Keeper Of The Light Read Online Free PDF Page A

glance back over my shoulder when you ride away.”
    He laughed again and backed the stallion away from her. “Go in safety, my lady. I can see you are well guarded. I may be back for you sooner than you think.”
    She raised her chin and then turned to continue on her way, signaling her dogs to come to her side. With a deep breath she walked on down the road, hanging her black leather bag from her shoulder and telling herself that this was no different from any other time when she might have walked home from Cahir Cullen—though she knew he was sitting on his horse and watching as she walked away.
    Rioghan smoothed her black cloak, arranged her fall of dark hair by running her fingers through it, and raised her hot face to the cool winter air so that the breeze might take away the heat that coursed through her. In a moment she would be around the next curve and out of his sight. Breathing slowly and deeply, she closed her eyes for a few steps and tried to think of nothing but the feel of the road under her feet and the sound of Scath and Cogar trotting alongside.
    Opening her eyes, she felt that her mind was clear once again. There were no more thoughts of Donaill intruding upon her peace of mind, no more images of broad shoulders and blue eyes and laughing smiles, no lingering memories of a hard, smooth waist beneath her arms as she pressed herself close behind a tall, strong man on a galloping stallion…
    Horse’s hooves sounded on the road once more, though this time they were moving away from her. Then, suddenly, they halted.
    Before she could think, Rioghan turned back to look. She had thought to see only the back of Donaill’s head and his strong, wide shoulders. But her face grew hot again as she saw, instead, his gleaming blue eyes and wide grin as he caught her gaze.
    “Farewell again, Lady Rioghan! Soon you will not need to look back to see me, for I will be standing at your side!”
    With that the stallion galloped away, leaving only the sound of Donaill’s laughter floating in the cold winter forest.

Chapter Three
    Sabha sat straight and tall on the very edge of her bare sleeping ledge, her hands folded and unmoving in her lap. She remained very still and looked neither right nor left as the door of the house swung slowly open and her husband walked inside.
    The afternoon sky was a featureless gray behind him. “Hello, my wife.” Airt closed the door and took a step toward her, then another. She continued to gaze straight ahead.
    Airt paused, then walked all the way to the ledge and sat down beside her. “I am glad to see you well. I have missed you. I—”
    “What do you wish to do?” she asked.
    Again Airt paused. He tried to look closely at his wife’s face, but she continued to stare at nothing. “I wish to be with you,” he whispered, and he reached out to place his hand over one of hers. But she did not respond to his touch; her arm grew rigid the moment he took hold of her, and after a moment he withdrew his hand.
    “What do you wish to do?” she asked again.
    “Sabha, please do not be angry with me.”
    “I am not angry with you.” Her voice remained as cool and still as the frost that limned the grasses in winter. “I simply need to know what you intend, so that the proper decisions can be made.”
    He shrugged. “Nothing at all has changed. I intend to be a husband to you, a husband who loves you, as I have always been.”
    “Yet clearly there is another who also has your love.”
    Airt sighed, and shifted on the ledge. “It is not like the love I have for you. It is different. It is—”
    “Then you do love her.”
    “Not…not the way—” He held up his hand before she could interrupt him again. “Coiteann is not like you. You are a lady who could only be a cetmuinter ,holding the honored position of a first wife. She is—”
    “I know what she is.” Sabha breathed deep and refolded her hands. “You intend to bring her into the house. Into our house. You intend to