Warrior's Last Gift by Melissa Mayhue Page A

her grasp, and the hands that had lovingly stroked her deserted her as he pulled away.
    “ My son?” He shook his head as if to deny her statement. “This is true? Was I never to know? Did you give no thought to telling me of my own child?”
    She sat up and reached for her blanket, then pulled it around her shoulders like an armor against the memories.
    “There was no reason to tell you.”
    “No reason? It was my son!” His voice echoed off the rock of the small cave. “And if he’d lived, you would have kept that from me as well?”
    She didn’t answer. She’d made her decision over a year ago, and now there was nothing left but to live with it. At least she didn’t need to live with the secret any longer. She’d told him, so the worst was over. She could survive Eric’s rejection of her again. She’d already survived it once before.
    His back to her, he stood at the entrance of the cave for several minutes. When he returned to the fire to lay out his bedding, he placed it as far away from her as he could.
    Jeanne lay down again, willing a sleep that wouldn’t come. She should have known better than to have allowed herself to believe even for a moment he would be hers again. Happiness was not her destiny.
    After a long time, Eric spoke once more. “There is no chance the babe belonged to Eymer?” His voice sounded hollow in the dark.
    “None at all,” she answered truthfully.
    “And he was aware of that as well?”
    “He was.”
    Eric asked no more questions and she offered no more information. All that had happened, like Eric’s love for her, was in the past. She needed to let go of the past and focus on her future.

C hapter E ight
    Forgetting the past was easier said than done when you were forced to spend your day with your arms fastened around the broad chest that had been the best part of that past.
    Jeanne straightened her back, trying to put even an inch of distance between herself and Eric, a difficult task when sharing the back of a horse.
    The one thing she could be thankful for was that they had left the snow behind them hours ago as they’d come down from the mountains.
    “Do you see that haze on the horizon?” Eric lifted an arm to point ahead of them. “Unless I miss my guess, that’s where we’re headed.”
    Jeanne stretched to see over his shoulder. “Will we make it there before nightfall?”
    “We will,” he confirmed, as tight-lipped as he had been all day.
    After what had passed between them last night, he’d shut himself off completely as if they were hundreds of miles apart.
    Thank the saints they were so near to their destination. She could imagine no better way to end this awful day than by fulfilling her pledge. With her goal so close, Eric’s refusal to talk to her couldn’t matter. Nothing mattered now except the small bundle she carried in her pack.
    Another half hour of riding and the sea stretched out before them, a ribbon of bright blue, separated from them only by a strip of sandy beach at the edge of the rugged rocks they traversed.
    Once they’d crossed onto the sand, Eric dismounted and lifted Jeanne down.
    She gathered stones to build a small fire pit close to the water, while Eric gathered bits of driftwood and brought them to the pit.
    Once the tinder caught and a few small flames licked up around the wood, Jeanne kneeled by the fire and pulled the small boat from her pack. With shaking hands, she removed all the bandages and set the little sail in place. Then she adjusted the pillow in the hollow on the deck before dipping into the pack again for the little bag containing Eymer’s tooth. Gently, she placed the tooth on the herb-laced pillow and started toward the water’s edge.
    “Wait.” Eric stood next to her, a bundle of dried weeds clutched in his hand. “I need the truth from you once more, Jeanne. You say that Eymer knew the babe was mine. Did he know before you wed or after?”
    The past was past, she reminded herself, doing her best to