“Jesus, woman, you have no cloak and your gown is soaked. Small wonder you are shivering.” He lifted her in his arms and carried her to the horses.

“My cloak is tied to my horse.”

“Not anymore.”

He did not put her on the extra horse, but helped her onto his. He swung up behind her, tucked the edges of his cloak around her, and aimed toward a wooded hillside.

The sudden warmth only made the chill at her core awaken. She began shaking uncontrollably, and he pulled her close to him in response. “This is so stupid,” she said with chattering teeth. “I never feel cold, and now I cannot get warm.”

“I will get you to a fire soon. There is a small lodge that my men and I use for hunting the next hill over. There will be dry fuel and flints there.”

“Are you saying that after all of this, I never even made it off your lands?”

“You would have to ride more than one day in this direction to do so, if you stay in the valleys.”

She burst out laughing. “The enormity of my failure is astonishing.”

“Genith and Dylan got away, and that was your goal. Crossing the hills as they are, they are well away from my lands now.”

The news revived her spirits immediately. “They are gone?”

“I followed but I lost them. So, you did not fail. You merely sacrificed yourself to succeed. It is fortunate that I found you before you paid with your life. That would be a high price indeed to save your sister from the comfort and luxury that she would have known as my wife.”

Nesta decided not to provoke him with more talk. She relaxed against him and into the gait of the horse. Marcus’s warmth began to leach the terrible chill out of her.

She had not eaten since morning, and now with deliverance came a raving hunger. Very gently, she touched her fingers to his chest and lightly pressed, hoping he would not notice.

He did. “What are you doing?”

“Checking whether you still wear your meal.”

He pulled the little sack from beneath his tunic.

She greedily opened it and plucked out a thin chunk of dried venison. She sighed with contentment as she chewed to get it soft. It tasted better than the most luxurious savory.

“You seem well pleased, Nesta.”

“Well, I won’t be wolf food now. I am less cold and hungry, and, as you said, Genith is away. So you are right, I did not fail. I expect that I am feeling much as you do when you plan a battle strategy that succeeds.”

He tilted his head and looked at her as if he could see clearly despite the dark. “There is one important difference. I have known my share of victories, Nesta, but, unlike you, I was never captured by the enemy afterward.”