Beloved Warrior (41 page)

“I thought I would ride with you,” Patrick said.

Diego did not question as to how he knew he would be leaving. He just looked at the horse. “That is not mine.”

“You did not have one,” Patrick pointed out.

“I was going to steal a lesser one. That is one of your favorites.”

“Aye, and he is yours.”

“Why?”

Patrick shrugged. “Momentary madness.” He swung up onto the saddle.

Diego did the same. “When it comes to good horseflesh, I do not argue.” They left the stable just as the gates opened.

“I do not understand how you could leave the lovely Juliana,” Diego said once they were outside the gate.

“I will be back soon enough.”

Diego darted a quick look at him. “I am touched by your gift and your company,” he said lightly and with that wry humor.

“Then why leave without saying farewell?”

“I never say farewell.”

“Where are you going?”

“London, I think. To increase my newly obtained fortune.”

“You can stay with us.” The offer was out of his mouth before he could stop it. Diego, if nothing else, was an unsettling presence. He had kept himself busy training with Macleans, but there was always that sense of watching.

Still, he owed Diego much.

“This is your home. Not mine,” Diego said. “But I will remember the invitation.” He urged the stallion into a trot. They rode without more words to the bluff above the natural harbor. Patrick drew up his horse then and Diego followed.

“I leave you here,” Patrick said, thrusting out his hand. “My thanks.”

Diego took it. Nodded.

“If you ever need anything, remember us. Any one of us will come to your assistance.”

Diego looked startled for the first time since Patrick met him.

“I still do not understand why you risked your life in England,” Patrick said.

“It amused me.” But then any humor left Diego’s eyes. “I have never had a friend before. Or a home. I never thought I wanted one. They never seemed real, much less true.” He hesitated, then said, “You and your family showed me they can be true. It was instructive. I owed you for that.”

Patrick had not really considered Diego a friend, and he was shamed by it now. But then he was new to this brotherly and husbandly business as well. Maybe he had learned something about friendship as well. “At least tell me your name.”

“Diego will do,” the Spaniard said as he had said months earlier. He said it this time with a grin. Then he turned his horse around back toward the road. He glanced back at Patrick. “You will be seeing me again, Patrick Maclean, you and your Juliana. I think it is destiny.”

Then he put his heels to his mount and rode away.

In 1988,
Patricia Potter
won the Maggie Award and a Reviewers’ Choice Award from
Romantic Times
for her first novel. She has been named Storyteller of the Year by
Romantic Times
and has received the magazine’s Career Achievement Award for Western Historical Romance along with numerous Reviewers’ Choice nominations and awards.

She has won three Maggie Awards, is a five-time RITA finalist, and has been on the
USA Today
bestseller list. Her books have been alternate choices for the Doubleday Book Club.

Prior to writing fiction, she was a newspaper reporter with the
Atlanta Journal
and president of a public relations firm in Atlanta. She has served as president of Georgia Romance Writers and board member of River City Romance Writers, and is past president of Romance Writers of America.