Chapter Twenty-Four #4
Bric couldn’t speak because of the lump in his throat. He had imagined this moment for the past sixty-nine days. It had been that long since he’d seen his wife and as he held her, it was all he could do not to break down.
“Aye,” he said hoarsely. “I have returned to you. Did you truly have any doubt?”
Carefully, he set her to her feet, but Eiselle wouldn’t let go of him, nor would he let go of her. The moment was too joyful for them to release one another.
“Nay,” Eiselle said, looking into his tired, stubbled face. “I did not have any doubts at all. How do you feel?”
“Better than I ever have.”
“Swear it?”
“I swear.”
She looked him over. “This is the first time you have ever returned to me the same way you left me – whole and healthy.”
Bric smiled. “And it will not be the last time for this happy circumstance, I promise.”
“I will hold you to it,” she said, touching his bristly face. “I have heard rumors that the High Warrior was in top form on this campaign.”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “Have you been speaking to my most ardent admirers already?”
Eiselle giggled. “Pearce and Daveigh told me what you did,” she said. “They said you saved Daveigh from French knights and to say that I am proud of you is putting it mildly.”
Bric was surprisingly modest. “I did what I had to do.”
“Of course you did, but it sounds like it was a very great feat.”
His eyes glittered at her, perhaps remembering that moment in time when he thought he might not make it back to her. The odds had been against him as he and Dashiell had pulled Daveigh from the fire.
But it hadn’t damaged him. It had only made him stronger.
“It was simply part of a larger battle,” he said. “But Daveigh is alive and that is all that matters. It could have very easily gone differently.”
“But because of you, it did not,” Eiselle insisted gently. “You are a hero, Bric. You are my hero.”
Bric’s response was to kiss her, deeply, right in the middle of the bailey and with the entire de Winter army as a witness.
He had been so careful with his public displays of affection for Eiselle but, at this moment, he would demonstrate his love for his wife and he didn’t care who saw it.
If the whole of Narborough Castle didn’t already know he was madly in love with the woman, then they were all deaf and blind.
He finally released her from his kiss, but not from his embrace. As Eiselle watched, he pulled out the talisman that she had made for him and held it up between them.
“This is what did it,” he said, kissing the talisman before kissing her again.
“I had this next to my heart the entire time, reminding me of the true power of a knight. I cannot explain it except to say that I have spent my life on the field of battle, and what drove me was my own ambition and sense of honor. It was what carried me to victory so many times. But in those victories, I always felt I was missing something. I never knew what that was until I fell in love with you.”
She stroked his face sweetly. “What did you discover?”
He sighed, trying to find the right words.
“With the battle at Holdingham, I knew I felt something for you, but I wasn’t sure what.
When I realized what it was, I felt crippled by it.
Frightened, because I did not want to die.
I did not want to leave you. When Mylo fell at Castle Acre, I was confused and broken.
You know this. And I leaned on my love for you, like a crutch.
It held me up. But in fighting at Sandwich and at Dover, I came to realize that the power of love is stronger than anything I’ve ever known.
Whatever I was missing before in my hollow victories of the past has been filled by you.
Here I am, holding you, telling you of my victory, and the only thing that matters is that you are proud of me.
That is the greatest glory I could ever receive. ”
His words touched Eiselle more than she could have ever imagined. He was home, he was safe, and he was a better man than he had ever been. It was all she could ask for.
“And that glory is yours, forever,” she whispered.
“You will always have my love, and my pride in you is without measure. Even at your lowest point, I told you that you were the strongest, most wonderful man I know, and now as you taste victory again, you are still the strongest and most wonderful man I know. Nothing you can do will ever change that.”
Bric looked at her, feeling the love pour forth, and he basked in it. The accolades from his men, from his liege, meant little compared to the accolades from his wife.
The one he never wanted.
Thank God he’d been wrong.
“I love you, Lady MacRohan,” he murmured. “Now and forever, I love and worship you.”
Eiselle wrapped her arms around his neck again, never to let him go.
“And I love you,” she whispered. “You are more than my heart could have ever hoped for.”
Bric heard his words, repeated in her sweet voice. There was so much meaning in those words, to the both of them. He kissed her again, smack in the middle of the bailey with everyone watching.
And he didn’t care a lick.
The High Warrior had finally come home.