Alannah couldn’t suppress a smile at the way Conan paraded Eoghan across the hall, clearly enjoying his task of taking out the garbage. When they’d left the hall, she turned to Emer. “Are you alright?”
Her sister smiled. “I was about to ask the same of you. I can’t remember the last time youletanyone help you.”
Alannah snorted. “It wasn’t as though I could stop him. You saw how he is.”
“I saw how you looked at him,” Emer sang, stepping right back into the role of hostess, as though she hadn’t nearly been assaulted.
“And how was that?” Alannah folded her arms across her chest, following Emer toward the kitchen.
Emer picked up two trenchers that she’d already prepared. “With interest.”
Alannah didn’t know how to respond. She wasn’t about to deny her interest in Conan, but she wasn’t about to admit it either. In the end, she was rescued once more by the man in question.
Conan walked over to them, his intensity setting her desire aflame once more.
Good Lord. She needed to get control of herself. Alannah couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually lusted over a man. Well, on second thought, she could. And that memory alone was enough to return her to her good sense. How had she been so wrong about Oran?
Conan took up a position beside her, within easy sight of Emer.
She should thank him for his assistance. Alannah opened her mouth with the intent of doing just that. But when his stormy grey eyes captured hers, her mind turned to mush. “What are you doing?”
“Working.” The word fell from his lips lightly, dancing between them like a lure.
Alannah moved closer. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I know.” He turned away from her, watching her sister squeeze through a growing crowd of dancers. “And neither should you.”
Alannah stared at him, entranced. “Itwasobvious what you were doing,” she said after some time, answering his question prior to their confrontation with Eoghan. “But this is working better.”
The ghost of a smile flitted across his lips. And heaven help her, she wanted to kiss it right off.
At the tollof the next bell, the other four men stood and stretched, setting aside their instruments and chatting while folk filed out of the hall. Alannah helped Emer wash dishes in the buckets they kept in the kitchen. They served as much of the food on trenchers of bread as possible, but there was no way of serving ale without cups. Emer’s constant surreptitious glances, accompanied by smirks, finally wore down Alannah.
“What?” she demanded, washing the last cup.
“He keeps looking at you.” Her sister could barely get the words out without dissolving into girlish giggles.
Alannah rolled her eyes at Emer, but her chest rose nonetheless. “He’s probably looking at you,” she countered. “Whoeverheis.”
“You know very well whoheis. He was trying to charm you, I think, helping with Eoghan. You should thank him properly.”
If Alannah had been eating, she would have choked. “You must be joking.”
“They’re all handsome as the devil himself,” Emer pressed, still grinning like a fool. “And you’re not getting any younger.”
It wasn’t an insult. It was a fact. At twenty-seven, Alannah had long since accepted her fate.
“I’m not marrying, Emer. You know that.” Over her dead body would her baby sister be left defenseless and running this inn on her own.
“You don’t have to give up a husband on my account. And you don’t have to marry him to thank him.”
“What is it you’re suggesting, little sister?” From the blush on Emer’s face, Alannah knew precisely what her sister was after.
Emer shrugged her delicate shoulders, rising and picking up the bucket to dump the dirty water. “I can survive on my own for a night. You should have some fun.”
“Fun,” Alannah repeated dubiously.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Gentlemen!”
