Draco A Medieval Scottish Roma - Jayne Castel Page 0,39
into a marriage against yer will. I would hate to be cornered so.”
Gavina dropped her gaze to her lap, to where she’d clasped her hands. Lord, why do they have to be so kind? She now twisted her fingers together, as a pain rose in the back of her throat and her belly churned. Her gaze lowered then, her eyes fluttering shut.
“Lady Gavina?” Heather’s voice intruded, this time laced with worry. “Ye have gone as pale as a wraith … are ye unwell?”
Gavina shook her head. She opened her eyes, although her attention remained upon her clasped hands. She literally couldn’t meet Heather’s eye. “I’m not worthy of the consideration ye bestow upon me,” she whispered.
“Of course ye are,” Heather countered. “Why would ye say such a thing, My Lady?”
“Ye and Aila are being so selfless. I’m not sure that I would be, in the same situation.”
Heather gave a soft laugh. “We are women of different ranks … born to fulfil different roles … but there should be a sisterhood between us. Ye have been good to me … I would never throw ye to the wolves.”
Gavina’s chin snapped up. A sisterhood. “I never had a sister,” she whispered, her eyes stinging.
Her gaze met Heather’s, and she saw that the woman’s eyes also gleamed with unshed tears. “Well, ye have two now,” Heather replied huskily. “Please know that Aila and I love ye … and we will stand by ye … to whatever end.”
To whatever end.
The words mocked Gavina long after Heather left.
Returning to the window, Gavina watched the last of the light drain from the heavens.
They both knew what the end meant—even if neither woman had spelled it out.
Draco had done a fine job of making things clear to Gavina earlier in the day. If the curse wasn’t broken, Heather and Aila would likely die during the siege, while their husbands would live on, consumed by grief.
The prospect of another loveless marriage, however short, was bleak indeed—but she could at least give the centurions their mortality back, so that they could finally find peace.
Tears escaped then, running silently down Gavina’s cheeks.
She knew how much Heather loved Maximus, and yet she hadn’t said a word to try and convince Gavina to help him.
Eyes fluttering shut, Gavina swallowed the sob that rose in her chest.
Love was what truly mattered. And not just that which existed between lovers, but also the bond between friends, between kin. When the world turned to dust and only the stars and the moon remained, love would live on, woven into eternity. Power, pride, revenge, gold—all of it was meaningless in comparison to the invisible threads that bound them.
A pain rose in her chest. Gavina lifted her hand, her knuckles pressing against her breast bone in an attempt to ease the ache.
She didn’t love Draco Vulcan, and he didn’t love her. But she’d seen the brotherhood between the three centurions, and she knew how much she cared for Heather and Aila.
She couldn’t abandon them—she just couldn’t.
“Very well,” she whispered to the darkening sky. “I will wed him.”
XVI
DESPERATE MEASURES
“A WIDOW IN mourning cannot wed.” The chaplain’s outraged voice rang through the chapel. “Surely, ye realize that, My Lady?”
“I do, Father … but during times like these, surely rules can be broken?”
Father Finlay drew in a sharp breath, his dark eyes widening. He stared at Gavina as if a stranger stood before him. She wasn’t surprised by his reaction. The words she’d just uttered didn’t sound as if they came from her at all.
However, she’d been right about one thing. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
It was shortly after dawn on the second day of the siege, and already Longshanks had resumed his attack. Debris pounded the fortress. Gavina could hear the impact, even through the thick walls of the chapel.
This needed to be done—before the situation grew dire. If Dunnottar fell, Maximus and Cassian deserved the mercy of dying alongside the women they loved.
Draco Vulcan stood at her side, silent and brooding. He’d wisely let Gavina take the lead. A few feet away stood Maximus, Cassian, Heather, and Aila. All of them needed to be elsewhere—the men should have been fighting on the walls—but this meeting had to take place first.
And while the chaplain resisted them, time was wasting.
Gavina hadn’t told Elizabeth about what she’d planned this morning. She was close to her sister-by-marriage, but Liz would have been furious at her decision.