The Captive - By Joanne Rock Page 0,47

that way?

“She would not jeopardize her brother’s claim to the throne.” Wulf plucked the mead from her hand and took another sip before handing it back. “Harold’s ambition was more important to her than her happiness, or mine, or even my brother’s. But when my brother died protecting their homeland from a bloodthirsty neighbor, she asked me to wed her so that our lands and people would remain united.”

“That is common enough.” She could not imagine why they had not married, why this story did not have a happy ending. “Godric’s family hoped that tradition would follow suit for us after Gerald died.”

“I refused her.”

The cold words chilled her. And if that had been their effect on her, imagine how Hedra had felt if she loved him?

The heart-wrenching ache in her chest she’d felt during her dream would probably only begin to describe the pain.

“But you loved her.” She did not need to hear him say it to know as much. He would not have felt so betrayed by her marriage to his brother if he had not loved her.

“Aye.” The word sounded torn from him. “But I could not tell if she asked for the union out of remembrance of happier times, or if this was another facet of her family’s ambition. I could not wed for the reasons that drove her.”

Wulf watched Gwendolyn blink in surprise, perhaps not understanding how hard his heart had grown during the course of his brother’s marriage. But he had loved Hedra, and to his mind, she had spit on his affections with the choice of his brother over him. Why couldn’t she have led the life they’d dreamed about? Why did she turn her back on everything she’d pretended to honor?

“So you refused love when at last it was your turn to receive it.” Gwendolyn’s soft accusation was no more than he deserved. She clutched the horn as if she might need to use it as a weapon against him at some point.

Did it speak so ill of him that he could not trust a woman who had forsaken all the vows she’d made in private to him?

“How could I wed a woman who would not claim me in front of her family and the world just a few years before that? If a strong wind washed up a more appealing stranger on her shore, would that have negated the vows she made to me as easily as her brother’s wishes voided those another time?” He shook his head, still not seeing how he could have married her after she’d carved his heart out and expected him to choke it down at her wedding feast.

“How did she die?” Gwendolyn’s skin had grown pale and he regretted telling her the tale.

But she deserved to know. Not only because of her position in his life, but also because of her strange dream. Whatever she’d seen in her vision had frightened her. Perhaps the truth would not be as alarming.

“After she proposed a union between us and I refused, she—” His throat turned thick, the memory of finding her as keen as ever. He tried again, needing to put the story behind him. “She took a potion of some kind. She rowed a small boat out into the water and took the draught, then perished at sea. We searched for her for days before someone at a nearby village rode up to say her boat had washed ashore there. She still wore the crown bearing my brother’s mark. My mark, as well.”

There had been a terrible moment where the messenger had not made it clear she was dead. They had thought she’d been found nearby and could ride to her to bring her safely home. Wulf remembered how his heart had lifted, but he did not know if it had simply been a moment of relief from his own guilt or if he’d been hopeful of amending his harsh words to her. He’d never had time to figure it out before the messenger realized his mistake and made clear that Hedra was indeed dead.

“She was adrift without either of you,” Gwendolyn remarked, her gaze faraway as if she rewrote the dream in her mind’s eye. “Lost at sea without her old friends.” Shaking her head, she bit her lip and seemed to emerge from her thoughts. “I’m so sorry. You must have been devastated, not only to lose a dear friend, but to have an argument between you at the end.”

He closed his eyes at