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Finn continued to stand expectantly in the doorway until it was clear Sereh wouldn’t be returning with Finn. He backed away, closing the door with a too-loud bang, that sent any remaining hares hurrying for their hiding places. Jon turned to her with a radiant smile.

‘Don’t mind Finn. He’s young. He probably doesn’t understand. But then,’ and here he paused, his beautiful eyes flashing, and for a moment, Sereh feared he’d tell her to keep this a secret, although how they could do that now, she didn’t know. Unwillingly, he spoke again. ‘We might get this reaction from the others. Don’t let it upset you. When they came here, there were no couples. There could be no children born to the inhabitants of the cave.’

‘Really?’ This surprised her.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll help you,’ Jon promised, his words soft, enticing. He bent his head and kissed her thoroughly before starting to walk towards the door, pulling her with him. Her lips felt roughened. She touched them with her free hand, but they felt whole.

When they arrived in the common room, holding hands, everyone turned and looked at them. Sereh couldn’t quite decipher the intent behind the looks, but she felt Jon stiffen at her side. Finn hadn’t been slow in sharing what he’d seen. Not that it mattered. She felt exhilarated and overjoyed.

Unceremoniously, Emma dumped a squalling Pal into her free arm.

‘Come with me,’ she demanded from Jon. With a lingering look, he dropped her hand and followed Emma, an apologetic look on his face as he was swept from the room and the others all turned back to eating, or reading, or sharpening their knives, which Gunnar was doing from the far corner of the common room. She quietened a fractious Pal, smiling at him, while he pulled her hair in his firm grip. But, she noticed Arrow didn’t slink to her side.

‘Arrow, come here, girl,’ she called, as Pal sat in her arms, but Arrow stayed firmly by Finn.

Jon and Emma didn’t return to the common room, and finally, with Pal yawning, and her own exhaustion tugging at her eyelids, she stood.

‘Good night,’ she called to Elen, Gunnar and Brand, but all she received in response were grunts. No one even met her eyes. Irritated, she retired to her chamber and settled Pal, and climbed into her bed.

She couldn’t understand the reactions of the others? She felt amazing. Why couldn’t they be happy for her and Jon. She was falling deeply in love with him.

Her last thoughts, before sleep claimed her, were of Jon. She ran her finger over her lips, remembering the touch of their kiss, and smiling, she tumbled deep into her dreams.

9

SEREH

She dreamt of Jon all night long, reliving the caresses of that day. She woke at Pal’s cry, feeling hot and feverish from her dreams and full of questions about where Emma had dragged Jon off to last night. Finn still slept, as did Arrow. She quickly dressed and picked up Pal.

‘Come on, little man,’ she crooned trying to comfort him. ‘Don’t wake Finn.’

The baby watched her with tear filled eyes, and she was reminded, for the first time, of who his father was.

‘Well,’ she murmured to the usually sweet-natured child. ‘There’s no need for you to turn out like him, is there?’

She carried him back to the common room. His hungry cries shouldn’t wake everyone.

Surprisingly, she wasn’t the first to wake. Emma looked up from where she sat, vigorously chopping chunks of yesterday’s bounty from the hunting grounds for the pottage, a smile on her face for the querulousness of Pal. Jon was also within the room, and Sereh couldn’t take her eyes off him.

‘Good morning, Sereh, Pal,’ Emma called.

‘Good morning, Emma,’ Sereh mumbled, but her attention was on Jon. ‘Jon.’

At the sight of him, her heart leapt, and he turned, smiling to welcome her, his grey eyes shining. But the smile quickly drained as Emma favoured him with a scorching look which Sereh would have needed to be blind to miss.

Pal leapt to her aid, crying once more, reminding her why she was there. With a scrape of sharp wood over stone, Emma stood and walked to the fire to spoon some of the pottage juice into a bowl for him.

‘Here you go, Pal,’ Emma offered, once more running her hands over his rounding cheeks. Like Arrow, Sereh knew Pal hadn’t been fed so well at Rankil’s as he was being now. ‘Shall I feed him?’

‘No, it’s not a problem,’ Sereh replied brightly. She didn’t want to allow Emma the opportunity to send her on some chore, away from Jon. Finn was always being sent all over the place, to replenish the plant oil that fuelled the orange lamps in the passageways, or to bring the towels from the bathing room. To feed the cooking scraps to the hares. Or just anywhere that Elen and Emma could think he might need to go. ‘Thank you. I’ll see to him.’

Pal was hungry and he absorbed all of her attention, but throughout it all, she was aware of Jon looking her way. And of Emma, glowering at him. She refused to dwell on the unhappiness clouding Emma’s face. The knowledge that Jon wanted her with the same relentless intensity she wanted him was too impossible to deny.

The tension, however, broke briefly when Arrow and Finn arrived, with Elen not long behind them. And still, no one spoke, apart from to say good morning or to ask for the jug of tea to be passed between them. Sereh, with Pal sitting on her lap, watching everyone, felt the tension in the air. Could it possibly all be directed towards Jon and her? It didn’t feel conceivable, and yet she couldn’t deny that the atmosphere sparked, as though before a lightning storm. It wasn’t usually like this.

She floundered for something to say, but again, Pal was the one to help them all, his happy chuckles flooding the space, as Finn shook a small wooden rattle for him, crouching down beside him. Finn smiled broadly.

While everyone laughed, Jon screeched his stool backwards over the highly polished black floor, and left the room with little grace.