A Time of Exile - Katharine Kerr [132]
“What are you doing here?”
“Trying to figure out how to get a word with you. Are you cold? You can have my cloak. Here.”
Bundled in the heavy wool, she walked with him a little ways back into the woods, where he’d left his horse. The moon streamed through the bare-branched trees and made little patterns on the ground.
“Suppose I came out here tomorrow night,” Maer said. “Would you meet me?”
“It’s going to rain tomorrow night. Samwna’s joints ached all day today, and that’s always a sure sign of rain coming.”
“Well, then, I’ll come out here anyway and keep a hopeless vigil in the pouring rain and get a horrible fever and maybe die, and it’ll all be for love of you.”
“Oh, don’t talk daft.”
“I mean it. Glae, truly, I’m half out of my mind for love of you.”
“Oh, don’t lie to me!”
In the moonlight she could just make out the shock on his face. Half afraid she’d cry, she sat down on the ground under a tree. In a moment he joined her.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right. But I’ll say this, and it’s not fancy words but the truth. I don’t think there’s another lass like you in all Deverry and Eldidd.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“A little of both. How’s this? I’m not mad for love of you, but I blasted well like you a whole lot, and every now and then, I think maybe I do love you.”
“That I can believe, and my thanks. I like you, too.”
Somewhat hesitantly, Maer slipped one arm around her shoulders and kissed her. She let him steal another, found herself thinking of the future, and kissed Maer instead to drive the thought away. When he started caressing her, she wrapped her arms tight around him in the spirit of someone gulping a particularly bitter healing decoction and let him lie her down in the soft leaves.
The medicine worked. Having a man of her own made the rest of her life easier to take, as did the coppers Nevyn gave her for tending his cottage. Once she set her mind to ignoring Nalyn’s insults and keeping peace between them, they got through whole days without squabbling, and Mam and Lidyan began to relax into a pleased relief. When the explosion came, then, it was twice as bad as it might have been. One evening, just at sunset, Glaenara was chasing the chickens back into the coop for the night when Nalyn came walking out of the house. She could tell something was wrong just from the cold look in his eyes.
“And what’s eating at you?”
“I was down in town today, that’s what, and everyone was telling me I should be keeping an eye on my little sister. That silver dagger’s been riding into town to fetch you, hasn’t he?”
“And what if he has?” Glaenara set her hands on her hips. “It’s decent of him to give me a ride when I’m tired.”
“Ride—hah! Who’s riding what, Glae?”
“You little pus boil! Don’t you talk to me that way!”
Nalyn grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
“You tell me the truth.”
Glaenara twisted free and kicked him across the shins. When he grabbed her again and held tight this time, she was shocked at how strong he was—towering over her, causing her pain with an easy masculine strength.
“You’ve been rolling around with that lad, haven’t you? He wouldn’t want naught else out of the likes of you.”
This very real possibility made Glaenara burst into tears.
“Oh, ye gods!” Nalyn snapped. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
“So what if it is? Can’t I have one thing in my rotten life that I want just because I want it?”
With an oath, Nalyn let go of her, then slapped her hard across the face. Glaenara slapped back without thinking, and at that, the long bad feeling between them erupted. He grabbed her by the shoulder, twisted