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Once they were finally on the trail again, there was no chance for Brady to be near Cara.

Her mother and the other Solonians surrounded her.

Juston Steele insisted Brady ride beside him at the head of their long column of riders.

Brady frowned at the strung out line of warriors. If a few more soldiers joined them, they would have enough for an army. Juston grilled Brady about their adventure. He looked more troubled by Brady’s description of Bab’s odd tribe than surprised.

“My wife has been working toward that all her life. The Solonians have always believed if the Savages could be weaned off the vinefruit they would slowly become more human again.”

“I guess this proves their conjectures were correct.”

Steele’s frown turned into a dark scowl. “Yes, it does. Now how am I going to keep her from wanting to visit the bastards?”

Brady laughed. He’d known Juston all his life and still had trouble believing the man could ever fall so deeply for a woman. Steele was a man of icy nerves and merciless in battle yet ONE GOOD WOMAN SUSAN KELLEY 125

he would do anything for his lady wife. The safety they all enjoyed riding in this part of the country could largely be attributed to Steele’s efforts.

Juston glanced over his shoulder at the Solonians and then turned his fierce gaze on Brady. He spoke quietly. “How did Cara do dealing with these Savages? It had to be …

difficult for her.”

“She told me what happened to her.”

Steele raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Really?”

Juston didn’t intimidate Brady like he did many other young men. Brady probably couldn’t defeat the man in a sword fight, but he didn’t intend to fight with him. “She did. The fact that she could deal with them, speak to them and even help some of them prove how civilized they are. Relatively speaking, of course. They’re more human than those bastards we fought to free Parlania.”

Brady would never forget Mia dying in his arms. His gut clenched at the memory.

“I can’t believe Cara trusted you with her story.”

“What the hell does that mean, Just?”

Steele shrugged, no more impressed with Brady’s anger than Brady was with his. “She doesn’t have much faith in the males of any species.”

“She trusts me. Completely.”

Steele narrowed his eyes. “Did you touch her?”

“None of you business. She’s not your sister or your child?”

Cold blue fire blazed in Juston’s eyes. “I’ll talk to her.”

“Keep your nose out of our business.”

“She’s under my protection.”

“Well, you didn’t do a very good job of it, did you? Otherwise she wouldn’t have ended up nearly drowning in that river with me.”

“If you did anything to hurt her, I’ll make you sorry you were born a man.”

Brady laughed. “Go to hell. Why don’t you let her be happy?”

“You think you are going to make her happy?”

“Damned right.” But Brady wasn’t so sure he could. The longer Cara avoided him, the more he worried she’d settle back into her old, lonely life as a warrior of Solonia.

* * * *

Cara knew Juston Steele would seek her out sooner or later. She wouldn’t be able to use her fellow Solonians to run interference for him like they did to keep Brady away. Even her mother gave way to Juston with a smile.

They’d made camp with the mountains at their back and expected to reach Utopia before dark the next day. Juston drew her back from the fire and away from the women spreading their blankets for sleep.

Cara sat with Juston and wondered about her changed feelings for the man. She loved him and had since the moment he cut her bonds and lifted her from the filth of her captivity.

With that love had come a worship of him and gratefulness not only for her rescue by for teaching her to fight so it would never happen to her again. He’d given her the opportunity to take her revenge on the Savages and helped her feel confident in her ability to defend herself.

And somewhere buried in her love and worship had been a fear she might lose his approval and that she might not be good enough to have his respect. How could anyone truly respect someone who’d been repeatedly raped and abused by those beasts? How could anyone believe in a warrior who’d let that happen?

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Today she saw Juston through new eyes. Her fears had been nothing but her own insecurities making her believe herself unworthy of his trust and friendship.

“Tell me you’re all right, Cara.” Juston wasn’t one for small talk.

“I’m better than I’ve been for years.” Even if her heart was about to break.

“Brady treated you well then?”

“He was a perfect companion” Would any other man have handled their situation with such patience and amusement. The entire debacle had been a big adventure to him.

“And this tribe of Savages?”

“We’re not going to be able to call them that.”

“Hell.”

She understood his thoughts because they had been the same as her own for a long while.

“I saw a baby girl that looked as human as any child. They need our help. They want to be better people.”

“Hell.” Juston was silent for a long moment and then spoke again with an unusual caution in his voice. “So should I beat the smile off Gellot’s face?”

Cara wondered if her smile looked as sad as it felt. “He didn’t do anything I didn’t want him to do.”

“That didn’t really answer my question. If he seduced you ….”

“If there was any seducing done, it was by me.”

“That son of a bitch. Don’t cover for him. You’re an innocent, and he’s been a lady’s man since his voice changed. He’s so slick you wouldn’t even know when he was using his wiles on you.”

“Juston.” She put her hand on his arm when he started to stand. “It doesn’t matter who did what. I’m hardly an innocent. I never thought I would want to be with a man or be able to find pleasure with him.”

Juston relaxed back to his seated position, but he didn’t look happy. “He didn’t hurt you?”

“Not at all.”

They sat quietly for a while, but she sensed Juston brooding beside her. When he spoke his tone was disgruntled. “So does this mean you’re staying in the Realm? I already lost Vilicia to that snake, Sky Turan. Am I about to give up another one of my captains?”

Cara couldn’t meet his intense gaze that saw too much. “No. I’m going home with you.

We had a great adventure, but my place is in Solonia.”

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Cara watched across the training yard as Brady hugged his mother and father in turn. His parents were tall and lean as most Realm settlers were. Both had hair whitened by age and probably grief. To lose two children and believe they had lost their third and last son would be enough to destroy most people. She was too far away to hear what they said to each other but there was much laughing and a few tears.

Vilicia and Sky greeted Brady with slaps and hugs. A momentary jealousy stabbed Cara when Vilicia kissed Brady’s cheek though she knew it was silly. Vilicia loved Sky Turan as much as Katerina loved Juston Steele. And Cara had no claim on Brady Gellot.

“Cara, we’re bunking in the new barracks. You can stay with Sky and Vilicia if you want. Brady’s parents are staying with them.” Juston held the door open, his eyes filled with concern.

Did she look so pathetic then, mooning over Brady? She tried to keep distance between them, to slowly get accustom to not talking to him, touching him and even looking at him. She hadn’t done so well with the not looking. Her hungry gaze searched him out without conscious thought. Even now she lingered after everyone else went inside to catch a last glimpse of him.

Perhaps the last forever.

She turned from the touching reunion scene and went into the barracks. Someone had prepared a table in the middle of the room and covered it with a white cloth. Thick slices of bread and cheese filled a large platter in the middle. Bowls of fruit preserves and butter nestled among baskets filled with nuts, dried apples and baked sweets. It was a feast, laid out in welcome and celebration. Even looking at it created some guilt about the poor Vitans barely avoiding starvation.

She should have felt hungry, but the emptiness inside her would not be filled with food.

Tomorrow she would start home with her mother. They would have a celebration planned in Solonia. Every little victory over nature and the difficult challenges of their survival was a reason to make merry. Brady would go his way, perhaps spend a little time with his parents, and then return to his duties as a Realm captain.

Someone lit a few lamps, and Cara’s fellow Solonians indulged their hunger with the generous meal. They’d skipped the midday meal so they would make Utopia by night fall.

Juston left to spend the night in one of the men’s barracks, and she was glad to be free of his perceptive glances. She hoped he wasn’t going to have a talk with Brady.

Cara claimed a bunk near the door, glad once again to spend the night off the ground.

She pulled off her boots and laid her sword and knife on top of them. She could be ready to fight in the space of two breaths.

“Cara, don’t you want something?” one of the women asked.

“Maybe later. I can’t keep my eyes open.” She closed her eyes to give credence to her lie. They stayed away then, giving her privacy and talking quietly. Her lie soon became fact as her recent restless nights caught up to her. The next time she opened her eyes, the room shimmered with the gray promise of dawn.

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Already the room warmed with a forewarning of a hot summer day. It would become cooler as they rode into the mountains. She rose and slipped her boots on before finding a water mug and pitcher on the table. Someone had cleared away the food and left only some fruit and the water.

She drank deeply and started for the door. A small desk and chair sat near the window where it would receive good light for most of the day. One of the graphite writers used by the Realm and a few sheets of thick paper rested there expectantly.

She sat down and picked up the writing tool. She hadn’t drawn anything since the day the Savages had captured her. Before that life-changing horror, her art had been her constant companion and occupied most of her waking thoughts. That terrible day, every bit of beauty and wonder had gone out of her world and her life. But she’d learned there was beauty still or perhaps she’d been reawakened to the wonder of life and love.

One image dominated her artist’s eye. She went to work with the graphite, her hand sure and quick. It was easy to draw every angle of his face, every quirky curl of his untamed hair and the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. So easy to get it exactly right. She needed no eraser as his face came to life before her.

She stared at his beloved image when she was done and knew she wouldn’t put her art away again. She rolled the paper, intending to take it home with her. She even knew where she’d hang it in the small cottage she and her mother shared. But then she paused and thought again of Brady’s parents welcoming their only son home. Someday they might lose him for real.

He took too many chances, dared too much and enjoyed the challenge of danger.

She finished rolling the sketch. The thick paper made a bulky tube. Among the hair brushes and jars of powdered soaps on the wash stand, she found a length of ribbon. She tied the picture to secure it and saw her mother awake and watching her. Silent tears ran down her mother’s cheeks.

“You’ve drawn something then?” her mother asked quietly, raspy emotion in her voice.

Cara looked down at the paper roll. Perhaps her first piece of art should have gone to her mother, but this belonged to the Gellots.

Her mother circled Cara’s waist with her arm. The warmth of her mother’s embrace comforted her as it hadn’t in the last two years. She’d avoided the touch of everyone, even her own mother. She leaned into Allana now and basked in the unfettered love that had always been there for her.

“I’m so sorry for the pain I’ve caused you, Mother.”

Her mother snorted a mixture of laughter and tears. “As long as you live, I don’t care. I can recover from pain. You’ll always bring me joy. It’s a mother’s job to worry about her children.”

“No daughter could be luckier than I am to have you.” Cara’s thoughts jumped to an image of Bab fighting to have a better life for her child.

Her mother touched the rolled paper. “At least this time when you’ve returned to me from the dead you’ve come back more alive than when I last saw you.”

Cara liked the feel of the paper in her hand, the earthy pulpy smell of it. “I can draw again.”

Despite her private pain, the breaking of her heart, she was not so hollow inside as she had been. She wasn’t broken any longer.

“Mother, I have a fierce desire to see our home. I’ve a need to put to canvas all those things I’ve ignored for over two years. Do you think we could take our leave this morning?”

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She had to leave before she saw Brady again. There wasn’t enough courage in all the world for her to see him and then leave him. She couldn’t survive listening to his farewell.

“I want you safe at home in our hidden valley too. Would you think Juston would agree to an early departure?”

“If you ask him, Mother. You know he can’t say no to you.”

Allana smiled and ran her hand over Cara’s unbound hair. It was longer than her shoulders now that she let it grow in her year in Parlania. For the first year after her rescue, she had kept it short. The Savages had loved her long hair and often pulled it to torment her or used it to hold her still for their pleasures.