“As often as possible,” he said and went to tease her neck with kisses when he saw a disturbed look in her green eyes. “What troubles you?”

Willow was glad her husband knew her so well that he could tell when something troubled her and that he never hesitated to ask her about it.

“Is it your sister?”

Willow sighed. “I never thought it could happen and I feel terrible for her, since it’s impossible. It will never go anywhere.”

“What are you talking about?” Slatter asked, her words making no sense.

Willow couldn’t believe what she was about to say. “I think Snow has fallen in love with the Lord of Fire.”

Chapter 13

Snow sat in her mum’s small solar, snug in the warmth of a shawl, wool hose kept her legs from feeling chilled, and her feet were kept toasty warm from the heat of the flames in the hearth.

It had been two weeks since she had left Tarass’s home and ten days since she had left Willow’s home. She didn’t understand why it had felt different being at Willow’s this time, but it had. As much as she had always found solace being with Willow, this time she hadn’t. More so when Willow had suggested that perhaps she had found herself unwittingly caring, or more bluntly, losing her heart to Lord Tarass.

Snow had laughed and claimed it impossible. She had stopped laughing when Willow pointed out that Snow wept as if she had lost a deep love as she had done when their parents had died. Willow had set the idea in her mind and Snow had wondered if it had been on purpose. Had Willow thought it was something Snow should consider so that in the end she would realize it was something that would never be? Only then would she heal from it?

Leave it to her practical sister to force her to give it thought and that was what she had been doing since her return home. James had been worried that she was spending too much time alone brooding and had assumed it had been the ordeal that had caused it. Then he worried that preparations for his and Eleanor’s wedding, a few months away, contributed to her melancholy.

She had assured him she did well and there was no need for concern. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he hadn’t believed her. But what did it matter, since she was finding it impossible to believe that it was love that was causing such a heavy sadness in her. Had she truly been foolish enough to have fallen in love with a pigheaded man like Tarass? If so, how had it happened? Was that why her heart ached every time she thought about him? And was it why she couldn’t stop thinking about him?