“How easily you command me! You peck at me as a wife pecks at her husband,” Robin teased her with a laugh. He turned to Gryff like it was a fine jest. “She could be my wife, you know. I asked her years ago and she refused me. My heart yet bears the wound.” He turned back to Nan with a wide grin. “You may still say yes, Nan, never will I disclaim the offer.”

“You were a boy. And I know my place, even do you not know your own.” She was cleaning the mud from her boots, and did not look up from her task. She did not laugh. “You’ll find a good lady soon enough, worthy of your name and estate.”

After that, he bid Gryff good night and went to keep watch by his horse. Nan went with him, and Gryff could hear their whispering at the edge of the clearing for what felt like hours. He could make out no words, but it was her voice as much as his. It seemed to go on and on, more than she had ever spoken to Gryff. He tried not to think of the dagger she wore over her heart, and how the symbol on it looked very much like the letter R.

He lay awake and reminded himself that they had made no promises to each other, spoken no vows. They had barely spoken at all, and it had not seemed to matter until now. But it did matter – of course it did – that before he had ever met her, she had had a life and a purpose, people she cared for. So many things she must leave behind if she were to come with him to Wales. For himself, he left little behind but danger. And there was little that would greet him – no family, no lands, no name he could claim.

She came to him finally, a quiet and careful step, and knelt beside him.

“I must go with Robin to the manor tomorrow,” she said low. “Will you come? We need not stay the night there.” She spoke Welsh, but he did not answer.  Her hand brushed against his shoulder and rested there. “I know you wake, Welshman.”

He tried to imagine watching her walk away with the handsome, smiling Robin, disappearing into a manor while he waited sullenly to see if she returned to him.

“I will go whither you go,” he said at last. “If you do truly want me with you.”

Her hand moved to cup his throat, her thumb stroking his jaw for a long moment of silence.

“Robin is my bosom friend, since he was a child. He is like a brother to me. You need not fear I have any secret desire for him.”