Warrior Untamed by Melissa Mayhue

curled in her stomach as she wondered, if she’d overlooked something as minor as this, what more important things might she miss?
    As if she’d opened a door and recognized the person standing there, she realized that fear was the source of all that impotent anger churning inside her. Fear that she’d fail in her task to save him, just as she’d failed in her task to avenge her father’s death.
    It wasn’t anything Halldor had done that set her off, but rather the fact that he seemed so calm about everything in the face of her own fear. He worriedabout nothing and she about everything. Even now he was only trying to make small talk, and if she had any good sense left at all, she should do the same.
    “I hope the Tinklers remembered all we asked them to tell Patrick about the men who are following Mathew.”
    Halldor picked up a stick and poked at the fire, saying nothing. He didn’t need to. His expression quite clearly announced his feelings on the subject.
    Brie couldn’t let his silence go unchallenged. “What? Surely you canna believe they’d withhold such information.” Knowledge of what the men from Castle MacGahan faced could mean the difference between success and failure.
    His jaw tightened as if he fought some internal debate. She’d seen the same expression on her brother’s face too many times not to recognize it.
    “ Do you believe they’d withhold it? You do! You actually doubt the Tinklers’ willingness to help.”
    He tossed away the stick and looked up at her, shaking his head. “You have it wrong. I’ve no doubt in the Tinklers’ willingness to share our message with Patrick’s party, if they see them. It’s the likelihood their paths will cross I find worrisome. Patrick knows as well as I that Mathew heads for Skye to sell the scrolls. Cross-country is the fastest way there, not along the trails the Tinklers follow. Our friends will likely miss Mathew altogether, and instead will be walking into Torquil’s men blind.”
    So he did worry! The realization was like coldwater to Brie’s face. One more example of her rushing headlong into a mistaken assumption, exactly as her father had so often warned her to guard against. At least this worry was one she didn’t share.
    “No, yer wrong about that. You chose the less-traveled path, but Patrick willna do the same. He’s a fine warrior, make no mistake. But he thinks in a straight line. My da said it was too many years of being his brother’s second in command that left him seeing only right or wrong, black or white. And those who follow him will not question his decisions or his course. Trust me on this. They’ll stick to the trails.”
    Brie tore off a piece of bread and handed it over to Halldor. He accepted the offering wordlessly and took a big bite, staring into the fire as he chewed.
    “Your reasoning is sound,” he said at last, looking up to meet her gaze. “I do not give my trust easily. But by your actions, Shield Maiden, you have earned it. As you say, I will put that worry from my mind.”
    He trusted her. Just like that. No conditions or exceptions. None of the “If only you were . . .” any of the hundreds of things her father and Jamesy always said she must improve upon before she met their standards.
    No. Halldor had looked at her actions and found her worthy simply as she was.
    It humbled her. It weakened her knees.
    Or perhaps that particular sensation was due tohis touch as he accepted the cheese she handed him. Was it her imagination that his fingers lingered over hers longer than necessary? Or that his eyes seemed more intensely alive with the light of the fire dancing in them?
    Her gaze locked on his as he pulled her hand toward his mouth to accept the morsel of food. His lips grazed against her fingers and the memory of his stolen kiss flooded her mind, warming her and sending tremors dancing into parts of her body she rarely remembered she had.
    She leaned in toward him as his lips parted, expecting at