Warrior's Moon by Lucy Monroe Page B

the center and the second that Audrey was no longer in the room.
    This concerned her nearly as much as not knowing where her children were. Though Audrey was no fool, at nineteen she had a less jaundiced view of the world than Shona.
    This made her vulnerable to those who might deceive and use her, as Shona had been six years ago.
    With increasingly urgent moves, Shona used her hands to find her way around the room. On a shelf that jutted out from the wall near the head of the bed, fingers encountered a candle and flint for striking. ’Twas an unexpected extravagance, but she quickly made use of it and lit the candle.
    The glow from the single candle dispelled the darkness, though the corners of the room remained in shadow. Shona spied a dark shape that she assumed was clothing Audrey had pulled for her from the small bundle of possessions taken on the flight from Heronshire barony. She grabbed the fabric, only to realize that Audrey had pulled out Shona’s green velvet dress.
    Shaking her head at Audrey’s silliness, Shona donned the garment free of dust and the detritus of travel, unlike the dress she’d arrived in. It took precious time to secure the sleeves, but running about the keep in nothing but her shift was not an option.
    Especially after the last months at the barony, when the most innocent of gestures had been taken as invitations she’d never had any intention of offering.
    She didn’t take the time to brush or pull her hair back. Neither did she search for her shoes.
    Shona needed to find her children and hoped she would not wake the entire keep doing it. But if that was what it took, wake them she would.
    She rushed out the door and nearly tripped over Caelis’s form. He was sitting directly in front of her door, looking around as if trying to figure out where the danger was coming from. His big body rippled with muscle, even in his low position on the floor.
    “What are you doing outside my room?” she demanded in a whisper, wishing she had not noticed anything appealing about his physical appearance.
    He stood with the fluid grace she’d worked hard to forget. “What are you doing rushing around in the wee hours of the morning?” he asked instead of replying.
    “Looking for my children.”
    “They are sleeping in the room beside yours. Your champions are in there as well, guarding the lad’s and lass’s sleep.” Caelis’s disgruntled tone implied he wasn’t as pleased about that as Shona was.
    Her own heart, which had been beating near out of her chest, settled into a more normal rhythm. “Which one?”
    He indicated a door to the right with an incline of his head in that direction.
    She immediately headed toward it, but Caelis’s arm shot out, his hand closing over her wrist. “Where are you going?”
    “To see them.” She spoke slowly as if to a not very bright child.
    “You will wake them.”
    She didn’t intend to, but ’twas not her greatest consideration at the moment. “I will be quiet.”
    “Eadan will hear you.” The certainty in Caelis’s tone implied he somehow already knew about their son’s acute ability to detect sound.
    “Nevertheless, I will see them.”
    “Why? I have told you they are resting with your friends. Do you not trust Thomas and Audrey to watch over the children?”
    “Of course I do, but I only have your word that Eadan and Marjory are behind that door, safe and sleeping peacefully.”
    Caelis’s head snapped back as if she’d slapped him with all the fury she’d wanted to six years ago. Back then, she’d been too much in love to do him harm, despite his betrayal.
    Now, she would not hesitate.
    “You do not trust my word?” he asked with shock too real to be feigned.
    She was hit by her own sense of unreality. “You
expect
me to?”
    “Aye.”
    “Then you are a bigger fool than I was six years ago.”
    “I have told you there were reasons for what happened between us.” And he sounded like he fully expected her to listen to him list