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“You think me a coward for not protecting you from Knowles.”
How could she think him a coward after what he had been through? She began to shake her head, to deny his words, but he continued.
“You do. As much as you want to deny it, you do.” He ran his hand over his eyes, sighing. “I cannot fight him, Bria. If I declare the betrothal invalid, he will challenge me in battle. It is his right.”
Bria heard the anguish in his voice and dropped to her knees beside him. She reached out for his hand, but he moved his injured arm away from her touch with his good hand, absently rubbing his useless limb. Bria withdrew immediately, placing her hands in her lap.
“It would be pointless,” he said softly. “I would be killed and then he would have the run of our lands anyway.”
“But Grandfather –”
“Is old and would be killed, too. Knowles would have you in the end,” her father explained. “He’s a strong man, Bria. You will bear him strong sons and maybe you can raise them to be kind lords.”
Bria sat back on her heels. “Then your mind is made up.”
Her father’s blue eyes rose to meet hers. “Your rendezvous with this Midnight Shadow doesn’t help my situation any.”
Bria began to shake her head.
“You brought this on as much as I,” her father scolded.
Bria couldn’t tell her father there was no rendezvous. He wouldn’t understand why she risked her life. He wouldn’t understand her reasons for trying to help the people under Terran’s rule. He would forbid her from doing it.
“Tell me who he is,” her father commanded.
Bria wouldn’t look at him. She couldn’t look at him. She was disobeying a direct order of his. Women had been beaten for less, but she knew he’d never force her to tell him.
“Bria, I am your father. Tell me who he is!” His tone grew angry and stern.
She snapped her gaze to him. He’d never used that tone of voice with her before. Despite every fiber in her being urging her to confide in her father, Bria stood her ground. Revelation now would be the death of the Midnight Shadow. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t, Father. Please don’t ask me again.”
Her father sighed. “Why didn’t you come to me with your love for this man, this Midnight Shadow, whoever he is? I could have betrothed you to him.”
Bria wanted to laugh, but couldn’t. This matter had gone far beyond the point of humor.
“Instead, you sneak off into the night to meet with a man I don’t know. I should feel insulted. Betrayed.”
“No,” Bria objected. “Don’t. I never meant to make you feel that.”
“Maybe that’s how you feel about me.”
“No,” Bria insisted.
“I’m sorry I’m such a disappointment to you,” her father whispered.
“No,” Bria repeated, running her hand over his cheek. “Father, you are not a disappointment. I don’t blame this on you. I... I just don’t know what the future holds.”
Her father nodded. “That’s how I felt when I took your mother as my wife.”
Bria stared into her father’s eyes. He’d loved her mother very much. She wanted her life to be like his. She wanted to feel the love he had felt for her mother with her husband. She threw her arms around him. “I’ll do as you wish, Father.”
“This is not as I wish. It is as it has to be.”
Bria stood at the altar, staring up at the chaplain. Her palms were sweating, and she had to wipe them on her dress more than once. She half hoped one of the dozen witnesses would find a reason to object to the whole thing, and her eyes darted nervously around, looking for some kind of salvation: the chapel roof, the ornate glass windows, the elaborate statues lining the church like guardians. Finally, she looked at Terran. He was gazing at her with such calmness Bria was taken aback.
He reached out and placed his hand over hers. His gentleness startled her, but his touch soothed her. She turned her gaze back to the chaplain, her anxiety washed away by a simple touch from Terran.
The chaplain finished the uneventful ceremony and blessed the union.
