Enchanted Heart by Brianna Lee McKenzie Page B

heartbreaking loss of the product of that union, the child that she so desperately wanted and the child that she knew would either die in her womb or soon thereafter.
    Just the thought of that loss was too much for her to bear. And the thought of Caid’s arms around her again, comforting her, healing her and killing her at the same time, made her realize that the feelings that he had evoked in her would most certainly lead down that road to ecstasy and ultimately, to its heartbreaking opposite, misery.
    She rose to her feet and jumped from the wagon so quickly that Caid was left with a questioning look on his face. She heard him ask where she was going in such a rush, but she did not wait to answer him. Instead, she hurried ahead to Elsa’s wagon to walk with Greta and the rest of her family while she blocked out his voice and the voice inside her heart that told her to run back to him and to throw herself back into his awaiting arms.
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
    When they stopped again for the night, Caid unhitched the team before making sure that all of the families were settled in. As was his routine, he walked around to each camp and inquired as to each family’s situation before tending to his own needs. Then, he fished in his saddlebag for his pack of toiletries and found his way to the stream that flanked their campsite. A quick wash-up and a change of clothes made him feel like a new man. Rubbing his palm over his chin, he decided that it needed smoothing out. He pulled out his mirror, which he leaned on a boulder, and then checked the razor for sharpness. Satisfied, he covered his face in shaving lather. Turning his head this way and then that way, he mentally contemplated where to begin, as was the ritual of ridding his face of stubble.
    “What are you doing?” A young voice stopped his first stroke as it raked across his jaw.
    “Well, if it isn’t the lovely Seraphina,” Caid said with a sing-song voice. “Shouldn’t you be playing with your cousins?”
    The little girl shook her head, her blond curls bouncing around her face like silver springs before she replied, “They are bathing.”
    “Shouldn’t you be bathing then?”
    “I already did,” she said, her voice rising to a high pitch while her red lips puckered into a defiant pout. She folded her arms in front of her chest and tilted her head, repeating her previous question, “What are you doing?”
“I’m shaving,” Caid answered while he raised the razor to his face again.
“What’s shaving?” the inquisitive little girl insisted.
“It’s removing the hairs from my chin,” Caid explained before he placed the blade next to his cheek and said, “Watch closely.”
    He smiled as Seraphina moved her face closer so as to see every detail while he eased the blade down his jaw line. A scraping sound emanated from his chin while the razor sliced the stubble, leaving baby-soft skin in its wake. He turned his face into the mirror, inspected the results then he popped the razor to remove the residue that clung to it.
    Then, with Caid’s encouragement, the curious girl lifted her pudgy hand to feel the soft skin and she smiled at the smoothness. She jumped up to see her own face in the mirror, her bouncy curls springing around her head. Caid grinned and he handed the mirror to her.
    Seraphina appraised her reflection while she asked, “Don’t you like hairs on your chin?”
    “Not really,” Caid said as he pulled another stroke across his jaw without the aid of the mirror. “Women don’t like it either.”
    Sucking in a breath of surprise while rubbing her chubby cheek and looking hard at her reflection for the sign of hairs, Seraphina asked, “Will I have hairs on my chin?”
    Caid had to laugh, leaning back and holding his belly. When he finally composed himself, he explained, “A woman doesn’t like to feel a man’s beard on her face when he kisses her.”
    “Oh!” Seraphina exclaimed, drawing out the word as if the comprehension