“I rarely do too. I am glad for it, I think. If they are bad dreams, I am terrified. If they are good dreams … if they are good ones, life seems so drab and ordinary the next day.” She smiled at him, and wished they were not in view of the wall so that she could give him a kiss. “I have been in a dream for hours now, but the morning has truly come.”

He vaguely nodded his acknowledgment of that. There was no need to express how completely the dream was about to end. He was a clever man, and he understood.

Neither one of them moved first. At the same instant their two horses stepped forward, and they rode through the gate.

CHAPTER 11

You say that you found her on the road? She spent the night alone out there in the cold with no horse, no weapon, and no cloak?”

Paul asked the question early the next morning as they broke their fast. He was not very good at being subtle, and Marcus noticed the overly deliberate nonchalance in his friend’s tone.

“She is a resourceful woman, and stronger than most. I daresay she could survive more than one night with the little she had with her.”

Paul nodded solemnly. “To be sure. Still, she was fortunate that you came upon her.”

“The good fortune was mine. I might be thought negligent if she perished.”

Paul began responding but bit back the words. Marcus had no trouble guessing what had been sacrificed to better judgment. More than a few eyebrows had shot up when he and Nesta had ridden in the gate yesterday.

Without discussing it, they had both known the story to give. No one had dared to question it outright even though the possibilities had been obvious to everyone. Now, as Marcus watched Paul biting his tongue, he decided that the household’s curiosity about that night had a benefit. It kept everyone from examining the rest of the story, and the peculiar detail of how Marcus had lost Genith and Dylan in hills that he could journey through blinded.

Paul angled forward so he could speak confidentially. It appeared he had decided that better judgment could go to hell. “No one will be bold enough to say it to your face, of course, but you should know that there is a lot of talk. Wondering, mostly. After all, she is not reputed to be the most virtuous woman, now is she?”

Marcus had intended to take this in stride, but now a sharp annoyance stabbed his head. “Talk is inevitable, but are you saying that it is not my possible lack of chivalry that is being bantered about? That Nesta is being blamed for any sins that may have happened?”