Page 21 of Ena’s Surrender

She squirmed under the intensity of his observation. “Why are ye staring at me?”

“Be my wife,” he said suddenly.

She laughed. “Surely ye jest. I’m no lady whose honor must be salvaged.”

“I’m not jesting.” The corner of his lips lifted in that lopsided grin. “I want to marry you.”

She frowned. “Ye dinna have to—”

He shook his head. “It isn’t because of what we did.” He circled one large, blunt fingertip over her shoulder as though tracing an invisible whorl. “’Tis because of who you are.”

Ena gazed at him silently as the impact of his proposal sank in. Marriage.

She’d never considered being someone’s wife. Not when Bran needed her to tend to the house while he was on raids. Not when she had spent so much of her life focused on surviving that she hadn’t had a chance to truly start living, let alone look forward to the future.

“’Tis illegal for Scottish and English to wed,” she countered.

“And yet those unions continue between both borders.” He shrugged with nonchalance. “No one takes those laws seriously.”

“Why do ye want to marry me?”

“Because you trusted me with a story that I don’t think you’ve ever told anyone before.” He swept his fingertips down her arm in a slow caress. “Because I find you fascinating and inspiring. You are the strongest woman I’ve ever known, but also the most vulnerable in a way that makes me want to protect you.”

She quirked a brow at him. “I dinna need protection.”

“Which makes me want to protect you all the more.”

Excitement tickled up through her, leaving her giddy. Could she be a wife? To Renault?

“I’d protect you…and someday our children.” He put a hand to her lower stomach.

She followed his touch with her eyes, down to her flat stomach. Her hip bones jutted on either side and called to mind the perpetual state of her hunger.

She sat up and drew the sheets over her breasts, covering her scar. “I dinna want to bring a bairn into this world. There’s naught here but starvation and death. I canna do that to a bairn.”

He pushed himself up to sitting and didn’t bother with a sheet as she had. “When we are settled, we can discuss it. I’ll not bring a child into a world of hunger either. Nor will I let it suffer the struggles we endured.”

“Where would we live?” Ena asked.

“Scotland,” he answered readily.

“Ye’d sacrifice yer life in England for me?” She asked, incredulous.

“Aye, I would,” he answered earnestly.

Her thoughts spun at the turn of events, at what he was willing to give up. For her.

She was nothing special. A lifetime of struggling had taught her as much. She could handle herself in a fight and kept the home well enough. Men had called her beautiful before, right before she’d kneed the drunken louts in their groins.

But drunk men didn’t count, did they?

Renault saw more to her than there was, but rather than correct him, she relished his perspective. He believed in a part of her she’d never thought existed.

“Bran may be home soon,” she said slowly.

“And you need time to think,” Renault surmised.

She nodded, grateful he understood without her having to say a word.