Celtic Rain (The Battle Raven Series) (39 page)

Kedryn noticed a flicker of almost relief in his mother’s eyes. He knew that slight look that no one else would have noticed. It was the one when he knew she was up to something. He frowned at her and wondered what it was that she didn’t want Aodhan around for. Eion kissed Orla, Serina and Tara each on the cheek.

“I should be heading out also. Kedryn, it is time to escort your mother back to camp.”

“The carriage is ready and waiting to take you back.” Orla said.

“Thank you.” Lara said and she turned heading outside lost in her own
thoughts.

Lara headed down the porch steps and cobblestone path to the carriage. She felt much better after the meal. Her mind was on her plan to get to Liam before anyone else knew she was gone. She didn’t even think of waiting for Aodhan to walk her out. Her thoughts were interrupted by Eion.

“I cannot wait until the negotiations are over. I could use a good rub down. I need to come into town soon.” Eion said as he gave her a smirk and opened the carriage door for her.

As Lara was ready to step into the carriage she felt Aodhan come up from behind her and spin her around to face him. Her head swam with the spin and she almost collapsed. Aodhan steadied her and looked concerned.

“Apologies. I didn’t think. Are you a little distracted, my heart?” Aodhan asked as he kissed her and she leaned her head on his shoulder to steady the dizziness in her head.

“A little. Good night my heart. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” she kissed him.

“Early morning, my lady.” he said against her lips and he reluctantly helped her into the carriage and watched them leave.

Lara stepped into her pavilion and walked straight back into her sleeping quarters. She dug through the stack of clothes on her freshly made pallet and changed into her black cargo pants, baby T, and her black field jacket. While she was asleep and healing Bevin made sure every piece of clothing she owned was cleaned.

“Bless her heart.” Lara said out loud.

Everything except the armor. Aodhan told Bevin that Lara should do that herself. Being a soldier himself he was very possessive and proud of his own armor and only took care of it himself. He would not let any of the squire’s help and didn’t know if Lara would feel the same or not.

Lara took in a deep breath. “Time to get going.” she paused and looked at a new slit that was in her pavilion.

“Now, what the? Oh Liam.” she said to herself and smiled.

Slipping out the slit she tried to stay in the shadows Lara almost stumbled into a tree while sneaking away.

“Oh bother!” she said under her breath and headed in the direction of Liam’s camp.

Kedryn was in the shadows and watched her ungraceful exit. He chuckled. Fluid on the battlefield. Not so much when sneaking. Eion came around the corner making Kedryn jump.

“Where do you think she is going?” Eion asked.

“Most likely to check on Liam. She’ll be easy enough to track. I think I’ll follow her.” Kedryn said.

“That is probably a good idea I do not like the thought of it. Seeing him while she is still vulnerable is not good for her. It is too soon after her injury. Her head might be still muddled and with him resembling Wash”

“Say no more.” Kedryn said and headed after his mom.

After Lara stumbled over another tree root she found the path they followed before that headed towards the Milesian camp. After walking a few minutes she started to see the bright red orange glow of the fires in the Milesian camp. Lara spotted a movement just ahead of her and headed off of the path behind a tree. She heard what she assumed to be perimeter guards

walk by her. They were talking and not really paying much attention to what was around them. Much to her relief seeing as her stumbling around wasn’t exactly that quite.

“He still has not left his pavilion, taken a woman, or….” She heard a soldier say as his voice faded away.

She stood in the shadows of the edge of the Milesian camp and guessed that the larger pavilion was most likely Liam’s. Being the leader, that would be logical. Lara moved in the shadows over to the back corner of the tent and made out two voices. One she recognized as Liam’s voice and when they stopped she noticed the bright light inside turn into a faint glow.

“Guess I’ll take the back door. He can have a draft too.” she said to
herself quietly and waited a couple of seconds and watched as General Kayne walk out of the pavilion.

Lara slowly made a slit in the corner with her dagger. She heard a noise behind her and froze in place. She scanned the area for a couple of minutes trying to remember everything Aodhan taught her while they took watch and didn’t see anything. Lara shrugged and slid through the slit, crouched in the corner and looked around. As her eyes adjusted she saw Liam sitting on the other side of the room on a pallet of furs. Not too un-similar to the one that was in her tent. Only much bigger. His head was in his hands. If he noticed her entrance he didn’t show it. Lara stood and walked out of the shadows.

“Liam.” she said quietly so she wouldn’t startle him too much.

He slowly looked up with a look of disbelief and relief. “Am I dreaming?”

She walked over and sat down beside him. He turned to her and immediately looked at her scar reaching up and lightly traced it giving her goose bumps.

“You are healing well?” he asked as he drew his hand back unable to look at her.

“I am. You shouldn’t take on the entire burden of this yourself.” she said and reached up and lifted his down turned head up by the chin making him look into her eyes.

“It is my fault they are dead. I started the war and none of this should have happened. I almost killed you.” He moved her hand away from his chin and looked down at his hands again.

“There is nothing to do but go from here. Get over it and move on. That is what my great grams used to say. I truly believe that anyone would have reacted the same way you and your father had. From what I’ve heard Faolan is the king of deception. Apparently he is very good.”

Taking both of his hands in hers she squeezed. Liam took his hands out of her grip and stood. He reached up and rubbed his head which would have made her smirk if it was any other situation. He started to pace the room and stopped to look at her.

“You should not be here.”

She stood stretching out her legs and stepped in front of him. Placing her hands on his chest to stop his pacing.

“You are the leader of the Milesian. Lord Liam Solo O’Cuinn. Or so I’ve been told.” she put her hands on his face bringing his eyes up to meet hers.

“It’s time for you to show your people how strong you are. That you can move on and learn from past mistakes. Make things right. Prepare yourself and be ready for the Peace Negotiations be the leader you were meant to be.”

Liam looked at the woman in front of him, grabbed her face and pulled her to him and kissed her. For a moment Lara saw Wash’s face and not Liam. She started feeling herself give into him and thought of Aodhan. She stiffened not responding to Liam’s kiss. He pulled back and let her go with regret in his eyes.

“You did not kiss me back.” He said sadly as he looked into her emerald green eyes. “I will not apologize for the kiss. I had to see for myself. Has someone already caught your heart?” he watched as she slightly nodded her head.

“Even if someone hadn’t. Being with you would not be fair.” she took a step back from him and crossed her arms.

He took a step forward. “Why?”

“You or I would always question if I was with you for you.
Or
if I was with you because you remind me of the man I was in love with in another realm. You deserve to be with a strong intelligent woman who loves you for who you truly are. Not because you are a reminder of a memory.”

“I think I understand.” Liam said as he watched her push some hair behind her ear. “No woman I know of could compare to your strength and beauty.”

Lara stepped up to him and lightly kissed his lips. “Thank you.”

She backed away looking into his hazel green eyes. “There are different types of strength and beauty in every woman. Open your eyes and heart and you will find the right one for you.”

“Who is it that has won your heart?” he asked curious now.

“Aodhan. I’m completely and utterly in love with him.”

He looked at the love in her eyes as she spoke Aodhan’s name and knew it to be true. He didn’t have a chance. Especially if Aodhan felt the same. The man would be an idiot if he did not.

“Aodhan was a good and loyal friend. I could not think of anyone more worthy to be with you.” He gave her a little grin. “Other than myself of course.”

She grinned back. “I believe you can heal the rift between the two of you. Aodhan has been told by many that, in the end, you didn’t mean to do this.” She touched her scar and watched as he took in a sharp intake of breath.

“It will take time.” she put her hand on his cheek and glanced over at the slit she had made and thought of Aodhan.

“I should go. I wanted to see for myself how you were doing. Get some sleep and after get out there and see to your troops. They need their leader. A strong leader who will take the responsibility to show them the right direction. You need to tell them of Faolan and how he tricked us all. You are strong and in my heart I know a good man.”

Lara walked over to the corner and squatted by the slit she had made. She thought of his exit from her tent and winked at him and slid out.

Liam stared at the slit for a while and then made his way through his pavilion. He lifted up a flap covering a smaller area with a tub and saw that it was filled and still steaming. He let the flap fall and stepped outside for the first time since the battle and looked up at the night sky startling the guards.

“Find me a woman. I am going to clean up.” He turned and went back into his pavilion heading straight to the bath.

“You got this one?” Lieutenant Bryor asked.

“I will find one. I don‘t owe you one anymore.” Lieutenant Lawrence
said and immediately headed out in search of someone for his Lord. In a camp full of men, during the early morning, that might take some doing since most of the women headed back to the towns after the funeral ceremonies. Most of the ladies, servants and wenches were gone or asleep.

While heading back to the Danann camp Lara’s thoughts were of Aodhan. She hoped that too much time wasn’t spent with Liam and that she would get back before he arrived. A shadow appeared before her making her jump. Lara pulled out her dagger and put herself in a defensive position. The shadow moved closer and she saw it was Kedryn.

“Kedryn! You startled me right out of my skin!” she watched him walk up to her. “What are you doing? Are you following me?” Lara said realizing she was still in a fighting stance and relaxed.

“Of course I’m following you. What are you thinking? I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk you out of it so I followed just in case.” Kedryn said scolding her and she gave him the
look.
He changed his approach.

“How did it go?” Kedryn asked as he looped his arm through hers and started walking her back to camp.

“Hopefully I talked him into stopping being night of the living dead. He’s clearly a broken man over this whole thing and does need time to heal. Unfortunately for him the Milesian need a leader. I hope that I convinced him to become one again. Guess we’ll see.”

As Kedryn walked his mom up to the front of her pavilion she yawned and stepped in to get some sleep herself. “Good night Kedryn.”

“Good morning mother.” he said and watched her step through the door flap. He heard someone walking up from behind him and quickly turned as Eion made his way between two pavilions.

“Have you been waiting this whole time?” Kedryn asked.

“Yes.” Eion said and motioned for him to walk away from Lara’s pavilion so they could talk.

“Couldn’t sleep. How was Lara’s visit with Liam?”

“Could we talk about it later? I didn’t really get any details about her
talk with Liam. And I’m dead tired.”

Eion and Kedryn were so engrossed in talking they didn’t even notice Aodhan walk past them. He stopped when he heard Kedryn talking about something that had to do with Lara talking to Liam. That would mean she saw him and it really bothered him. He actually felt insecure about the whole idea of her being alone with Liam. That was a new feeling for him. Of course he didn’t know the details. By the Gods he was going to get them.

Aodhan irritably strode into her pavilion and walked through the sitting area to find her lying down on the pallet of furs fully clothed. He noticed that she had a little smudge of dirt across her cheek and was still wearing her dirt covered boots. He quietly walked up to her and started to take off her boots. Lara jerked up and watched amused as he pulled each off her boots. He gave her a lopsided grin and stood up in front of the pallet unsure as to what to do. She reached out to him and yanked on his shirt. He let himself fall down onto the furs next to her.

She turned to him and looked into his blue eyes. “I love you Aodhan.”

He looked at her a bit confused. After hearing about her going to see Liam he was starting to wonder if she had meant it before or if she said it because they were in the midst of a battle.

“Why the look? You’ve heard it before. Did you think I didn’t mean it when I told you last time?” Lara asked looking a little bit upset.

“I just thought. Since you visited Liam. . . ”

“How did you know? Did you follow me too?” she asked accusingly shaking her finger at him.

“I overheard Kedryn and Eion talking just now. Do you really think you are healed enough to go trampling through the brush?”

“I’m fine. It was nothing I just wanted to make sure he was ok. I told him that he needed to get his butt in gear and be the leader his people need him to be. Liam needs to get over it and move on. He really doesn’t have the option to mope around.” she said and looked at the sudden relief on his face.

“You sure are something else. Do you ever think of yourself? There is only a couple of night hours left. Get some sleep my heart.” he pulled her close to him and looked into her eyes.

“I love you too Lara.” Aodhan said and pulled her even closer and she rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes.

Lara sat up with a jolt and looked at her armor in the corner. She nudged Aodhan awake.

“Can you show me the proper way to clean my armor?”

He looked at her still groggy with sleep. “Give me a few more hours of sleep. We have only slept for half of an hour, if that. Quiet your head and get some more rest.”

“Ok.” she said and lie back down next to him and fell immediately asleep.

Was she even awake during that conversation
? Aodhan thought about her visit with Liam and as he fell asleep he wondered if it had done any good.