Nesta strolled back toward them. Addis noticed her coming, muttered something about passing the order, and walked away. Nesta watched him go, then turned her gaze on Marcus conspiratorially.

She favored him with a private smile and tender look. He reacted as he always did, with an onslaught of desire and yearning that blotted out most of the world. For a moment nothing existed but the sight of her, and that smile, and the bright sun, and the sound of the rushing stream.

During that mesmerized instant, her face fell. Frowning, she quickly looked to the hills. Shock replaced the warmth in her eyes. With an expression of horror and determination, she ran toward him, her mouth open in a soundless yell.

He saw her come as if time had slowed. Whistles penetrated his awareness just as she slammed into him with all of her weight. She clutched him in a hurtling embrace that had him staggering back while the world swirled.

His balance and senses abruptly righted themselves. He found himself surrounded by her arms, her body pressed to his.

All along the stream activity erupted. Men yelled, swords flashed, and horses pranced. A line of archers marched forward and sent volleys of arrows into the forest.

Arundal’s three men lay in heaps, each pierced by several arrows from longbows.

Marcus looked down, and saw another one sticking out of the ground where he had just been standing.

No one attacked. No more whistles sounded. The battle stance of his men slowly relaxed.

Marcus embraced the woman who still shielded him with her body. A turmoil of reactions overwhelmed him. Astonishment that she had sensed the danger before Addis or himself. Anger that she had risked herself so thoughtlessly. Joy that she cared enough to do so.

He set her aside firmly, and went over to Arundal’s men. Colors or not, they had been identified.

Addis joined him. “There will be hell to pay with Arundal when he hears of this.”

“He will probably hear of it very soon, too. Words travel faster than a horse in Wales.”

Men lifted the bodies and slung them over saddles. Squires brought their horses, and he and Addis mounted.

“No need to pass the word about those shields now,” Addis said. Behind them every man had steel facing the hill to their left. “I think that I will carry mine too.”

Marcus took the hint, and lifted his own. He was probably the only one who needed to, from the looks of things. Except for the one bolt still rising beside Nesta, no others had been aimed at other than Arundal’s men.

“Perhaps they wanted to free her from this betrothal you made,” Addis said.

“Perhaps.”

Addis gave the woman waiting for them a thoughtful examination. “I suddenly favor her much more than I did a short while ago.”