tan leather trousers that looked butter soft when he moved, and knee high, leather boots. Willow’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of him. His hair was tied behind his head, but already a silken tendril had escaped and fell over his brow. He looked nothing like a commoner at all, but more like a handsome noble.
She remembered to breathe when Shauna poked her out of her delicious reverie with the wooden ladle. Willow dropped her gaze and noticed a dagger shoved into his left boot. As glorious as he was to behold, he remained always a Warrior.
“I don’t love him anymore, Caleb,” Shauna growled as her brother strode to the pot on the stove and lifted the lid off the stew. He plucked the ladle from Shauna’s hand and dipped it into the pot.
“That’s good.” He groaned, tasting the hearty stew. “He’s in your blood, Shauna. That’s why you still haven’t married what’s his name.”
“You’re a jerk,” his sister complained, and Willow took a step back. “What could Jonas have ever given me besides a life waiting for Predaria to sprout grass?”
Caleb turned slowly and looked at Willow, and the pain in his eyes almost made her groan out loud.
“Look around you, Caleb.” Shauna continued, ripping off her apron. “Ermile is wealthy. I could go live with him in Hadvarti in a fine house anytime I want to.”
“Then why don’t you?” her brother asked.
Shauna glared at him. “You know why. Do I have to say it?”
“No.” His eyes were smoldering, but Willow knew he had just lost this battle with his sister.
“I would be a fool to love Jonas,” Shauna told him. “What could he possibly offer me to compare with what Ermile already has?” She stared at him, and so did Willow, as if his answer could somehow decide all their fates at once. The silence loomed around them like a heavy mist before he answered.
Caleb’s head was lowered, but now he looked up from under his dark brows with eyes bursting with vivid color. “Nothing but a promise, Shauna. If it’s not good enough then do what you must.” He moved past her and turned to Willow. “When you finish speaking with my sister, I’ll be outside awaiting you.”
She nodded and watched him go, then turned to Shauna. “Why did you tell him those things? I thought you left Jonas because he didn’t want you to fight?”
“That is why I left him.” Shauna told her then and hurried out of the kitchen.
Alone with her own jumbled and tangled thoughts, Willow pondered what Caleb meant by a promise. A promise of love? Could love ever be enough when there wasn’t even enough water to bathe? Shockingly, she believed it was. All she had to do was hear Caleb’s honey-rich voice to believe it, for she could love him easily enough. But when she looked down at her gown and her beringed fingers, her head told her no. “Yes,” she whispered defiantly and left the kitchen to find Caleb.
Chapter 15
Ermile turned out to be exactly what Caleb said he was a pompous windbag. In fact, he never ceased talking about himself until Jonas appeared at the door.
The huge Warrior was late in arriving and Willow was sure Caleb would burst through his skin while he sat in a high back chair rubbing his coarse jaw. Ermile chattered on endlessly about himself, since he had someone new to tell in Willow, and every few minutes Caleb lifted his eyes to meet Shauna’s hatefully. They had made amends with each other, as Willow was certain they always had, but the moment Ermile had arrived, clothed in fabric Caleb could have traded for at least twenty gallons of water. Willow knew this because Caleb had informed Ermile after reaching out his hand to feel the fabric.
Caleb’s mood grew dark and brooding and he completely ignored his sister’s betrothed for the next hour. The boastful man didn’t seem to mind though. He told Willow everything about himself from his birth on up to the wonderful day he met Shauna. He had a nagging habit of smoothing down his short, or slicking back hair, and he sported an angry rash on his neck and scratched it every five-seconds until Willow thought she would go out of her mind. When the knock finally came at the door, Caleb near tripped over his own feet to answer it.
Willow almost didn’t recognize Jonas when he entered the sitting room. He wore a tunic for the