They dismounted and raced around their horses’ heads, Rose pointing toward a tree as she hoisted her skirts and leaned down to her right boot. She whipped the dirk free as Thor grabbed his from his boot. They’d agreed upon that rule years ago since Rose didn’t wear a belt with any knives attached. They flung their blades at the same time, but Rose’s embedded into the trunk less than a heartbeat before Thor’s.
“Huzzah!” Rose danced around Thor and laughed. He lunged forward and scooped Rose over his shoulder before darting to a pile of pine needles. He was careful, but he dumped her into them.
“Huzzah to ye too, ye wee beastie.” Thor reached out his hand to help his sister up. She grabbed it and started to rise, but then she threw her weight backwards and pulled her twin to the ground. She twisted and tried to roll to her feet as she laughed at her brother.
“Ye looks fair worn out. Sit yer sen down afore ye falls down,” Rose tossed over her shoulder. She scrambled away, but Thor wrapped his arm around her waist and hauled her back. He scooped an armful of pine needles and dumped them on her. “Ee, by ‘eck!” Rose brushed the needles off her face before grabbing a handful and shoving them down her brother’s leine.
“I’ll gizza thumpin’.” Thor reached for Rose again as he playfully threatened to give her a beating, but this time she was too quick. She’d already gathered her skirts and scurried to her feet. They were having so much fun that they didn’t notice how their speech slipped and no longer sounded like it fit nobility.
“Ye must catch me first.” She ran back toward the horses and where the others now waited. She stopped short as she took in five stunned faces. The Sinclairs were unfazed, but the trio of Keith guards, Blaine, and Greer appeared scandalized. Rose’s face flushed as she hurried to brush her clothes off. She reached for her head and realized she’d lost her ketch at some point. She looked around, unsure if it flew off during her breakneck ride or while she and Thor tussled. He came to stand beside her and thrust the white, triangular cloth toward her as he pulled his leine from beneath his belt. He leaned forward to let the pine needles drop from it. She elbowed him, and he finally looked up at their companions.
“Ye walk too close to the cliffs, and ye ride too fast. Ye shall be the death of me, Kyla.” Blaine’s tone rebuked, but his eyes twinkled as he called Rose by her middle name, a habit that was special between the couple.
“Breed better horseflesh, and ye could keep up.” Rose shrugged unrepentantly. The Sinclair guards snickered, and the Keiths’ eyes almost fell out of their heads. Blaine swung down from his mount and stalked toward his wife. He slid his hand around her waist, his hand coming to rest at the top of her backside. He leaned forward to whisper.
“There’s some flesh I’m certain I can keep up with.”
Thor pretended to retch at the double entendre before he led his horse and Rose’s to a nearby stream. Greer remained on her horse, completely dazed by the entire scene that played out before her. She’d never seen a brother and sister roughhouse and play together as she’d just witnessed Thor and Rose. Certainly not as adults. She felt like a voyeur as she watched Blaine kiss Rose in a way they didn’t do within the keep’s wall. At least not in public. Her eyes remained wide and riveted as Thor pulled his leine out and bent forward. The ties at his neck were loose, so she could see down his shirt to all of his rippling muscles. Her mouth had gone dry.
She nudged her horse and guided it toward the stream where all the horses now drank. The guards spread out and turned their backs to the others. She knew they were all attentive to everything, even if they appeared to ignore the newlyweds, Thor, and her. Thor looked up as her horse stopped beside his. It was the only spot available, but it trapped him between the two animals. He reached up and lifted her from the saddle without word, just as he’d done to help her mount. He put her on her feet and turned toward the water. He remained silent as he squatted to scrub his hands, then his face and neck.
“It was nice to see ye and Rose have fun together. I remember seeing ye together at the Gatherings, but ye were always with Shona and yer cousins. Ye were both playful, but I didna see just the two of ye like that. Is that how ye were as weans?”
“Aye.”
Thor didn’t look at Greer as he answered. His heart still pounded from the exertion and having her nearby did nothing to calm it. He rested his arms on his thighs, his hands fisting just as they had when he discussed Greer with Rose in the bailey. He reminded himself to be nice to Greer for Rose’s sake. He stood and turned toward the young woman, and he caught the moment of hurt from his brusque response.
“Da has called us wee beasties since we could crawl. None of the lasses in ma family are dainty. They all give as good as they get, and they dinna mind getting filthy in the process. Auntie Mairghread was the same with Da and ma uncles. Ma grandmama didna have a good relationship with her brothers growing up. She was only close to Uncle Hamish, and even then, it wasna good. But according to Grandda, Auntie Mairghread inherited that spirit from Grandmama. All the lasses got it from her, too. Grandda says that’s how we ken Grandmama is still with us.”
It shocked Greer that Thor said so much to her in one conversation or that he would share such insights into his family. Rose had told her similar, and she remembered a conversation much like this with Thor many years ago. But she hadn’t imagined they were in a place where he would reveal something so personal.
“I’m nae close to any of ma sisters.” Greer had a slew of sisters, all of whom were illegitimate. To Edgar’s eternal dismay, he’d never sired a son.
Thor nodded as he watched Greer. While her eyes and voice gave no hint to her loneliness, he could read it in her body language. He wondered if anyone else could tell because, to him, it radiated from her. He took a step closer, and her posture closed off even more. He wished to sigh in irritation, but he kept it to himself.
“I wish ye could have had that, Greer. It must have been hard to ken ye had siblings, but ye werenae raised with them.”
Greer shifted her gaze to look across the stream. “It wasna as if their mothers raised them as sisters, but as children in the village, they were allowed to play together. They were friends.” And they had always excluded Greer. The few times she’d tried to join their games at the beach, they’d shunned her. She’d always wondered if it was because she lived in the keep, and they lived in crofts. Had they assumed her life was easier because she was the laird’s acknowledged daughter? She was certain it had been far worse since the day of her birth.
Thor already knew this. He took another step toward her, but she turned away from him. She ran her hand over her horse’s flank and up its neck. It nickered and turned its massive head to rest its nose on her shoulder. She leaned against him and closed her eyes. She didn’t want Thor’s pity. She preferred her horse’s company to that.
Thor shook his head at Greer’s back. He left her by the stream’s bank and went to talk to the guards. She soon heard them laughing, and tears pricked the back of her eyelids. She felt like she was eight summers all over again. She hadn’t made a friend until she met Rose two years later. Then she’d had to wait twelve months between their visits for ten years. She’d eventually made some friends with the village children when they realized her life wasn’t one of luxury. But she’d trusted none the way she trusted Rose.
She was still standing beside her horse, stroking between its eyes, when Rose and Blaine joined the group. It was likely only five minutes, but it had felt like an eternity. She mounted by herself when Blaine suggested they head back to the keep. While she’d enjoyed her time outside, the outing left her more miserable than before. Rose and Blaine had one another. Thor fit in among the guards. She and Thor were more at odds than ever. Never had she felt so alone. Not even when she was tied to her bed and locked in her chamber alone.
CHAPTER3
Thor blew out a sigh as he headed into the lists. It had been two days since he’d ridden out with the others and talked to Greer beside the stream. She’d retreated into herself as much as Thor had. She smiled at Rose and other people, and she laughed while she danced at night, but the good humor that had been there before that excursion disappeared. She appeared more guarded than before. It made Thor wonder if it was merely their conversation that changed her or if something more had happened.
He forced the subject from his mind as he did every time he entered the lists. He didn’t wish to lose an ear or an arm from inattentiveness while training. He’d taken a nasty blow to his ribs the first day in the Ackergill lists because thinking about living under the same roof as Greer had distracted him. He didn’t wish for any more bruises that took a fortnight to heal. He approached a group of Keith guardsmen who didn’t see him.
“Is she going to live here for good now?” A blond man asked the others. Thor believed his name was Tim.
“Looks like it.” Thor watched Blaine’s second, his cousin Marcus, shrug as he answered.
“Ye ken what yer da said aboot her. She used to spread her legs for the Gunn warriors. Mayhap she’d like to earn her keep here.” A man Thor knew was named Drew grinned as he spoke.
With a roar, Thor ran the last few feet and launched himself at Drew, knocking them both to the ground. He grabbed a fistful of Drew’s hair and pulled his head up before slamming him cheek-first into the ground.
