Page 58 of Taming the Eagle
She wasn’t sure what had come over her.
Moments passed, and Fenella remained there, eyes shut, while heated images flitted through her mind. She shouldn’t be thinking of such things, yet she couldn’t help herself.
“You’re in an odd mood this morning.”
Fenella’s eyelids snapped open. Face warming, she lowered her chin to see Kahina viewing her.
It was mid-morning, and the two women were seated near the well shelling peas for cena. Electri was lying across Fenella’s feet, asleep.
“I’m just enjoying the sun,” Fenella replied lightly. She then picked up another handful of pods, dumped them onto her lap, and resumed her task. It was tedious, repetitive work, and yet Kahina had spoken true.
She’d barely said a word since they’d risen from their sleeping pallets.
A pause drew out before Kahina spoke again. “You were late to bed last night.”
Fenella glanced up. “Did I wake you?”
“That doesn’t matter.” Kahina’s frank peat-brown eyes never left Fenella’s face. “Has something happened between you and the general?”
Fenella’s cheeks started to glow like hot coals, and she cursed her body’s betrayal. She could hardly lie now, could she?
Sighing, she reached up, dragging a hand down her face, before glancing up at the sky, silently asking The Warrior for strength. “I had a moment of … weakness,” she murmured. Her belly fluttered then, as she recalled just howweakshe’d been.
She’d turn the color of a turnip the next time she saw Aquila. Suddenly, she wished she could dig a deep hole and bury herself in it.
Fenella swallowed hard. Soon, her people would attack Ardoch, and she would flee. This development was the last thing she needed.
She’d known for a while that Aquila wanted her, yet she hadn’t realized her own latent attraction to him. She’d been too busy loathing him.
The only problem was—she didn’t hate him anymore.
“I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Kahina said then, oblivious to the direction of her companion’s thoughts. “Hedevoursyou with his eyes.”
Fenella cleared her throat. “Aye, well … no good was ever going to come of us spending time together.” She then murmured a curse in her own tongue and viciously snapped a pea-pod in half.
“Don’t look so pained, Fen.” Kahina pulled her stool closer, before leaning over and placing a hand on Fenella’s arm. “I’m not judging you.”
“No,” Fenella choked. “But Iamjudging myself.”
“Why? You’re not made of stone … and Aquila is a man who’d draw any woman’s eye.” Kahina’s grip on her arm tightened then. Fenella glanced her way to see her smiling. “I’ve been with the general for many years now, and I’ve never known him to be taken with anyone like he is with you.”
Despite herself, curiosity wreathed up within Fenella. “You’ve met his lovers then?”
“Some … although he’s been too busy since we came to Ardoch to entertain women.” Kahina’s smile turned wry. “Aquila’s a man used to being in control, and I’ve often wondered if he’d ever let a woman get to him.” Her gaze twinkled then. “It seems it has taken a fearless Picti woman to tame the Eagle.”
XXI. STORM BIRDS
“THE GARRISON AT Dalginross have just sent word,” Marcus informed Justin when he joined him on the wall. The two men stood atop the guard tower above the Porta Praetoria, looking northwest. “Their scouts spied movement on the Strathearn, two nights ago.”
Justin took this in, his brow furrowing. “They didn’t approach the fort?”
Marcus shook his head. “They were traveling south … skirting the eastern shore of Lake Earn … a band of around a hundred warriors, taking care to travel unnoticed.”
Justin’s frown deepened, his mood shadowing. He’d awoken that morning in a mellow mood, his body relaxed after a night of passion with Fenella. Stepping out into a sunny morning, he’d smiled up at the cloudless sky.
It had been difficult to imagine anything could be wrong in the world today.
But Marcus’s news reminded him of the reality of matters.