first time since she had met him. He looked quite handsome actually when he greeted them with his famous dashing smile and his bald head free of his bandana. He never flinched when he saw Ermile, but he went directly to Shauna. He took her hand, ignoring the blood draining from her face, and kissed it. “Thank you for having me,” was all he said, but it was clear to anyone who looked that Shauna came undone right there in her spot. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. Indeed, she didn’t look like she was even breathing. Willow smiled at Caleb, who winked at her in return.
Ermile rose to his feet and held out his hand in greeting, and the mighty Warrior smiled brightly under his thick stache and slapped Shauna’s betrothed on the back hard enough to bend the smaller man over. Caleb smiled for the first time that evening.
Supper was served by Shauna and Willow, the latter of whom found it quite frustrating and almost lost a bowl of the hot stew in Jonas’ lap. He took it quite well, Willow thought, completely missing the doubtful look he tossed Caleb. After the stew was finished, Caleb served the fruit and they all ate to their fill.
“I hate to say this, my lovely.” Jonas smiled at Willow. “But your jewels made many people happy this night. It’s easy to smile on a full stomach.”
Willow hadn’t wanted to admit it at first, but she liked the brutish Warrior. “Well, as long as it pleased you, dear Jonas, it was worth the sacrifice.” She graced him with her best smile.
Ermile sat back in his chair and pulled out a long cigar and lit it, then stared at Willow through a cloud of white smoke. “It amazes me that you could sit at the same table with a man who sold all your belongings, not to mention kidnapped you from your home.”
“I was very angry with him, I assure you,” Willow said.
“And now?” Jonas inquired eagerly. Caleb kicked him under the table.
“Now I understand that people are starving and my jewelry, as much as I cherished it,” she threw Caleb a playful glare, “helped feed them. And as your Holy Scriptures say, we are to feed the hungry.”
Caleb positively glowed at her and she blushed to her roots.
“Shauna,” Ermile blew more thick smoke out of his mouth. It floated across the room like an apparition. “Why are you so quiet this evening?”
“I am no more quiet than usual,” she answered without looking up from her plate.
“You’ve hardly said a word since I arrived. Are you brooding again?” Ermile winked a dark eye at the others and smiled for encouragement, but Jonas was no longer cheerful, and Caleb’s eyes burned like twin flames.
“Maybe,” Caleb ventured icily. “She hasn’t spoken because you haven’t stopped flapping your tongue since you arrived.”
“Caleb!” Shauna warned.
“What?” he shot across the room. Willow was sure she had never heard so much emotion in one short word.
“My apologies if I offended you, Caleb,” Ermile returned, snuffing out his cigar.
Caleb opened his mouth to say something else, but his sister’s eyes pleaded with him not to, so he bit angrily into a peach instead.
Not long after that, Jonas rose to leave, making up an excuse about delivering water to an elderly woman who couldn’t get outside earlier to claim her share. But Willow saw how his dark eyes watched Ermile and Shauna, and Willow realized he was leaving because seeing them together pained him as much as he tried to mask it.
Shauna rose with him. “Will you visit again?” she asked quietly, wringing her gown within her fingers.
Jonas smiled down at her. “If you’ll have me again.”
Willow glanced at Caleb. He had been right, Jonas was in his sister’s blood, and after the brutish Warrior left, Shauna fell into her chair and brooded for the rest of the night.
After his friend left, Caleb couldn’t bear another minute in the same room with Ermile. Willow was relieved when he stood up and offered to escort her to her room.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Jonas and Shauna before?” she asked him while they walked the long hall.
“There are many things I haven’t told you, Willow.” He took her hand and laced his fingers through hers, making Willow nearly trip over the hem of her gown from the lack of air to her brain. No man had ever touched her, much less held her hand. But she liked how he felt. His fingers