“I used to wish he was my brother.” She laughed at herself. “My own were too young to play with. I wished that he lived with—” Realizing what she was saying, she glanced at Madoc and blushed.
“Working your magic on my woman?” Gareth came up behind her so quietly, she didn’t notice him until he squatted beside her. He smiled at her when she looked at him, scattering the thousands of butterflies already fluttering in her belly. His very presence next to her shattered her nerves. She was beginning to love the way he always smiled at her. Goodness, but she must look hideous with her hair so untidy and her gown wrinkled from sleeping in it night after night. Still, he looked at her as if she had just stepped out of her room after hours of preparation. Something clutched at her heart, making her want what she thought she would never have.
Tomas joined them scratching his dark, shadowed jaw as he sat. He offered Madoc a distasteful grimace across the fire. “Madoc couldn’t work magic on a wrinkled old hag who was blind and hadn’t had herself a man in a score of years.”
Gareth laughed and Tanon poked him in the ribs. “I think Madoc can be quite nice when he isn’t—”
“Slicing someone’s head off their shoulders,” Alwyn offered over his shoulder on his way to the carriage for something to drink.
“I’d prefer to forget that, if you please, Alwyn,” Tanon called back. Then, putting it out of her mind completely, she turned to offer Madoc her kindest smile. “I would even chance to say, he’s quite thoughtful.”
“I wouldn’t chance saying that, were I you.” Tomas snorted and caught the skin of water Alwyn tossed him.
“Nonsense,” Tanon huffed at him.
“Lady,” Madoc said, back to brooding. “He’s right. Never call me such a detestable thing again.”
Tanon stared at him and then turned to Gareth when he began to laugh again. Tomas joined him, as did Alwyn when he sat down.
She shook her head at the lot of them and realized just how much she was going to have to get used to living among such a motley bunch of Welshmen.
After everyone rose from their pallets and ate, Rebecca brushed the tangles out of Tanon’s hair while the men cleared the campsite. Tanon watched her husband as he folded their pallet and brought it to his horse. He flicked back his hair, but it fell like beaten gold around his face, making him look sensuous and wild.
Something moved in the line of her vision. She looked up and smiled at Hereward.
His verdant gaze shifted to Rebecca. “I’m driving the carriage today and thought you might like to sit with me.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t.” Rebecca nearly scoffed right in his face. “I could fall and break my leg. Have you gone daft?”
Hereward’s lips twitched beneath his closely cropped beard, but he laughed softly. “Aye. I think I have.”
When he walked away without another word, Tanon sighed and shook her head. “Must you be so cruel to him? He has always been kind to you, but you continue to rebuke him.”
“I don’t wish to discuss him,” Rebecca said tersely and continued weaving Tanon’s hair into a long plait down her back.
“Why do you dislike him so?” Tanon scowled when her nurse yanked on a stubborn curl.
“Who says I don’t like him? I simply have no interest in him.”
“Because of my father.”
The moment the words left her mouth, Tanon regretted them. But, dear God, how could the woman continue to love a man who would never love her back?
“I have no idea what you mean,” Rebecca snapped, releasing Tanon’s braid before it was completed.
She could deny it until she lay dying in her bed alone, but Tanon had grown up watching Rebecca’s lingering gazes on her father, the smiles that slowly faded over the years and finally barely existed at all. How did she do it? How had she remained with them for so long, giving up her happiness for naught? “Rebecca, if there’s nothing stopping you, then just sit with him. Honestly, what could it hurt?”
Her nurse sighed, glanced at Hereward climbing to the bench, then gained her feet. “I don’t see any purpose to this,” she mumbled, trudging toward the carriage.
Tanon watched her go with a trace of a smile lifting her mouth. Unwittingly, her gaze returned to Gareth. Her eyes drank in the sight of him. Even his hands pulling at the straps of his saddle invited unbidden thoughts of him ripping off her gown.
She could never stand loving him if he didn’t love her in return. But mayhap he would come to love her in time. He was nothing like Roger. She’d known that from the moment Gareth first looked at her the night he stepped into Winchester Castle. He wasn’t deeply in love with someone else, like her father. Perhaps she could win his heart. She doubted they would ever have what her parents had, but…
He turned, as if sensing her eyes on him. Their gazes met, his was warm and wonderfully inviting. Suddenly conscious of her appearance, she swept her curls away from her face. His eyes followed, grazing over her unkempt tresses. He crooked his finger at her. She took a step to go to him and tripped.
She didn’t fall flat on her face, but she did go sprawling a few steps. She heard his rich laughter before she lifted her head and narrowed her eyes on him.
“We have to do something about that.” He let his laughter fade to a smile as he reached her and took her arm.