“Didn’t anyone try to comfort her?”
“Rowland told her to stop crying so we could get some sleep.”
Liana thought about that poor woman, alone with a dirty castle full of men whose chief concern was that her crying disturbed their sleep. And she was the wife who was starved to death at Bevan Castle. If Rogan had not loved the women in his life, he must have loved his brothers. “When your oldest brother died—”
“Rowland did not die, he was killed by the Howards.”
“All right then,” she said impatiently. “Killed. Murdered. Slaughtered unfairly without provocation. Did you miss him after his death?”
Rogan took a while to answer as images of his strong, powerful brother floated through his head. “I miss him every day,” he answered at last.
Liana’s voice lowered. “Would you miss me if I died? Say, if the plague took me?”
He looked down at her. If she died, his life would return to the way it had been. His clothes would be crawling with lice. The bread would be filled with sand. The Days would return. She wouldn’t be around to curse him, ridicule him, publicly embarrass him, or make him waste his time. He frowned. Yes, he’d miss her.
And he bloody well didn’t like the idea of missing her.
“I wouldn’t have to go to any more fairs,” he said, and walked away from her.
Liana stood rooted where she was. She didn’t like to think how much his words hurt. They had been together such a short time and he meant so much to her, yet she was less than nothing to him.
She vowed to herself that she’d never let him see how he’d hurt her, that she’d keep her pain to herself. She thought her face was impassive, with no expression showing to give herself away, but when Rogan turned back, he saw his pretty little wife with her lower lip extended and her eyes big with unshed tears. He searched his mind to figure out what was wrong with her. Did she dread returning to the castle?
He went to her and put his fingers under her chin, but she jerked away.
“You care nothing for me,” she said. “If I were to die, you could get another rich wife and keep her dowry.”
Rogan gave a bit of a shudder. “Marriages are too much trouble,” he said. “My father had the stamina of a thousand men. He went through four marriages.”
In spite of her intentions, tears began to roll down Liana’s face. “If I died, you’d no doubt toss my body in the moat. Good riddance!”
Rogan’s confusion showed. “If you died I’d…”
“Yes?” she asked, looking up at him through lashes heavy with tears.
“I would…know that you were gone.”
Liana knew this was the best she was going to get from him. She flung her arms about his neck and began to kiss him. “I knew you cared,” she said.
To the consternation of both of them, people around them began to applaud. They had been so involved in their own dispute that they hadn’t been aware of the people around them who had been gleefully watching and listening.
Rogan was more embarrassed than Liana. He grabbed her hand and started running. They stopped not far from the castle walls and suddenly he, too, was reluctant for the day to end.
There was a vendor nearby with a wooden tray fastened to a belt around his shoulders. In the tray were
painted wooden toys of men that danced at the end of a stick. The vendor, seeing Rogan’s glance, hurried forward and demonstrated the funny little doll. When Liana laughed at the doll’s antics, Rogan found himself parting with two precious pennies for the thing.
Liana clutched the doll eagerly. If Rogan had given her emeralds, she wouldn’t like them as much as the doll. She looked up at Rogan with love.
Rogan turned away from her look. Such a frivolous day, such a waste of time and money spent on a bit of a girl who asked stupid questions. And yet…
He put his arm about her shoulders and watched as she fooled with the toy. He felt good as he watched her. He felt at peace, something he thought he’d never felt before. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. Never before had he kissed a woman for any reason other than lust.
Liana snuggled her body closer to his and Rogan knew he’d pleased her. It was absurd, of course, but somehow, pleasing her pleased him.
With a sigh of regret, he led them to the castle.
Chapter