Boyd gave him a sidelong look. “I was. At first.”

Alex looked at him questioningly.

Boyd shrugged. “She told me you were there. Between you and Clifford I figured she was as safe as she could have been.”

The show of faith took Alex aback. “I appreciate the confidence, but I’m not sure it is deserved after what happened to Joan. God knows, I never would have been able to save her without you and the others. I know you didn’t do it for me, but I still feel I owe you a debt I can never repay.”

“You’re wrong on both counts, Dragon.”

At first Alex assumed the use of his war name was a slip of the tongue, but when he realized that it wasn’t—and what Boyd meant—he was both shocked and humbled. They’d done it for him as well. He might not have been completely forgiven—and they sure as hell wouldn’t be throwing him any welcome-back feasts—but the door had opened, and the long process of reconciliation had begun.

Alex hadn’t been the only one who’d made a mistake, and he knew this was Boyd’s way of acknowledging it and making his own amends.

“We might have won the war,” Boyd said. “But Edward has suffered a severe blow and a humiliation that he will not soon forget. There is still much work to be done.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Boyd arched a brow at that.

“Within reason,” Alex qualified.

Boyd laughed. “You had me worried there for a minute. Where the hell would we be without Sir Galahad to remind us of right and wrong and point out that line in the sand?”

Alex shook his head. “Go to hell, Raider.”

He didn’t add that his line in the sand wasn’t as rigid as it used to be. He’d learned that when Joan was taken. There was nothing he wouldn’t have done to get her back safely. Nothing. He was a man, not an ideal.

Alex had been looking for honor and nobility in the wrong place. It wasn’t in codes or rules of chivalry—those were ideals that didn’t exist—it had been right before him all the time. These men—and women, he added, thinking of Joan, Bella, Helen MacKay, and Janet Lamont, who’d all done more than their part for Bruce—were the most honorable he knew. They might push that line every now and then, but it was always there.

“Come on,” Boyd said, standing. Alex was pleased to see that his legs wobbled a little, too. Maybe he wasn’t as out of shape as he thought. “You have a wedding to get ready for, and that river out there is calling your name. I know you’ve already anticipated the wedding night, but if you have any questions—”

“Sod off, Raider.”