“I would like to hear about when you were a child,” Kellmara said and sat in the seat beside her.
She laughed. “You may not want me as your daughter after hearing the tales I have to tell.”
“You are my daughter and nothing you say or do will change my love for you. And I hope someday that you will be able to see me as your da and love me.”
Words failed Wintra. Though this man bared his heart to her, he was still a stranger and she needed time to get to know him before she could accept him as her father and begin to love him.
She offered him what she could. “Given time—”
“That’s all I ask for right now—time for us to get to know each other. Now tell me about when you were young.”
~~~
Clouds moved in over the village and by mid-afternoon it started raining and it wasn’t long before it turned heavy. The snow began to wash away and the ground turned to slush. The people took to their cottages, leaving the village to look deserted. At least that was Torr’s thought as he hurried toward the keep and out of the rain.
He was eager to see Wintra and hear how her talk went with her father. And tell her of his talk with Henry, the emissary. He hurried into the keep and was disappointed when he did not find her in the Great Hall or anyone else for that matter, except a few warriors who lingered over tankards of ale and conversation.
He hurried to the solar, thinking that perhaps Wintra and Kellmara were still talking, but he found it empty. Where could she have gone? He left her here and surely the rainstorm would have kept her from venturing outside. He shook his head. He should have made the cottage his first stop, for she would go there if seeking solitude. He hurried out of the keep, worried that her talk with Kellmara had upset her.
He entered quietly to find his wife standing in front of the hearth, staring at the flames, deep in thought as usual. He went to her, standing behind her to slip his arms around her waist.
Wintra sighed and rested back against him, placing her hands over his.
“Did your talk with Kellmara go badly?” he asked, feeling the weight of her burden in the slump of her body against his.
“No, though it left me thinking that nothing is what I thought it was and my return home is far from what I imagined it to be.”
“What had you imagined it to be?”
“I am not sure,” she said shaking her head. “I suppose I thought everything would be as it once was, but what I had not considered was that I am no longer a child, but a woman full grown.”
“I will attest to that,” Torr said with a light chuckle.
Wintra gently elbowed him in the ribs.
Torr laughed and tucked his arms more tightly around her. “I am glad you are full grown, I am glad Cree kept you tucked safely away in the abbey, and I am glad the King wed you to me. While none of it is what I had imagined my life to be, I am very pleased with what fate has given me.”
“I am certainly not ungrateful to fate…”
Torr turned her around to face him. “Yet something troubles you, tell me.”
Wintra did not hesitate to share her worries with him. “Fate has been kind to us thus far, but what if fate decided to separate us as it did my parents? The thought of you never returning to me fills me with dread. I cannot imagine life without you beside me.”
“I am not going anywhere.”
“My father thought the same. He had all intentions of returning to my mother. How did my mother do it? How did she survive all those years without the man she loved?”
“She had you.” Torr did not give her a chance to argue, he continued. “A daughter who was part of the man she loved and, therefore, she always had a part of him with her. Do not mourn for what your mother did not have, but rather find solace in what she had surely found joy in—a beautiful and loving daughter and a good and loving son. She lives on in you and Cree, and I am sure Kellmara sees it that way as well. Every time he sees you, no doubt, he sees your mum as well.”
Wintra took hold of his hand and turned, tugging at him to follow.
Torr didn’t budge. “Where are you going?”
“We are going to bed to make love and to conceive a child. One, may I add, among a whole gaggle.”
Torr laughed and yanked her up against him. “So, Princess, it is a rutting stallion you want in your bed.”