54
Command
Christian was weary of watching his wife sleep. He hadn’t left her side in the tent other than a few trips out to address the men awaiting his word on what to do next. Each time he’d linger, struggling for words, before retreating into a place more familiar to him. They’d fashioned a travel litter for Aylen while he was steadfast in his tending of her. The sight of it brought him to tears.
They’d done it as much for him as themselves. It was time to go home. The word had come shortly after Holden’s capture that the short-lived war was now over. Whitechurch was back in the hands of friends, and the men deployed to the Westerlands had begun the slow retreat home. Had the men come with Aylen half a day later, Holden would still be here, leading his own men.
But then Aylen would
