The Unchosen Path Book 2

About an hour or two later, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching. I was apprehensive about looking over the side of the wooden beam. What if it was not one of the men?

I looked around for a weapon, realizing that for the second time I had failed to bring one with me here. I clearly had learned nothing in the past few months.

The footsteps stopped, and for a second, all I heard was silence.

“For once, you’ve listened to me.” Cayden’s face appeared. He was standing on one of the barrels of fodder. Startled, I leaned over and kissed him.

I could taste blood on his lips and realized there was a cut on the side of his face. I did not know why, but in that moment, I needed him.

He lifted himself up over the edge of the rafter and continued to kiss me. “What’s wrong?” he asked, pausing for a second.

“I sat here for however long, thinking the worst…imagining what my life would be like without you now…what it would be like to lose another person I care for deeply.”

“Well, you need not worry anymore. I’m here.”

But that was not enough for me, or if it was, I did not believe it. As if picking up from before, I pulled him on top of me, using my feet to push his pants down.

He did not need any guidance once I did that and tugged my pants down as well.

We were in the heat of passion when Caxton came to fetch his horse. Cayden rolled his eyes and motioned for me to be quiet. For the third time today, we had been interrupted.

Still on top of me, he lowered his forearms down, one on each side of my head, waiting for our friend to leave. He was trying hard to control his breath, and I couldn’t help but laugh at him.

He smiled back and started to playfully kiss me all over my face. Caxton finally left the stable. We had gone unnoticed, allowing Cayden to finish.

He laid the weight of his body on top of me for a second, and I wrapped my arms and legs around him while kissing him.

Once he caught his breath, we put our clothes back on, and he peered around to make sure no one was near. He leapt onto the ground first and then helped me down.

Heading toward the fields with our hands entwined, we walked through the grain knowing that our secret had been kept.

Over the next several weeks, our days carried on in a similar way. We would eat together, fight together, and drink together.

I wondered if anything would ever change, with the hope that it would not. I could see the other men growing restless as the days carried on. They were tired of the same routine.

My fighting had improved greatly, and I found myself winning more and more fights, well, winning in a sense. I was able to keep the men off longer, knock them to the ground, and even catch them off guard.

As Cayden had told me, Padriac was the strongest fighter. None of the men, including Cayden sometimes, could ever beat him. It wasn’t his strength that was greater, but his technique and precision.

This was what he taught me, and this was where I gained my confidence in fighting. Padriac proved to be a great teacher of the basic moves, while Cayden took over teaching me sword-skill.

We found Cayden did not have quite the self-restraint necessary to wrestle with me, which often caused him to call for breaks so we could be alone.

At least with the swords, there wasn’t a great deal of touching.

Cayden and I did find time to be alone whenever we had a chance. The area where we first met, the rafter in the stable, was the best place for us to lie together undisturbed.

It was unromantic, uncomfortable, and often cold, but it was all that we had. Since that first night in the field, Cayden had become increasingly protective of me.

Where the men might have remarked or made comments about my appearance in the past, they knew better than to do so now. He had even made a point of ensuring that none of them ever joked about us being together.

I guessed that was his way of showing he cared for me, and I wondered if it was due to his pride or love. This was when I doubted what was between us.

I found it difficult to understand why he was so affectionate with me when we were alone, but returned to his reserved self when we were around the other men.

I found myself frequently dismissing my feelings, justifying his actions with the thought that he only wished to keep our relationship between us.

This worry finally came to light as we strolled through the fields one day. We had made it a fairly good distance away from the house, almost to the spot where we had first lain together.

Our walks usually took place in silence, and we only commented on small things here and there. Being in each other’s company was all that mattered to us.

I was about to draw him closer to me for a hug when we came across one of the slaves. He looked at us with disgust, spitting on the ground in our direction. I looked at Cayden and felt my heart sink.

To the slaves, men I had known all my life, I was a traitor. I had fallen in love with our enemy, a man whose people had taken over our town, killed our loved ones, and now enslaved them.

For the past few months, I had been trapped in my own world of bliss, detached from the realities of Kilcoran. I felt a rush of shame come over me.

Cayden yelled a profanity at the man in Danish and led me further into the field. We found a spot on a large rock overlooking the grain.

“I’m sick of this sneaking around. I wish to return to my land…to my house…and my bed. Where we would have privacy,” he said, irritated.

“You would take me with you?” I asked him, wishing to leave and forget Kilcoran immediately. We had been together intimately for two months, almost three now, and he had never brought up the subject of our future.

Until now, I had only focused on our daily life together, never imagining there would be another place for us. I wondered if marriage was even a custom for the Danes.

But, if he did love me, what kept him, or would keep him, bound to me and me only? My question caused him to stop and look at me seriously.

“Cailín, I do not wish to ever part with you.” He kept looking at me as if searching for an answer. “Do you not feel the same?”

“I do.”

“Then of course I would take you with me. I would take you regardless of your answer,” he attempted to joke, something both of us seemed to do whenever the topic turned serious.

“Cayden, who am I to you?” I finally said after a moment of silence between us. I pulled my cape around me tightly, as if it would shield me from an answer I did not wish to hear.

“What kind of a question is that? You are my woman.”

“Am I just a woman from this town to bed whenever you please?”

“Do you really think that of me? After the time we have spent together these past few months?”

“What am I supposed to think? It’s hard for me read you when it comes to anything other than fighting or bedding.”

“Well, that’s a lie, you cannot read me in a fight either,” he said playfully, hoping it would put an end to our conversation. Sighing, I prepared myself to climb down from the rock.

He stopped me, putting his hand on top of my leg. If this was an attempt to seduce me, then he would surely be disappointed. I looked up at him, readying myself to give him a tongue-lashing.

“Ada, I love you,” he said, and I suddenly felt scared by his words. I had not anticipated this.

“You do?”

“Is it not obvious?”

“No.”

“What do you mean? I spend every free moment I have with you. I have done my best to make sure you are safe.”

“How do I know that is not how you treat all your women?”

“All my women? What does that even mean?” he asked, very annoyed. I was sabotaging myself with these questions, ruining what he had just told me.

This was not me protecting myself from harm; it was my insecurity showing through. I sat for a moment in silence, contemplating what I really wanted to know.