Page 69 of The Splendor of Fire
Calum’s face became sober. “Aye. And she’s done it all for you.”
Léo burst with fear and frustration. “I didn’t ask her to do that. I want her safe. I don’t want her putting herself at risk. How could Hector allow it?”
“Because she’s exceptional. Hector has a soft spot for her because she has such a good heart and she is the best at what she does. She’s a born warrior. Like she was made to save you.”
“I don’t want her to save me. I wanted to save her, but she could have run anytime, she didn’t need me to save her.”
“Aye, she could’ve run, but shechoseto stay. To help you. And believe me, you needed her.”
Envy ate away at him. Calum and Moira had become battle partners and knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses, like Hector and he knew each other. “Perhaps she’s stayed behind to help you and spend time with you.”
Calum’s whole demeanor changed. “You think I wouldn’t take her in a second if she’d look my way? I would. She’s incredible, brave, funny, and she looks amazing in leather trews.” Léo glowered. He didn’t want Calum thinking about her trews. “But she can only think of you. For months it’s all she’ll talk about, though she thinks she hides it from us. We all know she cares for you. Of course she doesnae wan’ Niall’s toady lips on her. And she doesnae wan’ me even though I am not at all toady. She wants you. You mean eejit.”
A beam of hope illuminated the dark. Was that why she still wore his necklace? She still felt they belonged to each other?
A note of defense flooded into Calum’s voice. “You may not want her taking risks, but no man that’s ever seen her work would ever make her stop. There’s a fire inside her, and away wi’ you if you put it out.” He stomped back into the cottage.
Léo stared at the stars for long minutes, no longer sure of who she was. He thought he had discovered every mystery in her, but he had only discovered a few qualities of her heart. She was the complete opposite of Théa, more than he ever thought.
A voice he hadn’t heard since leaving Cràdh spoke clear and loud into his heart.You have crushed one of my dear ones.
Remorse bogged him down, sucking him into suffocating shame. In anger, he’d ignored God and gone in his own strength. He’d been given the gift of her heart and he had trodden it into the ground and belittled her. He’d been cruel like his brothers. He’d been crude instead of simply asking her to explain. He had claimed her as his own and then shoved her away when she’d done nothing to deserve it. The idea of facing her made him sick.
When he finally gathered his courage and went back inside, she was positioning Calum’s wet clothes in front of the hearth next to her own. Dressed in a chemise, her blond curls drying over her shoulders, the smell of lavender hung thick in the air. Delicate yet strong. She was the Bird, and he was a total and utter fool. For a moment Léo was carried away, love for all that she’d done spilling out of his soul.
Noticing him staring, she turned, face determined.
He took her hand. “Moira? I’m?—”
Jerking her hand away, she pulled his heavy gold chain over her head catching the thick, damp waves of her hair. And she shoved it, forcefully, back over his head.
Chapter 20
DUN RINGILL CASTLE - JULY 21, 1385
Moira stood at the edge of the solar, lingering near Niall’s desk, keen to stay unnoticed as Malvina raged at Léo and Gordon.
“What do you mean, you didnae catch him?”
Gordon shrugged. “None of us saw him except for Léo. We think the man shot an arrow set alight, they found this in the rubble.”
Gordon held out a blackened, basket-tipped arrowhead, warped from extreme heat. Malvina yanked it out of his hand and examined it. “It was a small man, you say?”
Léo’s eyebrow quirked. “Aye. Five foot five, light on his feet, scrappy.”
Malvina eyed him with suspicion, correct in her skepticism that a man that small could put a mark on his six-foot-five frame. “That’s smaller than Moira.”
At the sound of her name she looked up from decanting the uisge-beatha, but no one bothered to notice her.
Her eyes traveled over the correspondence left unattended on the desk. Relief passed over her. Niall would be in Lochindorb until Michaelmas. The time for an uprising was upon them.
Gordon snapped his fingers. “Uisge-beatha.”
Stifling an eye roll, she replaced the cork in the bottle and carried two uisge-beathas to the fire. One for Gordon…and one for the miserable donkey who couldn’t stop insulting her. Léo tried to meet her eyes and she ignored him.
Taking the seat beside Malvina on Niall’s bench, Moira sat calm and empty-headed, finding the place in the plaster above Gordon’s head where it cracked apart and moisture eased out of the mouldering walls.
Malvina rubbed the deep creases in her forehead. “Which direction did he travel?”
