Alys Clare - The Enchanter's Forest

‘You came willingly?’ she asked.

He looked down at her, right into her eyes. ‘Oh, aye. I came willingly all right.’

‘But-’ She was struggling to understand. ‘These things surely do not concern you? Rifts needing healing and all that?’

He grinned. ‘No, I can’t say that they do.’

‘Then why were you so keen to come?’

‘Because they said I wasn’t the only one who had been threatened — you had been too. Then I knew you’d be there and after that there was no holding me.’

‘You — you went off into the wild lands with the Long Men and you spent half the night digging and filling in the grave of a man who tried to kill you, just because you reckoned you and I might get the chance to be together?’

‘Aye,’ he said softly. Then: ‘You promised, Joanna, that we would meet at the year’s festivals, and last night was the equinox.’ He was holding her close, his large, warm hand moving across her shoulder and down towards her breast, and already she felt herself begin to open to him again. Sensing her response he kissed her, deeply, long. Pausing briefly for air, he added, ‘And you were always a woman who kept her promises.’

Then they were making love again and there was no time for another word.