Page 11 of To Desire

“You knew that before looking,” she guessed.

“I did.” With a wink, he returned to attend to their horses.

Adding consideration to the earl’s son’s list of virtues, Liana tried not to imagine the sorts of creatures that lurked in the nearby woods, even if there were none in their vicinity. She could hear the owl’s hoot still and understood why it might symbolize the unknown. Some did not find comfort in what they did not know or understand, but for Liana, such was a way of life. It was a lesson her mother had taught her when she’d first begun to read the runes. There would be as many, if not more, questions as answers, and she must accept that.

By the time Liana emerged from the thicket, Darien had started a small fire. He laid out the bedrolls she’d spied in his saddlebags.

“Come and get some rest. We will leave at daybreak.”

Suddenly as tired as she’d been on the trail, Liana sat and thanked Darien for the extra cloak he’d rolled for her to use as a pillow. Rolling onto her side, she curled up her legs and covered herself as best as possible with her own cloak as Darien draped a blanket atop her.

“Do you sleep this way often, when you travel?” she asked as he returned to the growing fire near them.

“Aye,” he said, adding a log to the fire.

“This is not how I imagined an earl’s son to travel.” She yawned.

Darien grabbed his own cloak, which sat at the bottom of the bed roll, and lay beside her. Pulling it over him, he rolled to face her.

“How did you imagine I might travel?”

“I suppose . . .” Liana closed her eyes despite how pleasing Darien was to look at in the moonlight. “I suppose,” she repeated, forgetting the question, lulled by the crackle of their fire and drain of leaving her home for the first time, without her mother’s approval. Animals in the night. A handsome companion that was as out of reach as before she’d been given leave to call him Darien. Uncertainty. Sowilo. Renewal. Defeat. Victory.

She sat across from the queen, the room as grand as any she’d ever beheld. It was filled with people all wearing exquisite clothing at the height of fashion. But it was the queen’s expression Liana could not tear her gaze from. Was it . . . sadness? Hope? Bitterness? There was clapping, yet she continued to sit there, as regal as a queen. But was she? Was Matilda the queen of England?

Gasping, Liana opened her eyes. It took her a moment to realize why her backside was so sore. If Darien had been sleeping, he was awake now.

“What is it?” he asked, looking into her eyes. Liana had remained in the same position as when she’d fallen asleep. The fire beside them looked as it had earlier, the moon still high in the sky. She must not have slept long.

“A dream,” she said, the details of it already fading.

“You are cold.”

That, she could not deny.

“Turn your back to me. I will warm you with my body.”

Doing as he bid, Liana turned, attempting to find comfort where there was little. The bedroll was thin, though welcomed, and the chill made Liana wish she could crawl into the fire to warm.

As Darien moved into her, she pretended not to be shocked. It was not any man who pressed against her from behind, his arm draped atop the cloak and blanket. This was Sir Darien of Crimson Hollow, the next Earl of Ellswood.

Putting aside that fact, thankful there were so many layers between them, Liana was grateful for the warmth that permeated despite the clothing between them.

“I’ve foretold many things,” she admitted. “But never something quite this scandalous for myself.”

“I am sorry for it,” he said softly. “I am very much aware of the position this puts you in as an unmarried woman.”

She sighed. “That is the least of my worries.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I do not plan to marry.”

“Why do you not plan to marry?” he asked, clearly shocked by her statement.

“’Tis . . . complicated.”

Darien did not press her further on the matter, and she was thankful. Liana could not put her reasoning into words. Instead, she let sleep take her. Willing herself to embrace the dream, or vision, that would make this journey all worthwhile.