“If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up in exactly the situation we left Nás to avoid. Six years later and you’ll have your heart broken all the same.” Máire’s eyes held naught but concern, and Niamh appreciated her friend.
When it was clear Dallan would be staying in Thurles, Niamh had made Máire swear to do her utmost to keep Niamh from making the mistake of falling for his charms, of thinking with her heart instead of her mind.
“Thank you,” Niamh told her. “I’ll be careful.”
“So what did he actually want?” her mother continued, undeterred.
Niamh grimaced, looking at Máire.
“Oh, Lord, what did you do now?” Máire hissed. “I hoped we’d be past all this once he healed.”
“You know how I ran out of Alva’s treatments?”
“Yes.” Máire’s tone indicated that she didn’t know where Niamh was headed, but she knew she didn’t want to go there.
“He offered to take me to Caiseal tomorrow to a merchant to see if I can find the supplies I need.”
“What!” It wasn’t a question.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Niamh’s mother added quietly. “You need the supplies, and it’s kind of him to help.”
“You know it’s not the supplies he’s after,” Máire warned. “I should accompany you.”
“You should do no such thing,” her mother’s tight reply surprised both Niamh and Máire. “They need to sort all this business out, one way or another, and you’d only get in the way.”
“But mother,” Niamh protested, “it would be unseemly.”
“Did he not escort you to the forest not so long ago? How many times has he visited the infirmary while Máire or I are out? And you aren’t a noble. We were close once, but even that is a distant memory. Go alone.”
Máire looked ready to argue but held her tongue. Niamh opened her mouth to protest, but her mother wouldn’t budge.
“Is your only objection that you fear it will end in heartbreak?” her mother questioned.
“For both of us, most likely, aye.”
Her mother turned fully toward her, taking Niamh’s hands in her own. Leaning forward, she whispered, “Can you not see that it already has? You risk no further injury, only the loss of future happiness. Your heart has been broken since the day we left. You deserve the chance to mend it.”
Niamh inhaled a shaky breath, trying to find a way to argue with her mother.
But she couldn’t.
Because, as much as it scared her to admit it, the woman had a point.
“What are you suggesting?” She could hardly believe she’d entertained the thought, let alone uttered the words.
“Tell him everything.”
Niamh’s stomach heaved at the idea. “I can’t,” she whispered back, hushing the voice in the back of her mind that addednot yet.
“I think it akin to toying with fire.” Máire’s pragmatic statement broke Niamh’s trance. “There’s more here than just the past between you. You’ve been building a new relationship, pretending to be friends. It’s far more complicated than it was a fortnight ago.”
“Matters of the heart are both irrationally complex and devastatingly simple,” her mother answered with a sad smile. “Honesty will get you to the right of it, one way or another.”
Niamh knew from past experience that the pair of them could argue over her love life, or lack thereof, for hours. She hurriedly finished another bite of her stew before rising to seek out Catrin. The best way to take her mind off her own problems was to solve someone else’s.
She intercepted the princess as she left the dais where the royal family dined, pulling her aside into the corridor of columns surrounding the hall.
“Would you care to join me?” Niamh asked, indicating the length of the corridor.
