Lord of Raven's Peak - Catherine Coulter [28]
“Damnation, wake up!”
The scream broke off, dissolving into a deep moan. Merrik dropped his sword and knife and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. “Wake up!” he shouted in her face.
“Don’t you hurt my sister!”
Taby was suddenly on Merrik’s back, beating his fists against his shoulders, jerking at his hair. Laren awoke fully, saw the man over her and screamed again. She raised her fists to strike at him. No, no, wait, wait . . . It was Merrik and Taby was on his back, yelling at him, hitting him, all the while sobbing, tears streaming down his thin cheeks, sounds so ragged she wanted to howl with the pain it brought her.
Now she’d terrified him with her stupid screams, illusion screams that had no meaning, that had naught to do with anything save her fear from that long-ago night. She felt the humiliation of it go deep inside her, that and her anger at herself for succumbing and crying out like a fool. It had been months since she’d dreamed of that night, but it had come again, more intense this time, but still she was used to it, should be used to it enough that she wouldn’t squeal like a stoat. Aye, she should be used to the terror it brought her, terror still as fresh in her mind as the night it had been real. Only this time she’d awakened Merrik and frightened her little brother. She drew a deep breath, tried to make her voice calm, and said, “Taby, it’s all right, sweeting. No, don’t hit Merrik. He was trying to wake me up. I had a nightmare and it was so very real, but it’s over now. Come on, Taby, it’s all right. Come to me.”
Merrik hadn’t moved. He simply waited until she had the child in her arms, unaware until that moment that he had been straddling her, his bare thighs locked against her sides. No wonder Taby thought he was attacking his sister.
Slowly he eased off her and came down on his side to look at her in the dim light of dawn. She was facing him, holding Taby against her, rocking him, and singing to him, her face buried in the child’s neck. She sensed him looking at her, and gazed over at him.
“Tell me,” he said.
She ducked her head down and continued to rock Taby. The child pulled away from her, and came up on his knees beside her. He leaned down and touched his fingers to her face. “Was it the bad men again?”
“Aye, but still just a dream, Taby, just a dream.”
“What bad men?” Merrik said.
“It was only a dream, a dream that comes to me when I’m very tired. I’m sorry I woke you. I’m a fool. But it was just a silly dream, nothing more, Merrik.”
“I see,” he said, and stood. He looked down at her in the pale light, saw that chin of hers go up so high that by all rights she should be forced to stare at the top of the tent, then left her.
She heard the men grumble when Merrik shouted at them to wake up. She hugged Taby tightly against her, then said, “You mustn’t say anything to Merrik about that other time. Besides, you don’t remember it very well. He wouldn’t understand. It was a long time ago, Taby, a very long time ago.”
“Why do you still have bad dreams about it?”
A child, she thought as she kissed his cheek, always went directly to the hidden core. “It was a bad time,” she said honestly. “A very bad time, but we are safe now.”
“Merrik will take care of us.”
She hated the confidence in his voice, his child’s utter certainty. She also hated having to rely on a man, particularly this man who was a Viking, surely one of the most ruthless and vicious of men on this benighted earth. Aye, she didn’t want to rely on him, not for her safety, not for all her needs and Taby’s needs. During the past two years, she’d learned men were vicious and brutal, not to be trusted, taking what they wanted, feeling no remorse, having no conscience. Also she’d learned that to trust in anything or in anyone could leave one dead or worse, though at the moment she couldn’t think of anything worse than death. She remembered Thrasco’s beating. That had been close. She unconsciously