Free Forever Her Champion by Suzan Tisdale Page A

remember the man’s name,” he argued.
    Rianna looked sad and forlorn. “I dunnae ken how I know. I just know .”
    They had argued back and forth for quite some time before Aiden gave up.
    “Did ye e’er find out what made it glow?”
    Rianna smiled fondly at him. “It quit glowin’ a long time ago,” she said. A moment later, she was looping a finger around a bit of leather that hung around her neck. “’Twas a ring,” she explained. “I eventually wore a hole in the doll and the stuffing fell out. Along with it, this ring.” Gently, she lifted the fabric at her neckline and pulled the leather up and out, where a gold ring dangled in the air.
    Aiden quirked a brow as he smiled at her devilishly. “Looks to me as though it be glowin’ now.”
    She didn’t believe him until she risked a glance. Rianna’s eyes grew wide and round in utter disbelief. At the center of the dark gold band sat the round ruby. For the past few years it had remained a deep, blood red. Now, however, it glowed a brilliant crimson. Just as it had when they were children.
    “Ye should have sold it,” Aiden remarked.
    Unable to pull her gaze away from the glowing ring, she shook her head. “Nay,” she whispered. This was the only thing she had left of her father. Or at least that was her belief. If only she could remember more clearly.
    At night, she sometimes dreamt of being a wee child again. In those dreams, her father was as real and as warm as the sun. Though she could not make out his face, she knew with all her heart ’twas him. Strong, caring, and kind.
    There were very brief moments, in that space between dreaming and waking, when she could have sworn she heard her father’s laugh. Deep, booming … yet it somehow held such merriment, such love of life and the sense of home, it oft brought tears to her eyes.
    “If that be a real ruby, ye could live quite comfortably for the rest of yer life, lass.”
    Tears burned behind her eyes, tears she would not shed unless and until she was alone. This was her heartache. She would rather starve to death than sell the ring.
    Mesmerized by the soft yet brilliant glow, she kept her thoughts to herself. Aiden couldn’t understand the importance of the ring. “I cannae explain it to ye, but I will ne’er sell it. This is my only link to my past.” To her marrow, she believed what she said.
    “The past should stay in the past,” Aiden quipped.
    With great care, she tucked the ring back under her gown. “Why does the past frighten ye so?” she asked.
    He scoffed at the idea, though in truth her comment struck home. Not so much afraid of the past itself as he was of repeating it. “Ye’re daft,” he told her. “Ye’re clingin’ to the past like a drownin’ man to a piece of driftwood. A past ye cannae remember.”
    Rianna quirked a brow, his insult not hitting his intended target. “And ye run from it like a man with his trews afire. At least I do nae fear it.”
    His jaw clenched tightly. “Some things are best left hidden,” he told her.
    “Mayhap if ye dig long enough, ye’ll find a treasure there.”
    Angrily, he shot to his feet. “Of this, I can assure ye. There be nothin’ in me past worth rememberin’.”
    His words were clipped and biting.
    “Nae even me?” she challenged.

    * * *
    H is mind told him he should forget everything about his past, including Rianna. She was a reminder of what had been, of his youth before his father betrayed him. Oh, were there a way to have his mind erased completely, he would take it. The good memories were proving to be as difficult to bear as the horrid ones.
    After his father’s betrayal, it had been those happy memories that had kept him from either losing his mind or taking his own life. Aye, even at twelve summers, he had often thought of letting his masters win the war against him by allowing himself to either be killed or to die by his own hand. So brutal were their teachings as they called them, that he contemplated