“I can solve that worry right now,” Bliss said, smiling. “How would you like to help me here in my healing cottage? I have settled in well here and the people have come to trust me, so I am busier than I believed I would be. I could use someone to prepare the mixtures and to tend light wounds and such. Though I propose this, do not worry and feel compelled to remain here if your sister should come for you when she receives word of your arrival here.”
A smile lit Damia’s pretty face. “I would welcome the chance to learn the skills of a healer, my lady. As for my sister, Lana, I would love to see her again, but this is my home and I have greatly missed it.”
“Good. Then you will start tomorrow morning. I will begin to teach you the different plants and their properties, and I am pleased that you are content here and prefer to stay.”
“That has much to do with you, my lady. I have seen your constant smile and pleasant nature turn many a surly face pleasant,” Damia said. “And if I may say so, my lady?”
“Please speak freely, Damia,” Bliss urged.
“I think many believe that if you can maintain a pleasant nature wed to the cursed lord, then perhaps Lord Rannick isn’t as evil as they all believe him to be.”
“That brings me great joy to hear,” Bliss said with a huge smile, “for it is the truth. Lord Rannick is a good man.”
Bliss enjoyed her time and talk with Damia. It reminded her of talks she used to share with her sisters. The memories touched her heart, as did the knowledge that both of them were safe.
Flurries of snow were still falling when Damia left the cottage, Bliss following her out to go to the keep to fetch the fine needles her husband had shaped for her, and she had forgotten to bring with her this morning.
She smiled as she watched Bram slow his pace beside Damia, though he kept a firm hand on her arm. She wondered if their forced closeness might forge more between them. Her smile widened when she saw her husband standing outside the keep talking with Lawler. She waved and he returned it. Even at a distance, she could see the way his eyes brightened upon seeing her and it stirred her heart, not to mention sparking a bit of passion. But when didn’t passion spark in her for her husband? A look, a touch, a kiss, any or all would suffice.
“My lady,” Bram called out as he approached.
His strides were quick as he left Damia’s side to speak with Bliss.
“My lady, Damia told me that you offered to speak with Lord Rannick about ending my chore of seeing to her care. I would prefer that you not do that. I was given a task and I intend to see it done and prove myself to Lord Rannick. Besides, Damia needs—” His eyes suddenly spread wide, and his arms shot out to wrap himself snugly around her as he tumbled them to the ground.
Bliss heard a scream and the sound of people running.
Bram pulled back after a moment and asked, “Are you all right, my lady?”
“BLISS!”
Bram scrambled to his feet, helping her up at the sound of her husband’s mighty roar. Warriors hurried to form a protective circle around her and Bram, blocking her husband from view, though they parted quickly enough to let him enter before closing the protective circle once again.
“Bram saved me,” she said quickly, though from what she wasn’t certain.
Rannick’s heart thundered in his chest as he grabbed his wife by the shoulders and fright twisted his stomach. “There is blood on your neck.”
Bliss’s hand went quickly to her neck and feeling no wound, looked to Bram. “You were wounded.”
“A scratch to my arm, nothing more,” Bram insisted.
The circle of warriors suddenly took flight, running into the woods behind the healing cottage.
Bliss shook her head. “What happened? What is going on?”
“An arrow was sent straight for you,” Rannick said, anger and fear merging to worsen the twist in his gut. “If it was not for Bram stopping to talk with you and reacting swiftly…”
Bliss shivered at what he didn’t say. “Bram saved my life.”
“I promised Elysia I would do my best to keep you safe,” Bram said, Damia standing beside him and tears pooling in her eyes.
“I will help you look after him, my lady,” Damia offered.
“That would be most helpful, Damia,” Bliss said before Bram could refuse the young woman’s offer.
Rannick kept his arm snug around his wife and his eyes peeled on his surroundings as he got her inside the healing cottage quickly. There had been no need to instruct Lawler as to what needed to be done. He had wasted no time in sending the warriors into the woods to hunt the culprit down and to leave Rannick to see to his wife.