‘Why did you tell me about your family?’ she asked instead.
‘It’s important for you to know.’ His hand pushed the hair back from her forehead. ‘I don’t want to keep things hidden from you, Svanna. I’m not making promises I can’t keep, but you did something I thought impossible—you made me feel alive again.’
‘Why should I expect anything from a simple kiss?’ A tight ball of hurt curled inside her. That unnoticed hope withered—that somehow something of the boy she’d once flirted with remained within him and he’d remember the kiss which had so many echoes to this one. He’d kissed other women like that. She wasn’t special to him. The sooner she accepted that, the better.
He raised a brow. ‘Some women might.’
‘A handshake would have done if you had wanted to thank me.’ She snapped her fingers. ‘Already forgotten.’
His shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. ‘Practical to your fingertips.’
She shifted uneasily. She knew she’d turn the kiss over in her memory and bring it out again and again, as she had done a long time ago, but that was a problem for later. Right now, she accepted that the kiss went a long way towards erasing the memory of the intrusive pawing she’d received from the youngest son of Drengr in the garden that day. Spotting him during the battle had brought it all back and contributed to why she’d found it difficult to sleep last night.
‘Being practical saves heartache later,’ she said with an arch laugh, aware her voice had reverted to sing-song. ‘As you are no longer attempting to keep secrets from me, can you explain why you are here? You are not here to renew an old friendship. You are here to forge new alliances, but how, and what hasn’t Lord Sigmund given you that you require?’
His scar stood out on his cheek. ‘The high king wishes an alliance with Sigmund, particularly now that he will command over-lordship on this island.’
‘An odd choice, given your shared history with Sigmund.’
‘He sent me because I am one of the trusted few who can speak both Norse and Gaelic.’ He drew his brows together. ‘He is serious about an alliance. He believes neither Islay nor Tara will prosper as long as Turgeis and his brothers rampage, encouraging the worst excesses.’
Svanna drew on years of practice and ensured that her face betrayed none of her inner thoughts. Most alliances were strengthened through the bonds of marriage. Sigmund was unmarried. The high king knew this. Who was the high king offering and why wasn’t she here? Why was Rand seeking to conceal her identity? What was this unknown woman to him? Why was he risking so much to protect her? And what would happen to him and his daughter when the high king inevitably found out?
‘You came on your own without a peace-weaver,’ she said carefully. ‘Knowing that Maer had married and Sigmund has no other female relations, but he himself is resolutely unwed. Why did she fail to travel with you?’
The scar burned again. ‘Unfortunate for all concerned.’
‘The high king must assume this female relation travelled with you as, from what I know of him, he is not a man to accept soothing words about unfortunate circumstances. He must know Sigmund is unlikely to agree to a marriage without first laying his eyes on the intended bride. It is common knowledge that Sigmund has already refused several offers from various petty kings. The excuse he gives is that he is too old and set in his ways ever to take a bride.’
The silence between them stretched until the morning sun highlighted Rand’s unblemished cheek. Svanna forced her tongue to the roof of her mouth to keep silent. Astrid held that filling the air with noise when you wanted to discover something meant you’d discover nothing, but equally a woman should always appear as if the silence did not disconcert her. And this missing peace-weaver was the key to ensuring the current situation did not spin widely out of control. Her entire being tingled. If she could solve this conundrum, she could save the situation and rescue the match between Astrid and Sigmund.
‘As far as I know, my king remains in ignorance about where his daughter is,’ he admitted with a long sigh.
‘His daughter?’ Svanna assessed him from under her lashes, trying to remember that scrap of gossip Sigmund had divulged earlier. ‘Didn’t you marry one of his daughters when she refused to wed the elderly king her father had chosen?’
Another long silence. ‘Obviously. We were in love. Bridget convinced her father that I was the better man for her.’
She swallowed hard and tried to make sense of what he was not telling her. ‘I take it that the king thinks you travelled with this daughter. Furthermore, you’ve not secreted her for yourself because your heart is buried with your wife, but you know where she is.’
He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘My cousin Thorarinn knows.’
Svanna could not hide her astonishment at the recklessness of the behaviour, which now threatened to endanger many lives including, she suspected, Rand’s daughter. ‘Your cousin ran away with the woman the king intended in kinship alliance? Was that wise of him? Or indeed her?’
‘My cousin possesses a romantic soul. She was way too young for Lord Sigmund. Some might even say she is too young for my cousin, but she preferred him above all others,’ he said as if that explained everything.
‘A romantic soul? Something you no longer possess but did once, which is why you defied a powerful king and married your late wife,’ she continued, despite his scowl. ‘Did you encourage this folly?’
‘My king might think I did,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Sometimes what appears to be the truth matters to him.’
‘Why didn’t you remind her of her duty to her king and country?’ Her breath caught as the enormity of his confession washed over her. Rand was attempting to put things right and present the king with a scheme which would be acceptable. If he lost the king’s favour, she had no doubt there would be severe consequences for him and his daughter. ‘You didn’t know. They kept it hidden from you until it was too late. Now you are trying to retrieve the situation.’
He absently fingered his scar. ‘I owe my cousin more life debts than I care to count. Whether or not he was wise to do what he did remains to be seen. Sigmund could have refused the offer and all would have been well. Rhiannon was wrong to panic.’
‘But she did panic.’
‘She and my cousin fell in love.’
‘Was your cousin with you in Agthir?’ she asked as a faint memory surfaced. Her nurse had indicated that two men had left suddenly when she’d enquired after Rand.
