Bloodied from battle but not bleeding himself, Breth looked around for Jaelle with equal parts excitement and anxiety. It would be fine if she had died. He hadn’t gotten too attached to her yet. They didn’t have any children, and he was still young. He would find another. Really, all would be right in his world.

His beating heart belayed the orders of his thoughts, however. She had better be hale.

Earth, please don’t swallow her yet.

Leave her life energy inside her and allow her to yet breathe.

He concentrated on the life force he had sensed within her, willing it to still be strong and hearty. With his eyes closed, he sensed her life force coming near him, and he smiled, reaching out for her.

Her hand clasped his, and then she let go and patted his back, misunderstanding the sorrow on his face, the earnestness of his wrinkled brow.

Hm.

So she had never been separated from a lover before during a battle. How was that possible?

Her voice was soft and low and honey sweet when she spoke near his ear, making him want to lean into her and let that voice run down his throat and into his stomach.

“I know many of your clan members died in the fire and in the battle. I’m so sorry for your loss. If you like, I can leave you alone for a while. I’ll just go over and talk to the women—”

Quickly so she wouldn’t escape, he opened his eyes and retook her hand, using it to pull her toward him into a quick embrace even as he looked her all over, making sure she wasn’t wounded.

Whew.

She wasn’t.

She didn’t move away from his embrace. No, she yielded to it completely, looking up at him perfectly content and relaxed before he pulled away again.

He liked studying the depths of her brown eyes.

“The last thing I need right now is to be alone. I’m glad to see you’re still breathing.”

But far from having the expected effect on her, his comment made her laugh a bit through her nose, an odd laugh that was rather stifled, yet attractive in a way he hadn’t seen before and didn’t understand. He supposed that made her even more enticing. She was an enigma, and he enjoyed a challenge.

Her eyes turned into teasing pools of mirth, but they were still kind. Playful rather than wicked. He liked it.

“Well I’m glad you’re still breathing, too.”

A dozen or so other clan members were still out here, and they all came over to join him for the walk to their prearranged meeting spot for situations like this ― which happened to be the sacred grove he and Jaelle had just left.

On the walk back, Breth took reports from everyone and got a good idea who had survived and who had died. The fighting force was largely intact. Most who had died were past the age of warriorhood or too young to have started.

Several turned to him for his revenge plan.

“When do we attack their fort, Breth?”

“Yeah, when will we get them back?”

Knowing they needed reassurance that he was in control of the situation even though he wasn’t, he gave them his most confident look.

“We need to wait until after the meeting we called, in a fortnight. Or at least until the messengers come back and let us know if the other clans have accepted the meeting time.”

And then Jaelle turned to look at him with a fire in her eyes that amazed him.

“I say we go right now.”

He grinned and gave her another embrace, this one not so quick. This wasn’t even her clan. Yet.

“Hold that thought — for we will go, once all the clans are gathered.”

When they got to the sacred grove, they made camp with the supplies they had stowed there, for such a time as this. And once it was dark and the smoke wouldn’t give away their position, they built a large bonfire in the clearing and took up positions all around it with their faces illuminated by the flames.

As the dead’s clan members, it was their duty to stay awake all night in remembrance, telling each other their strongest memories of each person who had passed on to the next life.

“The day my father and I hunted the boar together is still my proudest moment as a hunter. It was my first kill of a large animal, and I am grateful that he let it be mine. He always was considerate, thinking of who might like to be the one dealing the killing blow this time. He was a fine hunter and could have taken them all himself…”

“My daughter had not yet taken her first steps, but she had a laugh that reminded me of the lovely goats braying. It brought our family much joy. May she have more luck in the next life than she had in this one, because she deserves it, being such a happy soul…”

“My husband always loved it when I sang this song. It would make him smile and look at me as though the world had been handed to him. And so I sing it now for him one last time, hoping that he smiles on his way into the next world…”

On into the night they talked, and the clouds gave way to the vast expanse of all the stars in the heavens, representing the souls of all who had gone before and yet still had not found their next world, shining down upon everyone in their benevolence.

“My brother was the best at carving the story pictures. I know he is happy that he has left them all behind as a permanence in this world that we can all remember him by. I will make a trip to the wall to see his masterpiece one last time before I leave this world, or I will leave this world trying to get there...”

At this one, Jaelle turned to the woman who had spoken — Gisa, who had lost her brother that day.

“You mean your brother’s carvings are in the wall that the Roman Emperor Hadrian builds? Why would he carve there?”

Gisa turned to Breth and pleaded with her eyes that he would explain to his new friend and save her the trouble so that she could continue to maintain her wakefulness in her brother’s honor without distraction.

Breth nodded to Gisa and then turned back to the one he wanted to make his.

* * *

Jaelle drank in the scene around her, it was so rich in the culture and history and lore that she and her friends wondered the most about: the ancient Scots. She had never imagined enjoying a wake, but then she had never been to one and hadn’t known what she was missing.

The wake was like every other type of family gathering rolled into one — and nothing like a funeral. Oh sure, people were crying. But they were laughing too, sometimes at the same time. Rather than dwell on someone’s death, they were celebrating each and every clan member’s life that had ended today.

The women mended or embroidered as they talked and told stories and laughed and sang songs — all while remembering the departed who had grown up with them.

The young men and women went out on a hunt and came back with a deer, which they roasted over the bonfire on a spit and then carved out for everyone to eat, with leftovers for the morrow.

The older men whittled wood, or worked leather, or knapped arrowheads while they stood and laughed heartily and even shed tears for those who had passed beyond their knowledge — for now, as they said.

The children played extra exuberantly, running in and out of the trees in an elaborate game of tag that resembled those Jaelle herself had played as a child. The biggest tree was their safe spot.

It was fun to watch them. They didn't have toys so to speak, but they didn't lack for having fun. They ran about and laughed and chatted with each other, telling stories and making up fantasies.

In fact, Jaelle’s favorite memories of being a child were of playing pretend, much like this.

The grown-ups weren’t any less happy about being outside. In fact they were enjoying it much more than they had the broch. They happily went about gathering leaves to make soft places to sleep and they carried water up from the river with an ease and an exuberance she didn't imagine she could ever muster for such a menial task.

But then Jaelle realized something. The common denominator between the joy of the children and that of the adults was … they had each other. They had an ease and appreciation for each other's company that was missing in the modern world. They were ecstatic that they got to socialize with each other in person.

These people weren't waiting for the time when they could go off and be on their own and get on the internet and chat with strangers. Sure, they were missing out on all the knowledge and easy research being online provided. But she thought they had much the advantage because they were indeed without smart phones.

And the fact is you can't miss something you never knew was there, right?

These people didn't have family time just once a week. All of their time was family time.

And all the grown-ups passed jars of honey mead around, and jars of a biting whiskey that Jaelle could only take one swallow of before it started her coughing and spluttering, much to everyone’s amusement.

Guilt swamped her, and she turned to Breth to get it off her chest.

“That poor girl lost her brother, and I have to ask her about his carvings. Please tell her I’m sorry later, once she’s over my rudeness.”

But Breth turned to Jaelle and gave her a sympathetic friendly smile.

“Don’t worry about what you said to Gisa. She understands your curiosity, and she is grateful that you take interest in her brother.”

He looked over toward Gisa for confirmation of this, and Gisa smiled nicely at Jaelle before she went back to telling everyone else all the good things and funny things and otherwise remarkable things she could remember about a brother she must have loved very much.

Breth turned back to Jaelle on the log where he sat next to her and held out his arm.

Like a moth to a flame, she scooted up next to him and cozied into his warmth as he put his arm around her and held her with surprising tenderness and affection for a man of his warrior status. The incongruity of it made him even more attractive, as did the pleasing firmness of all his muscles pressing against her — almost like the hot rocks of one of those rock massages.

Making her shudder with the intimacy of it and waking up areas of her body that had been dormant six months, he leaned his head close to her and spoke in a rumbling deep voice very softly, so that his breath warmed the side of her face and tickled the inside of her ear.

“I told you about this already, but I saw how besotted you were with my naked body, so maybe you are too distracted to hear me. This time I hope you will listen better.”

Making it as difficult for her to listen as possible, he traced the very tip of his finger over the curve of her neck, right where it was the most sensitive, from just under her ear and down to her collarbone, still rumbling just above a whisper in his deep manly voice.

“I explained that we carve our stories into the rock where the story took place because this is where the story makes the most sense. And all of our stories these days are about our raids on the barbarians. We cannot let them finish their wall.”

And then the two of them curled up together for warmth while they listened to everyone speaking and laughing and crying and singing. Some, particularly the children, were nodding and falling off their logs. Others were plain old passed out and snoring or showing other signs that they were having a difficult time maintaining their wakefulness.

Jaelle wasn’t having that problem at all.