Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I stayed in the water until it lost the remainder of its heat, then dried and redressed myself.

When I left the cottage, I saw Brandle waiting by the table. Eadric stirred the pot over the fire. Daemon reclined in his strung-up bed. Garron walked the perimeter of the clearing, pausing occasionally for a small stretch. Edmund and Darian scuffled in the yard, and Liam was absent.

"Come. Let me check your palms," Brandle said.

I sat opposite him. He stood and moved around the table to sit beside me, forcing me to turn toward him.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked as he unwrapped my hands.

"That is an unfair question, Brandle. I did not seek to interrupt Garron's sleep. He should have accepted the bed and let me sleep inside in the chair."

"I only meant to inquire about your sleep, Kellen. Garron's sleep was fine."

"Better than fine," Daemon said. "You have no inkling what it's like to sleep next to your softness, Lamb. If I died today, I would die content."

I frowned at his sleep-relaxed face. "Never utter those words again. No more death."

Brandle caught my chin and turned my face toward him. His astute gaze swept over my face.

"We apologize. You've lost so much, haven't you? Your mother. Your father. And the sister you left behind."

I swallowed hard, trying to contain the fiery emotions that wanted to emerge.

"My father and sister aren't yet lost to me. I haven't given up on them. I won't give up on them."

With a nod, he released my chin.

"The question wasn't meant to be unfair. Garron mentioned you shivered a few times. We were worried you weren't warm enough."

I would have been much warmer inside, but I didn't say so. They all knew how I felt about sleeping outside, just as I understood why they'd insisted. And complaining after Garron was hurt defending me would belittle their concern. That was something I would never do.

"If I was cold, I don't recall it. I slept soundly after Garron—" I cleared my throat and focused on Brandle's efforts to coat my palm with honey.

"You shouldn't need the honey tomorrow," Brandle said. "The wrap will be needed for another few days, though."

Once Brandle finished, Eadric took his place and fed me boiled oats and berries. His eyes were once again twinkling with his natural humor.

"Do you think you can teach us something new today?" he asked. "We have the rabbits and fowl from your father in the cold storage."

"Perhaps. Is there a chance for an egg or two?" I asked.

He looked at the others.

"It depends on whether or not your friend has left," Edmund said.

"He is no friend of mine," I said with a trace of annoyance in my tone. "If one of you is willing to help me check the food store under the cottage, I'm sure I can come up with something different."

Eadric glanced at Brandle. I noticed he did that when the answer wasn't something he wanted to deliver himself.

"It would be better if you didn't attempt the ladder for a few more days. However, I can tell you exactly what's down there."

"Are there any root vegetables?"

"Many," he said.

"Do you know what herbs you have?"

He recited a good number of them. Most were meant for cooking, but he also mentioned a few used for different remedies.

"I believe we have what we need to make some hand pies. It's a bit more work, though."

"We're willing," Eadric said quickly.

"Will you help, Daemon?" I asked.

Daemon lifted his head and winked at me. "My hands are your hands."

I told them what I needed from the cellar, including an herb not used for cooking and the tea kettle.

"Are you planning on poisoning us like Eadric?" Brandle asked.

"Tempting, but no," I said. "The tea will help fight infections."

"Ah, so just Garron then," Brandle said. "I think that's fair."

Daemon and Eadric chuckled.

"I'll let you share that glad tidings with Garron yourself," Brandle said as Eadric fed me the last bite of oats.

Liam appeared to take my bowl from him.

"As soon as my hands are healed, I promise to wash my own," I said.

"As soon as your hands are healed, you'll ask to leave," he said. He turned and walked away, leaving me watching after him.

"Garron?" Brandle said. "You were going to tell him you'd like to poison him?"

Understanding he meant to send me away but unsure why, I went to Garron across the clearing.

"May we speak?" I asked when I neared.

He paused his pacing to face me. "Is something wrong?"

"That is the very thing I wished to ask you. Everyone is treating me differently. At the moment of my arrival, I wasn't welcome. Now, no one wishes me to leave. Why?"

He laughed lightly and looked at the ground.

"That is part of why we like you, Kellen. You don't see your own appeal."

I watched the flush creep into his cheeks. The same flush that had colored them when I'd woken.

Frowning slightly, I glanced over my shoulder at the others. Garron grabbed my arms, turning me to face him. More crimson flooded his face.

"When you arrived, we didn't know you. Now that we do, we don't want to let you go."

"You don't know me, Garron. If you did, you would have listened to Edmund and sent me away the moment I arrived."

His gaze swept over my face.

"Would you hit a man sewn together, Kellen?"

"Pardon?"

That was the only warning he gave before he pulled me into his arms and brushed his lips against mine. The touch vanished as quickly as it started. If possible, his face was even more flushed when he pulled back.

"I had to know," he said softly.

"Know what?"

"What it felt like to kiss you before you leave us."

My heart ached. A deep heavy feeling that stole my breath. I brought a hand to my chest, pressing it there in an attempt to ease the pain.

"Why did I have to come here? Why?" I demanded softly.

I turned away from him and ran across the clearing. Darian and Edmund stopped fighting and started toward me. I veered away, around the other side of the cottage, running toward the back, away from them all.

Arms caught me around my waist.

"Don't hit me, I beg you," Darian said. "I don't wish to stop you, but I'm afraid you'll fall and hurt your hands again. If you do, you won't be able to?—"

I spun in his arms and clapped my bandaged hand over his mouth. Surprise, then sadness flickered through his expression.

"Not you, too," I said.

His gaze held mine as his hold loosened. He kept one arm around my waist and used the other to gently tug my hand away.

"Then what do you wish to hear from me, Princess?"

"Nothing. Silence is better than hearing how much my presence here will hurt you."

"Your presence doesn't hurt us. Your absence will do that." He released my hand and smoothed back the damp strands of my hair. "You should let Edmund comb and braid this soon."

I could see it in Darian's gaze—the desire to do more than touch my hair.

"You saw Garron kiss me."

"I did," he said. "It drives me mad that he got away with that without even a pinch."

"He asked me if I would hit a sewn man before he did it."

Darian threw his head back and laughed. His hand moved down my back, pressing between my shoulder blades and forcing me closer. He sobered suddenly, his gaze on my mouth.

"If I let Edmund cut me, will you allow me the same privilege?"

"I have no wish to come between brothers."

The corner of his mouth tilted up with amusement.

"That would be impossible, Princess." He moved fast, darting in to brush his lips against mine as he pressed me against his chest. Then he pivoted away, bounding back several paces with a grin.

"You are an odd man, Darian."

"Oddly good-looking?"

I snorted and turned away, continuing toward the garden at a more sedate pace.

Liam was near the well, still washing the breakfast bowls. Ignoring his watchful gaze, I stared at the overturned dirt. Thoughts that needed to come wouldn't. Being kissed by two different men in a handful of minutes had robbed me of rationality.

I wished for my sister or any other female who might guide me through the stunned confusion I felt. It took several moments for the soft bird song to interrupt my reverie. Twisting, I looked up at the roof at the little brown bird that had no qualm in calling out its joy to the world.

"Shameless thing, isn't it?" Brandle said. "It sings so happily about its freedom to soar wherever it pleases while you're trapped here by unhappy circumstances."

"If you speak kind words and attempt to kiss me, too, I will not be responsible for my reaction," I said.

Brandle tucked his hands into his pockets and considered me.

"Daemon repeated his offer to be your hands if you wish to slap either of them. He said he has no qualms hitting a sewn man."

I snorted and immediately attempted to smother my humor.

"I am not angry at either of them," I said. "I'm confused, Brandle. And I have no one to talk to about it. I miss my sister and my mother terribly."

"You can talk to me," he said with sincerity.

"Talk to you? About the men in this glade who are confusing me to the point of madness? About how you all feared me but now suddenly want to kiss me? Is this some game? Which brother can bed the na?ve maid first? Have I not suffered enough? Must my heart endure more pain?"

My skin burned, and I closed my eyes and fisted my hands as I breathed through my nose.

"Do not cry," he said a moment before arms encircled me.

"No!" I broke free of his hold and scrambled back several steps.

He looked hurt. Him . Because of me.

"Do not look at me as if I am the difficult one here. I have steadfastly remained the same since I arrived. It is all of you who have changed. And why is that, Brandle? Why?"

"Because we realized you are exactly who you say you are. A woman who has recently lost her mother and wishes to find a way to cure her father to return to her sister."

"And believing me gives your brothers leave to suddenly kiss me?"

"No, Kellen."

Brandle reached for me, and I retreated another step. I would have taken more, but the fence stopped me.

"The truth gave us the freedom to dare to hope that we could care for you."

"You were already caring for me."

"To care for you as our own."

I stared at him until movement to the side drew my attention. They all stood there. Watching. Waiting for a reaction that I could not afford to give.

"I would like to go inside. I need time…to think," I said with false calm.

He nodded and indicated I was free to leave. But was I truly? He seemed to read my mind because I only made it a few steps before he called, "Remember your word, Kitten. No running. Your hands aren't yet healed."

"Five more days," I said to myself. I'd repeated the phrase often since escaping into their home. More precisely, every time one of them knocked on the door.

"Dinner is ready. Come eat," Edmund said through the panel.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," I said.

"Why not?"

"I'm much too comfortable to move."

"You need to eat if you want to heal," Edmund said.

"I need rest to heal."

"You can't stay in there all night."

"Ah, so it is not my lack of sustenance but my absence that is the issue. Since I've slept beside Garron, Darian, and Daemon, that leaves four others eager to—how did Darian word it? Feel my softness? No, thank you. I have no wish to force the slumbering wanderings of my hands on anyone else."

A hushed conversation ensued farther away, and I closed my eyes.

The sun had long since set. They'd allowed me to leave the cottage unbothered to use the privy just before the meal had been ready. I'd planned well and had retreated inside for the evening before they understood my intention.

Other than the time Liam discovered me on the floor in the root cellar and Edmund's help washing my hair, they'd never entered the cottage while I was inside, always remaining at the door. Whether due to courtesy or something more, I cared little why they did not forcibly remove me from their home—only that they did not do so.

The conversation quieted, and another knock sounded at the door.

"Five more days," I repeated.

"Brandle needs to check your hands before you sleep," Garron called.

"My hands are well enough that he proclaimed I will not need the honey tomorrow. Thank you for your concern."

Another round of whispered conversation started outside. Their meddling attempts were almost comforting.

"We're not certain that the tracker left," Eadric said.

"Which two will I be sleeping with tonight?" I asked.

"Brandle and Liam," Eadric said.

"Wrong answer."

A scuffle of sound came from just outside the door, and I knew Eadric was being swatted for answering honestly.

"You can choose who sleeps beside you," Brandle said.

"Wrong answer."

"No one," Brandle said quickly. "No one will sleep beside you."

"Even if that had been your first answer, I would not have believed you. Now, be gone from my door and go to sleep."

"It's too early to sleep," Darian said.

"Then read a book, Darian, but cease pestering me."

"But all the books are inside," he said.

"Then plan better tomorrow."

"We will, Kellen," Brandle said. "We will."

The crick in my neck would not ease no matter how many times I stretched it. It felt as if sleeping a single night in the chair had aged me. With a quiet groan, I rose. The blanket that had covered me fell to the floor, and the heavy weight of my neatly braided hair hit my back. I pulled the braid over my shoulder and stared at it. Then I looked from the blanket to the closed door.

Edmund had come in here while I'd slept, covered me, and braided my hair. Vaguely, I recalled feeling someone touching my hair, but it was mixed in with an uncomfortable night in the chair and dreams of running through the forest to escape the creatures chasing me.

What did it mean that he'd entered but hadn't moved me to where I knew they all wanted me?

Frowning, I went to the door and put on my slippers.

It wasn't until I took my cloak from the peg that I realized what I was doing—using my hands.

True to Brandle's prediction, they didn't ache as they had the previous mornings. Which meant I could open the door with very little noise. My gaze swept the yard from the safety of the cottage. In the predawn light, all seven of the occupied beds hung by the central fire remained undisturbed.

Briefly, I wondered how difficult it would be to flip them out of their beds. The imagined sight of their outrage brought a smile to my lips. Rather than give into my desire for a bit of mischief, I decided a trip to the privy took priority.

However, I only managed a single step in that direction before a tingle of awareness had me changing my mind. With light steps, I walked over to Eadric's bed. He snored softly, his face peaceful. I glanced at Darian as he shifted one of his legs over the side of his bed. It proved too tempting.

Silently, I paced around to the other side and pulled up on the edge of the fabric with all my might. His already displaced weight sent him toppling to the ground with a grunt.

Much too alert, he looked up at me in surprise. A glance at the rest proved my suspicion true…that their slumber had been a ruse. They were all awake and watching me.

Ignoring Darian on the other side of his bed, I looked at Eadric.

"I need to use the privy but don't wish to risk another attempted abduction. Will you escort me, please?"

He swung out of his bed with a grin and offered his arm like a practiced gentleman.

"It would be my honor, Sparrow," he said.

"Why was I the one thrown from my bed?" Darian asked, getting to his feet.

"You were more obvious in faking your sleep." I arched a brow at him. "And since you can't keep your hands to yourself, why should I?"

He howled with laughter as Eadric escorted me away.

"What mischief can I expect from your brothers today, Eadric?" I asked quietly.

"You know they don't like when I tell you things," he said.

"It's unlikely you'll tell me something I don't already know. For example, you were all awake waiting for me to go to the privy. Either you meant to corner me, which I doubt, or you meant to remove something from the house while I was away. Perhaps the door so I can't close myself in? Though, that wouldn't make sense since Edmund had no issue with letting himself in while I slept. No, I believe you all mean to remove the chairs so I have no choice but to sleep outside tonight."

With an amused smile, Eadric shook his head. "How could you know that?"

"I saw the lot of you watching me with disapproval through the window. It wasn't a difficult conclusion to reach." I paused as he opened the privy door for me. "I'm struggling to understand why Brandle is so determined, though. It's not fair to any of us to force me to sleep with any of you. I'm keeping my distance to spare us all the pain of separation when I leave. Please try to remind them of that, Eadric. Edmund's voice alone isn't enough."

Eadric nodded and went to draw water from the well for me as I used the privy. After washing my hands, we joined the rest, and I claimed one of the chairs now surrounding the fire without commenting on their removal from the cottage.

"Who will be staying with me today?" I asked.

"All of us," Brandle said.

"Is the man not gone?" I asked, worried.

Brandle held my gaze for a long moment. "He's gone."

Relief coursed through me before I pushed it aside.

"Then there is no reason for all of you to stay. Go do whatever it is you did before I arrived." I looked at Edmund. "And, no, I don't care what it is, Edmund."

"Good," Edmund said, stirring whatever they already had boiling in the pot.

I closed my eyes and focused on banking the frustration that simmered just below the surface. The guilt was next. I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I was unprepared for the gentle brush of lips against mine.

My eyes flew open, and I stared at Brandle. The corner of his mouth tilted up.

"No blow to the nose?"

"I need my hand to heal so I can leave. But I believe Daemon said he was willing to be my hands. A solid blow to Brandle's testicles, please, Daemon."

Eadric crowed and demanded payment for the bet they'd made while Daemon lazily rolled out of his bed.

"I offered my hands," Daemon said, "not my feet. And do not ask me to touch my brother's testicles when I've done nothing to offend you."

Brandle's cocky smile grew, and he darted in for another kiss before facing Daemon.

"Let's have a go, then," he said cheerily while my lips tingled dangerously.

The sensation swelled, and I gripped the armrests. My focused breaths did nothing to calm the storm. Likely because Daemon and Brandle were circling each other like they were about to enjoy a lark together, and it annoyed me that they thought this a game.

I stood slowly, shaking with the exertion from my effort to restrain the emotion threatening to break free. The bottoms of my feet ached after two steps. My fingers cramped before I could reach the door.

"Kellen?" Brandle stepped in front of me, his expression filled with worry and confusion.

My gaze dipped to his treacherous mouth. Why had he kissed me twice? My emotions were not a trivial thing with which to be toyed.

I pivoted, seeking to escape, but turned to face Liam.

"You look pale." He reached out and touched my cheek, a gentle caress of his fingers over my over-sensitized skin.

A rush of feeling bubbled out of the fractured well inside me, opening me to the surrounding energy. I could feel the house. The old, steady pulse in the ground. The vibrancy of the brothers.

I struggled to pull it back, to close myself off again. However, my emotions continued to swell as my gaze swung around, looking for an escape.

The brothers stood in a circle around me, watching me with concern.

Light bruises colored Liam and Darian's eyes from their fight with the tracker. Garron's knuckles bore the scrapes. Eadric's compassion-filled gaze met mine, as did Edmund's steady one. But I knew what he was hiding—what they were all hiding. I could feel it all.

I could feel them.

Edmund no longer hated or feared me. He feared watching me leave as much as the others, and knowing that cracked the well further.

A thread of panic wrapped tightly around me. I needed to go. Run. I couldn't be this close to them feeling this much?—

"Don't run," Edmund said.

How did he know?

A pulse of light flared from under his neck scarf.

For a moment, I thought he had the light rock I'd arrived with. Then, Garron's scarf did the same. And Liam's. And Eadric's.

I turned slowly, seeing them all glow brightly.

Realization dawned.

Magical amulets.

A memory rose sharply. Painfully. The dinner with Maeve. Her necklace glowing as she controlled the men at our dinner table. Is that what they were doing? Were they controlling me? Controlling my feelings?

Fear consumed me.

I stumbled back a step. Then another.

"No," I whispered desperately.