Page 51 of Heart of the Hunter (Band of Bastards #3)

“I f we do not want to wake them, we will have to wait until sunrise to gain entrance,” Anora said with dismay as Hunter walked her toward the manor of Red and Galiena in the early morning hours.

She did not regret her actions of the previous night, or spending it in Hunter’s arms, but she felt sheepish sneaking up to the door in the wee hours before the sunrise.

Still, it was far less conspicuous than emerging from Hunter’s cottage in the morning when the entire village would be awake and alert.

“You will not have to wait,” Hunter predicted in a low grumble as they rounded the corner of manor stand before the door leading to the kitchen.

Anora jumped and a yelp escaped her lips as the door flew open and Red emerged like an angry giant. His face looked like thunder, his eyes were flashed with anger, and his fists were balled at his side.

“Get inside, Anora,” Red said in a voice sharper than steel.

She stood frozen with shock, staring at her friend’s husband. The Red she knew was jovial, always jesting, kind, and easy in manner. She didn’t know what to do, or why he was so angry. He was not her father, and Hunter was his trusted friend. Whatever this was seemed to be an overreaction.

“Anora,” Red bellowed again as he pointed into the house. Then, as if he had heard the thoughts in her head, he said by way of explanation, “You are a guest in my home. It is my duty to protect your virtue as your father would.”

She didn’t know whether to huff with indignation or laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

Beside the fact that she was a woman grown, she didn’t think even her father would have reacted so harshly to her returning in the hours before dawn with Hunter as escort.

He had hardly protested when they returned to the shop together the morning after she’d snuck into Castle Whyte.

Before she could state that point, Red came to a halt in front of Hunter, their chests nearly touching.

“Do I need to beat sense into you?” Red growled through gritted teeth, staring his friend in the eye. Anora opened her mouth to offer a defense, but before she could say anything, Red said, “Get inside now, Anora.” He’d not looked away from Hunter as he sharply enunciated each word.

“Go, Anora,” Hunter said with a gentle nudge from his hand against her lower back. He, too, did not look away from Red as he spoke.

She backed away from the two men, squaring off as though they wanted to rip each other from limb to limb. “He did nothing wrong,” she said in an attempt to diffuse whatever was happening between them.

Galiena was suddenly at her side. She looped an arm through Anora’s and pulled her away from Hunter and Red. “Leave them be,” she urged as she dragged her into the kitchen.

Anora heard a loud thump behind her and turned just in time to see Red shove Hunter hard in the chest a second time as another thump resonated from his palms connecting with Hunter’s chest. He reeled backwards several steps, and her stomach clenched with fear as she tried to pull free of Galiena’s grasp.

It hurt her to see Hunter harmed and humiliated, and she wanted to stop Red before he pushed him too far.

“Red is being unreasonable,” Anora hissed at Galiena when her friend tightened her hold on her arm.

“He won’t hurt him,” Galiena insisted. She pulled her further into the kitchen and closed the door behind them.

“He already was hurting him,” Anora said, her voice shrill with panic. Galiena chuckled, which only spiked her ire. “How can you laugh at this?”

“Red is not truly that angry. He’s just following through with what he thinks is his duty. To your father and to Hunter.” Galiena rolled her eyes and set a reassuring hand on Anora’s forearm. “Red would never hurt Hunter, and Hunter knows that.”

“Then what is happening?” She was somewhat reassured by Galiena’s calm demeanor but still puzzled by the absurdity of the situation. “Why is he doing this?”

“Because he likes you.” Galiena said with a smile and a yawn as she turned on her heel and started up the stairs. “Come up to the solar so I can hear if the babies awaken.”

Anora looked at the door for a long moment, contemplating whether she should go back and try to reason with Red, but decided against it as she did not wish to embarrass Hunter.

They would draw a curious crowd as it was, which would only add to her embarrassment if she interfered because then everyone would know the argument was about her.

She followed Galiena up the stairs and flopped down in a chair facing the hearth, feeling very sorry for herself. But when she looked at her friend, guilt overwhelmed her. “You should go back to sleep, Galiena. I do not want you up on my account when the babies will awaken soon enough.”

Galiena shrugged, then narrowed her eyes and flashed a wicked grin. “I want to hear all about your night, first.”

“No,” Anora said with a shake of her head, but she couldn’t stop her lips from curving into a smile. She reached across the short distance between the chairs facing the hearth and took her friend’s hand. “Are you disappointed in me?”

“Absolutely not.” Galiena turned her body in the chair so she could curl her legs under her and look directly at Anora. “I knew Hunter was in love with you the first time I saw him at your shop. He wouldn’t stop staring at you,” Galiena said, her voice sleepy and soft.

Anora laughed. “How could you remember that. You were completely distracted by what had happened that day. And you only had eyes for Red.”

“Even Red noticed. But when he asked Hunter about it later, he just shrugged and refused to say anything more about it. Which isn’t surprising, considering Hunter doesn’t say very much about anything to anybody.”

Anora laughed softly at the truth of Galiena’s words.

They heard the door on the lower level open and close and then heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs.

“Quick,” Galiena whispered, squeezing Anora’s hand, “before Red gets here. Was it wonderful?”

Anora felt the heat in her cheeks as color rushed to her face, and knew she was grinning again. “Aye,” she conceded, “it was.”

Red entered the solar, lumbered across the room, and stopped in front of the hearth to face her with his arms crossed over his chest. He leveled his icy-blue gaze at Anora, which only made her blood boil.

She would not be judged by this man who put his whole heart into seducing Galiena from the first day he knew her. He wasn’t concerned about virtue then!

Still, she took a deep breath as she reminded herself that Red was the husband of her dear friend, and she was a guest in their home. An outburst would be inappropriate and ill-mannered, and she would not do anything to upset Galiena.

The outburst escaped Anora’s mouth before she could stop herself.

“What was that, you gigantic oaf?” Red continued to glare at her and shook his head as though he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

She’d not meant to yell, or to jump to her feet, but his nonchalant demeanor after what had just happened was too much.

Red continued to stare at her for several breaths, and Anora feared she may have crossed the mark in the sand that she had just tried to convince herself to avoid. She was about to apologize when his booming laugh filled the room.

“Red,” Galiena hissed, pointing a tiny finger at her huge husband. “If you wake those babies up, they are yours for the day.” She turned her finger in the direction of Anora next. “I say the same to you.”

Feeling duly chastised, and rightfully so, Anora whispered a sheepish apology.

“I like you, Anora,” Red said through a toothy grin, his voice only slightly softer than his normal boisterous level.

She sighed, feeling even more sheepish than a moment before. “I like you, Red, but I’m not happy with you right now.”

He arched his auburn eyebrows in genuine surprise. “Because of that?” he asked, hitching a thumb toward the yard outside.

“Yes. I am a grown woman. I do not need you to protect my virtue.”

The big Viking smirked at her in his lop-sided way that made him look like a charming but mischievous boy. “If I had wanted to do that, I would have broken down his door hours ago and dragged you both from his cottage.”

Anora’s mouth dropped open. That wasn’t the response she was expecting. “Then…then why were you harsh with Hunter?”

He sighed heavily. “Because Hunter is an idiot.”

“I do not expect anything from Hunter.” Embarrassment and a twinge of sorrow twisted her gut as she circled the chair to lean her arm against the high back as she faced Red. “I am not trying to force him into anything.”

“I know that,” Red said with a dismissive snort as he strode to the big chair behind the table in the center of the room and sat, stretching his legs as he leaned back. “I also know how Hunter feels about you. But the fool has been trying to deny it, even to himself, for far too long.”

“Trying to beat sense into him is not the answer,” Anora said, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling.

Why did men think a good pummeling was the way to get through to another man?

Besides, she didn’t even know what she expected after what happened last night, but whatever it was, she and Hunter had to come to that determination themselves.

“I will not have him guilted into being with me, Red. I haven’t even figured out how he can possibly fit into my life and still be happy. ”

He studied her for a long moment, then stole a glance at his wife and let out another heavy sigh. Anora shifted her eyes to Galiena, but the serene expression on her friend’s face gave no hint as to what the silent exchange between husband and wife meant.

“Is Hunter too coarse of a man for you?”

The question from Red startled Anora. “Of course not!”

“Is it because he’s had an undesirable upbringing?”

“His upbringing has nothing to do with how I feel about him.” Anora felt a flare of indignation at the offensive question.

“Is he unworthy of being your husband because he is from the lower class?”

“Do you really think me so arrogant and lofty? Even if I wanted him for a husband, no one would dare say he is not worthy. If anything, as the daughter of a merchant, I would be considered too lowly for a warrior in Lord Hawk’s elite army.

He’s most certainly done enough to earn the respect of the Crown and would not be denied if he asked for a noble wife.

” Her chest heaved with her anger and indignation on behalf of Hunter, and her face felt flushed and overly warm.

She crossed the room to the window and pushed back the shutter to breathe in a deep breath of cool air, the damp tang of wet grass clearing her head.

“We are in agreement, Anora,” Red said, brooking no argument.

“Who is not in agreement, then?” she asked, leaning her head against the window casement as she looked out at the sun beginning to rise over the valley, silhouetting horses as they grazed lazily in the expanse of pasture below them.

The tranquility of the scene was in direct contrast to her unsettled nerves.

“Lord Hawk? The king? I do not believe my father would feel that way.”

“I cannot fathom any of them thinking Hunter unworthy,” Red agreed. “But there is one person who does think that.”

She did not turn to face him, but something in his tone made her heart ache. Hunter had always been one to fade into the landscape, always disappearing like smoke in the night so that one was never certain he had truly been there.

Before the night started, she’d told Hunter she didn’t expect anything from him—and she didn’t—but she knew her life had been changed unequivocally.

His life was not one that fit well around a wife, and she wasn’t even sure hers fit around being a wife, but she couldn’t imagine ever giving herself to anyone else after Hunter.

When she turned around, Red was gone from the room, but Galiena was still curled in the chair, watching her intently. “Are you all right?”

Anora nodded and crossed back to the other chair in front of the unlit hearth to sit.

She turned to look at her friend and laughed softly at Galiena’s wide, questioning eyes and sharp, arched eyebrows.

“Maybe I’m not all right.” She sighed and dropped her head against the high back of the chair and stared at the wood planks of the ceiling. “But I will be.”

“I know you will,” Galiena said in her soft, soothing voice that always made Anora think this was what it must be like to have a sister, to have a confidant who never judged, who understood even when no words were spoken, who accepted all the pieces of the whole, even the broken ones.

Anora dropped her head to the side to look at her friend and smiled, grateful that she was with Galiena during this very confusing time when she needed a friend more than anything. “I’m so happy I have you in my life.”

Galiena winked at her in response, then said. “Do you love him?”

Anora huffed out a long breath, then admitted, “Hopelessly.”