Ria Cantrell - Celtic Storm 03 (19 page)

Rhianna glanced at him from beneath her hood. She brooded silently and Erik thought he almost would rather have her hurling obscenities at him instead of the wordless attack. He cleared his throat and he said awkwardly, “Uhm, the storm should not last. I will get you back home soon.”

But she only pulled her knees up and hugged them, bending over them in silence. He tried again to speak to her and she would not answer him. He said, “I am freezing, Rhianna. Would you share your cloak with me?”

She only pulled it tighter about herself and would not offer it to him to aid him. She mumbled, “Good, freeze to death for all I care.”

He sighed and he said, “You do not mean it.”

“Yes I do. I hate you.”

“I know, but you are a healer. You won’t want me to freeze to death.”

She gave him a sidewise glance and said, “You called me a witch.”

Suddenly, Erik realized that those words hurt her pride more than the spanking he had given her. He offered, “I am sorry I said that.”

“Nay, I am pretty sure you meant it.”

“Well, then I was wrong to say it.”

“But you still meant it.”

“Well, I do feel like you bewitch me at times. It is the damnedest thing.”

Then honestly, he said, “I never have lost my concentration like that, before Rhianna. When I knew you were there, I just could not think clearly. T’is why I asked you not to come to the lists. I was not joking, really, about that. I am fully aware of the effect you have on me.”

“Then if that was your fault, you should not have spanked me.”

“I spanked you because you undermined me in front of my men and you were acting more like a child than the lady of the keep. Do you not understand I cannot have you undermine my authority in front of my men? Our safety depends on it. Plus you nearly got us both killed in the arduous ride.”

“But, you enjoyed it,” she said, still sulking like the child he had accused her of being.

Hiding a little grin, Erik said, “I must admit, I did a little, but I daresay, it was well earned. It still does not take away the fact that you have this unnatural pull on me.”

She could not be certain that he was not still toying with her, but something in the way he said it made her believe he spoke in truth. Grudgingly, she loosened her grip on her cloak and she held it open for him to share. It was a small step toward peace, but it was a peace not quite won yet.

Still, as he felt the warmth of her present on the wool of her cloak, Erik was grateful for small steps. Maybe spanking did not win any points with her, but she would come around. He put his arm around her and huddled under her cloak, as they tried to get warm. They did not speak much for both of them were quite cold. Even wet, though, Rhianna was grateful for the warmth Erik’s body exuded. The storm raged outside of the cave and it looked as if it was never going to stop. With each flash of lightening, Erik pulled Rhianna a little closer to protect her when the crashing thunder caused her to start.

How she hated storms such as this. They made her very nervous. The power and the energy frazzled her nerves. Erik wondered at the brave girl who was frightened by a bit of thunder. She was such an enigma, he thought again. She would scale down castle walls to save her people from the threat of danger, but a little thunder made her fairly jump out of her skin. Erik was puzzled at the fear that grew with each thunder clap. She kept scuttling further back under the outcropping until her spine was pressed solidly to the rock wall. Erik moved next to her and he saw that this time, there was no mistaking that there was tears in her eyes. Erik drew her against his lap and he held her. Rhianna was visibly shaking. Erik soothed, “Hush now. You are safe. There is nothing to fear.”

Erik’s arms moved around her and he tucked her into his protective embrace. She could be a hellcat one moment and likened to a frightened child the next. She murmured, “Storms like this kill people.”

“No one is going to get killed tonight. I promise you that.”

Rhianna had a flashing memory of a dream where a storm took her parents’ ship to the depths of the sea. In her mind’s eye, she saw it all and she knew that it was so…but there was something else about that dream that she had forgotten. It now came back to her, in a rush, all these years later. There was a man, who saved her from drowning in the dream, for in the dream she was with her parents on their perilous journey. In the dream, this man with hair like the sun pulled her to safety. Though her parents were lost, she had been saved. She did not know why she only remembered that part now, but the days after she learned the prophetic dream was so, when she thought of that man; the one who saved her in her dream, she felt safe. It took some of her pain and loss away.

Erik did not know what to do, because Rhianna had sunk into thoughts that took her far away. She was remembering something; something that frightened her about storms. He said, “It’s alright, Rhianna. I’ve got you, you are safe now.”

At his words, she looked at him with a strange expression on her face. She said, “It was you.…”

“What was? What was me?”

“In that dream, when I was just a girl, I dreamed I was drowning and a man with golden hair and eyes like the North Sea saved me. It was you….”

Even as Erik recalled that he had most recently dreamed of a raven haired temptress that he had saved from drowning, he discounted it to be purely coincidence. He said, “It could not have been. We never met before these days.”

Rhianna shook her head vehemently and she said, “No, it was you. It was! I remember it all now.”

She did not tell him about the prophesy of her parents’ ill-fated journey, but she was absolutely certain that he was the one who had pulled her from the throes of death. Why would he have been sent to her childhood dreams?
Him! The man who had just spanked her as if she was a naughty child.
The man who made her heart flutter when he looked at her…the man whose kiss robbed her of all sense and reason.

It was too much to ponder, really.
Erik tipped his head to look into her eyes. He saw that she spoke the truth and that she was convinced that he had somehow come to her in a childhood dream. He thought dreams were quite fleeting so it must have been something that stuck with her a long time. He asked, “Why would you remember a dream from so long ago? What about that dream caused you to remember the details of it?”

Rhianna surely did not want to answer that question. Erik already thought she was a witch and if she said she dreamed the prophetic dream which foretold of her parent’s demise, he would surely have her tried for sorcery. She just shook her head and she said, “I cannot speak of it.”

As if he somehow put the pieces of the puzzle together, Erik asked softly, “How did your parents die?” 

Rhianna’s eyes widened and she did not really want to tell him about the worst night of her life. He said, “They drowned, didn’t they?”

She nodded.

“In a terrible storm?”

Again, the barely discernible nod.

“At sea; they drowned at sea, during a storm?”

“They…they were sailing to my mother’s homeland in Wales. She had been quite ill and my father thought that if she was home, she would recover, but they sailed during Martinmas and though they were warned that the seas were perilous at that time, my father sought to help my mother. He thought she was homesick and he wanted to do anything to make her happy. I suppose her days were numbered, as she had the wasting sickness, but he had to try. They both perished during a terrible squall.”

“Ahhh,” Erik said. The full measure of understanding hit him like a punch to his gut. “That is why you do not like storms such as this. You saw it in your dream, didn’t you? The dream when you were a child and thought you were drowning, too, only someone who looked like me saved you, instead.”

Rhianna tucked her head onto her arms and softly said, “Yes.”

“Rhianna, do you have the Sight and gift of Prophesy?”

Pulling her hood over her face, as if to hide from the truth, she said, “T’is more like a curse.”

“It is not. It is a gift.”

“But you said…never mind.”

“I know what I said and for that I am sorry. I don’t care if you were a witch.”

“I am NOT a witch.”

“Well, I think, even if you were, I would no longer care. You have so many gifts, and beauty is not the least of them. I am a lucky man.”

She laughed sardonically. “Ha, lucky, why it is all you can do to not spank me at every turn.”

He chuckled as he was reminded of her luscious derriere prized beneath the smacks of his hand. He suspected it unnerved him more than it did her, for he could barely walk from the level of arousal it had caused.

“I did not wish to; I felt pushed to it. My men must respect and obey me or people tend to lose their lives. If I allowed you to speak to me thus, they would no longer obey my commands. I could not have that happen. But I am a lucky man, for like it or no, you agreed to the betrothal. I did not realize that I would be marrying a woman with so many wonderful….”

“What was that about my gifts and beauty not being the least?”

“Ah, vain, as well.”

“I am not vain, Erik Ragnorsen!”

“I think you heard me perfectly. You must know you are beautiful. Has no one ever told you before?”

“Nay. Well my chatelaine has mentioned it, but she is like a mother to me.”

Erik wanted to kiss her so fiercely, but not as punishment. Nay, to take away some of the hurt and sorrow that had been ever present in her life. She had no mother or father to raise her, only a brother. Erik suspected that her brother clearly did not tell her she was beautiful. She may have seen her reflection but she did not know she was beautiful. Well that was going to change from this moment forward. He wanted her to know she was beautiful; and not just pretty. She was a man’s dream. He would make her know she was beautiful and he would make her feel beautiful.

Rhianna felt silly; fawning over his claim of her beauty. She would rather he felt lucky to wed her because he thought she was a good person. She supposed there was slim chance of that because of the rude way she treated him. He was right. A strong leader had to gain the respect of his men and she had undermined him in front of them on more than one occasion.

Erik did not know what was causing her to look so forlorn, but he suspected it was the memories of the loss of her parents. He slid his arm around her and pulled her closer to his side. He said, “I think we have a lot to learn about each other.”

“I know. I keep hoping we will form a truce of sorts, but then….” Her voice drifted off.

“I annoy you.”

She laughed a little then and she admitted, “Or I clearly aggravate you.”

“Well, then, our lives shall not be dull, will they?”

She giggled and said, “I suppose not.”

But as her mood lifted a particularly loud thunder clap forced a scream from her throat. Erik was right there with her. He soothed, “Shh, my love. You are not going to be harmed. Not if I can help it.”

~Chapter Twenty-Four~

It was many hours later when the storm abated enough for them to ride back to the keep. Rhianna had worn herself out and she settled with her head against Erik’s thigh, falling into a fitful sleep. The entire time, he watched her; stroking over her back and making sure she was no longer frantic over the flashing lightening or rolling thunder. He observed her and felt stirrings of tenderness fill his heart.
Was he falling in love? Drew had said as much, but love? Really?
The more Erik thought upon the notion of love; he decided that perhaps this was what love felt like. He wanted to protect her and take care of her, but he liked that most times she did not need him to. Most times, she was quite capable of taking care of herself. He liked that she was strong and able to handle more than most men could, let alone a solitary young woman left to tend the holdings of a keep and its outlying lands.

Erik felt like he had been trampled by a herd of wild horses. His heart had been opened wide enough to let the girl in. This girl; this woman was just the type of woman he liked…whatever that meant. And the truth was he
more than liked
her. He could not stop thinking about her. She had distracted him like no other. That thought bothered him. He did not think he liked the idea of someone causing his warrior’s instincts to fail. In fact, he was sure he did not like it; not one bit, but when he thought of how this woman had changed how he thought of finding a mate, Erik knew that no matter what happened between them, he no longer wanted any other.

When the storm stopped, Erik gently woke Rhianna and he said, “T’is time to go. The storm is over. I think we should try to make it back to the keep before the next wave. I am not sure it will be the last storm of the night.”

Rhianna said, “I am sorry, I fell asleep.”

“It’s alright. Come with me, now. I need to get you back so you can get into something dry and warm. I need to, as well.”

Rhianna went back to the keep with him and many eyes looked upon them with suspicion as they came back, soaked to the skin. Drew sought out Erik, for he was actually worried that Erik would have lost his temper too severely with the girl. The strange thing was that when they arrived back after being gone for several hours, they no longer seemed angry at one another. They looked like somehow, in the hours that had past, they had become friends. The only indication that Erik had made good his promise was that Drew had not missed Rhianna unconsciously rubbing her bottom as she hurried to get into to some dry clothing.