In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

She broke into sobs.

Lewys’ heart ached in pity, but he steeled himself against her tears. If she didn’t overcome this fear, she would go maimed all her life.

"Rebecca, you know it isn’t natural to feel that way. You must face your fear and overcome it. What is between a man and a woman is good, not evil."

"What happened to me was evil!" she flashed.

"The man is evil and what he did was bad," Lewys agreed. "I’m sorry your first experience was so ugly, but you cannot allow it to rule your life child. Do you want to end your days a sour old maid with no children to light your days as you light mine?"

Her eyes closed. "Grandpa, please!"

Lewys sighed. "Well, child I won’t force you to do this for our benefit. The Magi Cadre will find someone else to handle Ironlyn. I can sell the unicorns—"

"Stop it!" she cried. She knew her grandfather loved his unicorn herd second only to his family. It would break his heart to let them go. Her refusal would bring hurt and destitution on everyone she loved and the innocents they were charged to protect. She lifted her chin and wiped her eyes.

"You’re right. There is no other way," she took a deep breath and gave him a watery smile. "I’ll try the best I can."

Lewys hugged her. "That’s my brave girl. I knew I could count on you."

Rebecca deliberately forced her body to relax. Andre would be in bed for another day or so, she hoped. Perhaps she could learn not to flinch.

Catrin and Owen both looked at her anxiously when she and Lewys returned to the fire.

"Are you alright, sis?" Owen asked, his eyes widening as he realize Lewys still had his arm around Rebecca’s shoulder and she had not only walked all the way back to camp with her grandfather touching her, but she didn’t move away.

"I’m fine Owen," she smiled at him, a rather strained smile, but a real one nonetheless. "I have agreed to Grandpa’s plan."

Owen opened his mouth, thought better of what he had been going to say, and shut it again.

Lewys gave his granddaughter a last hug and moved toward the fire. "Catrin are you burning the biscuits?"

"No, Owen is. It’s his turn to cook," she replied.

"Aggh!" Owen leaped toward the fire to rescue his mistreated breakfast.

Rebecca took a deep breath, poured a cup of kophie, and mounted the wagon steps. Andre was awake.

"I brought you a cup of kophie. Breakfast will be ready soon."

"I hope you’re Rebecca, because if you aren’t, I’m engaged to the wrong girl."

An involuntary laugh was surprised out of her. "What a thing to say! It would serve you right if I denied it!"

He smiled back at her, running his eyes over her possessively.

To cover her nervousness, she said hastily, "Here, let me help you sit up. You can’t drink kophie lying down."

This was an error, she soon discovered. It brought her entirely too close to him, making her sharply aware of him as a man. He did nothing to ease her nervousness and when she attempted to help him sit up so she could place a pillow behind his back, he put both arms around her waist and leaned against her, inhaling her scent from her breast.

"Ummn—you smell good," he said.

"Your kophie will get cold," she said, pushing against him.

"Better cold kophie than a cold woman," Andre retorted teasingly. But he allowed her to settle him back against the pillow and hand him his cup.

"Where’s yours?" he asked, lifting the cup to his mouth. Any doubts as to Lewys Mabinogion’s veracity had vanished the instant he set eyes on his supposed fiancée. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to him that he should have wanted to marry Rebecca. She was everything he had ever dreamed of in a woman. He was a little puzzled and hurt at her reaction to his embrace though. His dream woman wouldn’t have pushed him back.

Rebecca retreated to perch on the foot of the blankets. "Grandpa says you don’t remember us."

Andre almost laughed aloud at this simple explanation for her stiffness. She must feel extremely awkward to have him declare he was in love with her, ask her to marry him one day and the next be told he didn’t remember her. No wonder she hadn’t responded.

He smiled warmly at her. "I plead guilty, but since I fell in love with you again on sight, I feel I deserve a suspended sentence, don’t you?"

Rebecca's lips twitched. "Maybe I do and maybe I don't. There's your pack. Breakfast is in ten minutes." Shaking her head, she left the wagon. A few minutes later, she heard Andre's boots hit the floor.

A Tangled Web

OVER THE NEXT WEEK, the family worked out a rhythm of doing things. Sunrise and Blackfeather had shown an instant mutual dislike not uncommon with stallions of breeding age when there was a group of mares nearby; so to keep the two studs away from each other while traveling, Lewys rode his golden stallion Sunrise and Andre rode Blackfeather. One or the other of the men helped Owen drive the unicorn herd of mares and their offspring. The two girls each drove a wagon with a white-maned kitten or two sitting on the seat beside them.

The kittens had doubled in size over the past weeks. When they reached their full maturity, they would weigh approximately thirty pounds and would have developed mottled grey/green coats and long silver manes. Their breed were superb hunters, in the wild often hunting in a pride, but they adapted easily to domesticity.

Fortunately for the success of Lewys’ plan, Andre was still suffering from the effects of the blow to his head so he was too tired in the evenings to attempt to do more than steal a few kisses from Rebecca. To Rebecca’s surprise, she gradually became accustomed to Andre’s attentions, and even managed to occasionally return a kiss.

The morning before they entered Coverville, the next