Julie Garwood - Honor's Splendour

Duncan didn't believe him. "It was her arrow?"

"It was."

Both men turned to stare at Madelyne. They looked quite astonished. Madelyne was a little irritated by their lack of faith in her ability. For a fleeting second she thought she just might keep silent. The truth, however, won out. "I was aiming for his foot."

Both Duncan and Anthony thoroughly enjoyed her admission. Duncan lifted Madelyne into his arms and began to walk down the hill.

"The wolf saved your life," he told her once again, thinking to explain the full truth.

"I know, dear."

He gave up. He'd have to explain it all to her later, when her mind wasn't so stubbornly set on believing he was her savior. "You'll never feed the beast again, Madelyne. I'll see the duty done. The wolf deserves to live an easy life now. He has earned it."

"Will you stop teasing me, Duncan?" Madelyne announced, clearly exasperated. "I've been through an ordeal."

Duncan smiled. Such a bossy bit of goods she was, and such a delight. He rubbed his chin against the top of her head while he listened to her complain about her new bruise.

Baron Wexton was eager to get Madelyne home, as eager, he thought, as Odysseus must have been to get home to his wife.

The future belonged to them. Madelyne liked to call him her wolf, but he was only a man, yet a man more powerful than the magical Odysseus.

For though Duncan was a mere mortal, flawed as well, he'd accomplished a daring feat. Aye, he'd captured an angel. And she belonged to him.