She looked up at him, seeing things about his face she had never gotten to see before now, a barely noticeable scar under his chin and fine lines at the corner of his blue eyes. It was almost like meeting him for the first time and it filled her saddened heart with joy.

“I don’t see a connection between what happened here and your parents’ departure from your homeland. They would never take you back there if they believed it meant trouble for you.”

“You’re right. I’ve thought the same myself,” he said with a bit of sadness. “Perhaps I’ll never know the answer.”

Snow turned quiet for a moment, then she whispered, “I do so love you, husband.”

“And I you, ást,” he murmured and kissed the top of her head.

Willow returned with Slatter carrying a tray of food and they both stopped at the open door when they saw Snow asleep, her head on her husband’s shoulder and Tarass asleep, his head resting on the top of his wife’s head, and them both wrapped snug around each other.

Slatter left the tray of food on the small table and with an arm around his wife, ushered her out the door, closing it behind him.

Chapter 35

A year later.

“I can’t believe you got Ruddock to stay through the winter,” Willow said, rocking her sleeping five-month-old son, Angus, in her arms.

“I didn’t miss the birth of your son and you two were here for Tiernan’s birth,” Sorrell said, looking down at her three-month-old son sleeping peacefully in her arms. “I’m certainly not going to miss the birth of Snow’s bairn. Besides, it’s taken this long for her to tell me everything that has happened and I still have questions for her.”

“You’ve asked me endless questions, no more,” Snow demanded with a smile.

“She’s gotten so commanding since she’s gotten her sight back,” Sorrell said with a grin. “And I’m still annoyed that I was the last one to know.”

“Live closer and you would have known sooner,” Snow said.

“See what I mean. She has an answer for everything now,” Sorrell said.

“That’s because she’s married to a man who knows everything,” Tarass said, entering Snow’s solar.

Snow smiled and went to greet her husband with a kiss, but she had rounded greatly and getting up and out of chairs had grown burdensome.

“Stay,” Tarass ordered and went to her, his arm disappearing low at her back to help her up. “Twilla is asking for you. She is not doing well.”

“I should go to her,” Willow said.

“No, she asked to speak with Snow alone,” Tarass said.

Thaw stretched his big body after getting up from where he lay by the warm hearth and went to Snow, ready to follow along with her.