She pushed Charlie away and pointed the handle at Bertram. “Do not tempt me.” Her voice shook on a low warning. “Do not.”
“Lass! I’m Tristan MacPherson. I need this bastard alive to get to the bishop.”
Elias didn’t want his son, Eddie, growing up in a world with the bishop. If Tristan could get close to him, then he was for it. Even if it meant letting Bertram live.Yet again.
She lowered her knife and turned to them. “TristanMacPherson?”
“Aye, lass,” his most handsome of cousins said, smiling at her.
While they became acquainted, and the others broke apart from the huddling mass they were—behind Norman, Alan, and Father Benedict, Elias went to Bertram and yanked his arms behind his back. He ignored Bertram’s howls about the pain in his arm and a few of them, like Estrid, told Elias to pull his arm harder.
“I’m goin’ to come back fer her. I’m goin’ to heal and raise an army and—”
“Who wants to cut oot this man’s tongue?” Elias called out. All the men, including Tristan and Charlie, held up their hands to be seen.
“See it done,” Elias ordered, waving his hand. He set his gaze on Bertram and smiled. “Let us see what kind of army ye will raise without the use of yer words.”
He watched as the men carried him away. Soon, no one would have to listen to him.
“I trust he can show ye the way to the bishop without his tongue,” Elias said to his cousin, standing beside him.
“’Tis how I found this place,” his cousin murmured, watching them take him away. “He didna want to tell me what the village was called, only that everyone here suffered the plague. Includin’ ye.”
“That much is true,” Elias told him. “I have recovered. Many didna.”
Tristan stared at him and shook his head. “Any advice to avoid gettin’ it?”
“Wash yer hands often and eat the rind of a lemon every day,” Lily told him. She was still smiling.
“Stay away from people who have it.” Elias told him, not smiling,
When his wife giggled, his heart went soft and he smiled at her. He put his hand to her flat belly and swept it around to her back. He encircled her waist with his fingers and laid claim to her with a kiss to her neck, just below her earlobe.
She blushed and slapped him away, then hurried to the children.
“Ye wed the hellcat,” Tristan remarked with a wide, understanding eye. “She is bonny. And surrounded by the love of the village children, she appears more like a dove.”
Elias nodded, fastening his gaze to her. She was fast and fearless, and she had enough passion against Bertram in her to kill him. She was brave, giving herself up for Charlie. She was merciful, doing as Tristan asked and letting her former master live.
When she looked at him over her shoulder, he winked and she smiled.
#
Tristan stayed for supper and to help bury the fallen soldiers and Parrock—without his head—that part was put into a sack filled with herbs and leaves that Lily had supplied. They would keep it fresh for a few days, and tied to Bertram’s horse.
As much as it sickened Lily, she accepted that it had been best to kill at least one of them…and render the other almost completely helpless.
With Bertram tied up in the shed, a rag stuffed into his tongueless mouth, Tristan stood over Brother Simon’s grave and prayed, and then they ate and shared stories beneath the setting sun.
“Did ye cultivate this abundant garden?” Tristan asked Lily after a supper of tasty turnip and cabbage stew.
She nodded and then shook her head. How was any woman who didn’t have someone in their life like Elias supposed to resist Tristan’s emeraldeyes and curious smile?
“He is pretty, my love, but ‘tis the sight of you, the scent of you that intoxicates me,” she told Elias later that night while she straddled him and took him fully.
She looked into his eyes and revealed all she was to him—and then took in everything he was. The good and the bad. She would take him any way he came.
“You are everything to me,” she whispered against his neck, grinding up and down. “You are my hope. You become my hope more each day. You stand utterly immovable against everything that comes against you.” She pushed down to his hilt then rose up like an empress awakening from her nap “There is just one thing—”