THE NIGHT forest was peaceful with falling snow but cold. Tess gathered sticks to make a fire. The walk across the field and then along the creek had taken her to the meadow in the forest, the same place she had made love to Broderick nine months ago.
Her arrival here was not a coincidence. Tess chose the spot purposefully. She needed the memory of that night to comfort her and remind her that he once loved her.
Her breasts ached, condemning her for abandoning the babies. They would be crying with hunger. Tess dashed tears from her eyes and bent to gather up an armload of sticks.
She heard a noise. A horse snuffled, a soft whinnying sound in the fringe of trees that circled the meadow. Tess froze. In the clear winter air, she heard the distinct squeak of the rider’s leather saddle as he dismounted.
She moved to her own horse and withdrew the dagger from her belt. “Show yourself,” she ordered.
Broderick stepped into the circle of snow and light.
Tess gasped, took a step but was halted by the tears that were streaming down the soldier’s face. “Oh god,” she said weakly. “The babies—they are dead?”
He shook his head. “No, they live, but our sons need their mother.”
Tess reeled back from relief and anger. “If that is the only reason you’ve come, you’ve had a wasted journey. You will find a way to keep them alive. There are women in the village to oblige you but you must pay them well and treat them kindly. How did you find me?”
Broderick heart was breaking. The pain was visible on his handsome face. Tess knew how he suffered over Kylie, blaming himself for her death, but she could not help him. She would not spend her life with a man who hated her for the love they shared.
“When I could not find you on the road, I thought you were gone for good and I would never see you again. I wanted to be here, the last place I felt complete and truly a man. Do you believe it is possible to fall in love in a blink—and stay in love through hell and back?” he asked softly.
Tess found her voice and stepped toward him. “Yes, I do.”
The soldier took a step toward her, his face ravaged by grief. “I love you. Come back with me, Tess. We belong together.”
“I cannot.” Tess bowed her head. Tears flowed down her cheeks. “I don’t fear what King John will do to me, but he will kill you and our sons.”
Broderick flung his handsome head back and drew her into his massive arms. He held her so close that she could feel the mercenary’s defenses crumbling beneath his heavy brigandine. “I am sending Davey to London with the ransom demanded of your father for your life and I have matched it with my own. As your betrothed, I claim the right to pay your ransom and secure your pardon. We will wed tomorrow morn—Christmas Day, if you will have me, Tess. I am not a knight—I am not a nobleman—”
She threw her arms around his neck. “You were my choice from the start,” she cried. “From the first moment I saw you—I know not how—but you were in my heart from the beginning. Yes, to your proposal. Yes to all. I will wed you, Broderick.”
They embraced and kissed as the snow fell in soft silence around them.
Tess and her soldier did not linger in the meadow forest long for two infant boys needed her and she was anxious to return to them.
They rode through the night that sparkled with frost to Castlemuir, marvelling at the change in fortune the courage of love had wrought.