to her mother, but Raine stopped her. He didn’t think the lovers should be disturbed.
“John,” Helen said, gazing at him with love. “I don’t think I can bear it.”
John tenderly pushed a bit of hair from her cheek. She looked like a radiant young girl. “We must. It will be no easier for me to have you taken from me, to see you wed to another.”
“Please,” she whispered, “I cannot bear the thought. Is there not some way—?”
John put his fingertips on her lips. “No, don’t say it again. We cannot be wed. We have these few hours now—that’s all.”
Helen flung her arms about his chest, holding him as tightly as she could. John embraced her until he nearly crushed her. “I would leave everything for you,” she whispered.
“And I would give anything if I could have you.” He buried his cheek against the top of her head. “Come, let’s go. Someone may see us here.”
She nodded and the two of them walked away, slowly, their arms locked about each other.
“I didn’t know,” Judith said at last.
Raine smiled at her. “It happens at times. They will get over the pain. Gavin will find a new husband for your mother, and he will fill her bed.”
Judith turned to him, her eyes a blaze of gold. “A new husband!” she hissed. “One who will fill her bed! Do men ever think of anything else?”
Raine looked at her in fascination. She’d never turned her wrath toward him. It was not just her beauty that fascinated him, but her spirit. He again felt the stirrings of love for her. He smiled. “There is little else to think of about women,” he teased, only half-serious.
Judith started to speak until she saw the laughter in Raine’s eyes, the dimples in his cheeks. “Is there no way for them?”
“No, none. John’s parents are not even of noble birth, and your mother was married to an earl.” He put his hand on her forearm. “Gavin will find a good man for her, one who will manage her property well and who will be kind to her.”
Judith didn’t answer him.
“I must go,” Raine said abruptly as he awkwardly rose. “Curse this thing!” he said vehemently. “I had an ax blade in my leg that didn’t cause me as much pain as this break.”
She looked up at him. “At least it’s set properly,” she said, her eyes twinkling.
Raine winced at the memory of the pain when Judith had reset his leg. “I will remember not to come to you should anything else need doctoring. I’m not man enough to take any more of your healing. Will you return now to the tents?”
“No, I will sit alone awhile.”
He looked about the place. It seemed safe enough, but he couldn’t be sure. “Don’t stay past sundown. If I don’t see you before then, I will come for you.”
She nodded and looked back at the water as he walked away. Raine’s concern had always made her feel warm and protected. She remembered how glad she’d been when she saw him at the castle. His arms about her made her feel safe and secure. Then why didn’t she look at him with passion? It was odd that she felt only the most sisterly affection for a man who treated her so kindly, while her husband—
She wouldn’t think of Gavin while in this quiet spot. Any thoughts of him made her too angry. He’d believed Walter’s words that she was carrying that man’s child. Her hands went to her stomach protectively. Her child! Whatever happened, the baby would always be hers.
“What do you plan for her?” Raine asked as he made a great show of easing himself into a chair in Gavin’s tent. Stephen sat to one side, running a knife along a whetstone.
Gavin was on the other side, eating, as he had been doing ever since he left the castle. “I assume you mean my wife,” Gavin said as he speared a piece of roast pork. “You seem overconcerned with her,” he challenged.
“And you seem to ignore her!” Raine spat. “She killed a man for you. That’s not easy for a woman—yet you don’t even speak to her of it.”