Page 54 of Come the Morning

“Anne, you’ve proven yourself quite remarkable tonight, but Mellyora knew just exactly from whom she was running,” Waryk said quietly. “She has her own plans for the future, but they’renot to be, and she’s going to cause a war, and get many men killed—her uncle among them, if she’s not careful.”

Anne leapt up. “That’s why you can’t go to the king. Please, Laird Waryk, you mustn’t go to the king. There will be a battle, men will die …” Her voice trailed as she looked at him, a true picture of misery, tears streaking down her face, her hazel eyes beautifully rimmed with red. “It would be a foolish war! Think how many historians believe that Harold Godwinson might have remained king of a Saxon England if he had not come north immediately before the Battle of Hastings to do battle with Norsemen! England is in such disarray, there are many English nobles possibly just watching and waiting for Scottish troubles so that they creep northward up our border!”

She suddenly threw herself to her knees at his feet. “Please, Laird Lion, I’m begging you, you’re a wise man, a Scotsman, and you know people … Daro loves Scotland more than his own home. Show mercy here, and reason, I will do anything, anything at all to keep this from turning into bloodshed, and I know that you … that you have the strength to keep it from happening.”

“Anne, get up,” he commanded, catching her by the elbows and causing her to rise. He prodded her gently back to the chair where she’d been seated. “I don’t want bloodshed either. I admit that I’ve watched Daro suspiciously, because he is a Viking. But he’s a good warrior, an asset to the king against a common foe. I don’t want to see hundreds of men killed and I, like the king, agree with your assessment—it’s foolish to battle the wrong enemy. I don’t want to see Daro dragged in for a traitor’s death in retribution for the abduction of his own niece.”

“Oh!” Anne cried, looking more ashen than she had.

She loved the man, Waryk thought. Really loved him. She would give him up before she allowed harm to come to him, and take any punishment herself. He’d seldom seen a love so selfless,and found himself eager to help the girl, despite his anger against Mellyora MacAdin’s reckless determination and Daro’s foolishness.

He stared into the fire for a moment.

“Perhaps there is a way to keep it all from the king,” he mused.

“How?” she asked him.

He shrugged. “I’ll have to go after her alone.”

“Nay, now ye’ll do nothing so heedless of yer own life, Waryk!” Angus said heatedly.

“I’ve no wish to die, not when great battle awaits!”

“Great battle …” Anne said distressed.

“My marriage, Anne, is the battle to which I refer,” he said wryly. “Angus, find someone we can trust to reach Daro with a message.”

“Aye, Waryk, but I pray you’ll set my mind at ease before starting out on such a venture!”

“Anne,” Waryk said, “you return to your room.”

“And do what?” she asked anxiously.

He arched a brow at her. “Go to sleep,” he suggested.

“I will never sleep, I’m so worried—”

“Then go to your room and worry.”

“But if the king—”

“I’ve told you that I’m not going to the king,” he said harshly.

“But when he discovers that Mellyora is missing again he’ll—”

“He won’t discover that she’s missing. He told me that I should do with her whatever I chose. We’ll let it be assumed that she went with Daro with my blessing.”

Anne looked at him, biting her lower lip, rose, and came over to him. She took his hand, and kissed it. “Thank you,” she said fervently.

Waryk touched her chin, lifting it. “Don’t be so grateful. I’m not promising you that I can make this work out, and, God knows,David has ways of discovering the truth of things that go on beneath his nose. Go to your room for now and stay there.”

“What happens when morning comes?”

“Go about your business as if you’re not involved in anything beyond being a guest of the king. And be patient. Give me time.”

“Do we have time? If the king finds out the truth, if there is trouble …”

“There won’t be trouble, Anne. Because we will be careful, and not let anyone know that anything is amiss. Trust me.”