lack visitors. The women of the village will hear of this soon enough and be curious to meet her.”
“Tell Elsa to go see Tallis and the lad and let them know she is the healer in the village if they should need anything,” Cree ordered. Once Elsa heard that, she would know that Cree wished to be informed of anything concerning the pair. Elsa was an exceptional healer and a loyal friend.
“Old Mary might get to Tallis first,” Sloan warned.
“Then I will learn more of the truth,” Cree said and walked to the stairs, thinking of the old woman who some thought a witch. She shuffled when she walked and her hands were gnarled with age and yet her mind was sharp and her aged eyes saw more clearly than those younger than her. Most of all, she was a true friend to Dawn.
Cree stopped at his bedchamber door. He did not want to discuss this matter with Dawn, not just yet. He knew she would have other ideas. He could always distract her with a few kisses and intimate touches that would have them making love in no time. But he did not want to make love to her to distract her.
He opened the door and charged in ready to take on whatever awaited him as he had done in battle, and stopped abruptly. His wife lay asleep on the bed naked, a blanket wrapped around one leg. He walked over to the bed admiring her body. His hand itched to cup her full breasts, tender with milk for their twins, and he so wanted to stroke her narrow waist and down over her hip, and damn if the tangle of soft, dark red hair between her legs did not beg to be explored.
He shook his head. It was better she was sleeping. One of the twins would have her up in a few hours to feed and she would barely fall asleep when the other one would wake. They never seemed to feed together and his son Valan was a hungry lad, demanding more than his sister Lizbeth. Dawn needed her rest, and she did not need the added burden of this woman claiming that he was the father of her son.
Once Cree disrobed, he joined his wife in bed. No soon as he reached out to wrap her in his arms, she turned and snuggled into them. Her one leg slipped between his legs, settling near his manhood and he groaned silently. This was going to be a difficult night.
~~~
Dawn looked down at her daughter suckling at her breast and smiled. She was so relieved to have had her daughter born with a voice. She had feared passing her affliction on to her child. And while some women complained about their babies crying too much, Dawn was happy each and every time her daughter cried, not that she cried much. She seemed a content baby, unlike her brother who was as demanding as his father.
Dawn smiled, thinking of Cree. She had intended to talk with him when he returned to their bedchamber last night, but then thought better of it. He would be stubborn and refuse to discuss the matter of the woman and child, who she unwaveringly claimed Cree fathered.
The news had been a shock to hear as she stood in the shadows last night in the Great Hall. And though the lad could be Cree’s son, he would be a bastard son and that was a terrible fate to bestow on any lad. She had to learn more about this woman to determine if her tale was true or false and if false, why so?
As usual Lizbeth fell asleep as soon as she had drank herself full and Dawn returned her to her cradle, next to her brother. They had placed the twins in separate cradles when first born, but both had cried endlessly and it was only when Dawn had laid them beside each other did they stop.
Cree had ordered Paul, her best friend Lila’s husband and a fine carpenter, to craft a double cradle for the twins. The twins had slept peacefully once in it and Dawn wondered if they would always be so inseparable.
With both babes sleeping and the sun up, Dawn had no intentions of returning to her bedchamber. If she did, Cree and she would make love, not that she did not want to. She actually ached to, but she preferred to learn what she could about the mother and