Legend of the Storm Hawks

Clipped Wings

Clipped Wings~

Sethlyan Callan

Glenayre, Aleron

“Aengus would hold to honor no matter the cost. He would sacrifice everything for those he considered his duty to protect. A rare man, indeed.”

“A good man to call a friend,” she says. “It must have been hard to know…to watch…”

“Even harder to help him hold on to the lies. But I did, because he needed it of me. Such honor should not stand alone.”

Seth refrained from rolling his eyes as Seara managed to go from delicate to frail in a single, long, wordless blink. She released her grip on Aengus and latched onto Isobel instead. Isobel led the overwrought woman up the steps.

When Seth glanced over, Aengus’ gaze still followed his lovely but melodramatic wife.

“Well, I’ll be damned. Aengus Gruder is tamed.”

“Sad, but true. I didn’t know a man could come to crave his chains,” Aengus said with a crooked grin. “I hear yours clinking, too, Callan.”

“Disgraceful, isn’t it?”

“And Gaven?”

“Bound and shackled.”

“Not a one escaped.” Aengus shook his head. “You’d think someone might have warned us to keep running.”

“Come on inside.” Seth threw his arm over his friend’s shoulder. “There’s a bottle of Glenayre’s finest waiting to help us cope with captivity.”

“So ends the legend of the Storm Hawks, lads,” said Aengus. “They all built nests and begged to have their wings clipped.”

# # #

Aengus settled back in the window seat in the study. He leaned his head against the paneling and took another sip of aurello.

“Damn, that’s the good stuff.”

“I missed you, Aengus. You drink like a Callan.” Seth propped his heels on the desk and dangled his fingers by the chair, scratching Rusty’s head.

“Oh, I’ve been away, but I heard the tales. Explain how you get all the excitement, and I get inventories and rent collection. Bears, no less.” Aengus snorted. “Have the decency to get dull like the rest of us.”

“Naught I care to repeat,” he said. “I nearly lost her that day.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean it so glib,” said Aengus. “I don’t want to think how that would feel.”

Neither did he. But he felt damned awkward talking about feelings with Aengus.

“Seara is lovely,” he changed the subject.

“Seara is a bottomless spring of neediness. A warm, seductive spring that makes a man want to be strong enough to take care of her.” Aengus swirled his cup. “I dove in headfirst and nearly drowned. Seara is addicting.”

Seth debated whether to broach the subject they were both avoiding. He decided they’d been friends long enough Aengus would either give him an answer or tell him to mind his own business.

“Duncan. He’s six months if he’s a day. I did the math.”

“You were always good with tallies.”

“Seara was carrying when you married her,” he said. “Donal arranged the marriage.”

“All true.” Aengus went to the credenza and refilled his cup.

Seth had wondered why Donal would marry off his only brother to a woman from a minor Dunbar sept. Seara brought naught to the table but her eye-catching beauty.

“You didn’t know. You would’ve told me,” he said. “When did you find out?”

“When the bump in her belly got too big for me to pretend it was my doing. When I came right out and asked him.”

Seth forced himself not to wince at the deception Aengus’ brother had played on him. Donal had no heir. He’d used Aengus to give his bastard the Gruder name. The woman Aengus loved was one of Donal’s indiscretions.

The baby’s age was what kept Aengus from the Windermere conclave.

“Duncan isn’t yours.”

Aengus planted his fists on either side of Seth’s boots, and his dark eyes narrowed.

“Duncan is mine because Seara is mine. I will protect them both to my last breath.”

Chapter 56