Sophie visibly brightened. She gave one last sniff and then turned to look at Megan properly.
“Aye, I’d like that.”
Megan glanced at Ryder, lifting her eyebrows in a silent question.
He gave a quick, approving nod, which she took as encouragement to keep going. Turning to Sophie, she crouched down to meet the little girl’s eye level.
“Ye could give me a tour of the Keep,” she suggested. “Show me yer favorite spots, and where everythin’ is, and where everybody lives. What do ye say? I could use a wee tour if I’m going to be stayin’ here.”
Sophie tilted her head. “Ye are goin’ to be staying here?”
Had she said too much? Megan paused, glancing up at Ryder. He’d risen to his feet and was busy pouring out a second whisky for himself.
“What do ye think of Megan, Sophie?” he asked, not turning around.
Megan wasn’t hugely pleased that he was so openly asking a little girl for her opinion of her in such a way, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. It was a relief when Sophie broke into a huge smile.
“I like her, Ry!”
“Well, I’m thrilled to hear that, because Megan is me betrothed.”
Sophie’s eyes went wide like saucers. Momentarily struck dumb, she glanced at Megan, her mouth dropping open in a silent question.
“Aye, it’s true,” Megan responded, forcing a quick smile. She pointedly didn’t look at Ryder. “Yer braither and I are betrothed. Does that please ye?”
“Oh, aye!” Sophie breathed. “I amso glad. Flora is always sayin’ that Ry ought to get married. Sometimes Ewan comes and eats the noon meal with us—he and Flora are married, by the way—and he said that Ry ought to get married too. He said that itwould calm him down,” she added, as if this little conversational tidbit might be interesting.
Megan bit the corner of her mouth to keep from smiling. She glanced up at Ryder, who looked thoroughly displeased.
“Aye, well, I’m nae marryin’ to please Ewan, or even Flora,” he snapped. “All ye need to ken, Sophie, is that I am getting’ married, and it is to Megan.”
She felt a curl of unease in her gut. Why couldn’t he just keep saying that they were betrothed? Talk of marriage felt far too official, far tooreal. Theyweren’tgetting married and talking about it was a waste of time. Why work so hard to tell lies to his own sisters? Some lies were unavoidable, of course, but still.
It wasn’t a point she wanted to labor, however, and the conversation moved on almost straight away.
“Does that mean that there’s goin’ to be a weddin’?” Sophie whispered, her voice hushed and awestruck. “Aproperweddin’?”
“Indeed, there will be,” Ryder responded.
“Can I be a flower girl?”
“I see nay reason why nae,” he answered, then paused, throwing an apologetic look at Megan. “Although of course ye will have to ask Megan.”
Sophie stared pleadingly up at Megan. “Can I, Megan?”
She managed a smile. “Aye, of course.”
Sophie gave a squawk of delight, jumping up and down and clapping her hands.
“Well, this is excellent news,” she murmured, rubbing her hands together.
Ryder gave a hoot of laughter. “Ye sound like a fairy tale villain when ye talk like that, lass.”
Sophie barely listened to him. She beamed up at Megan instead.
“Well, Alaina willdefinitelylet us into her chambers with news like this. Ry, can I take Megan to meet her?”
“Aye, that would be ideal,” he responded, nodding. He met Megan’s eyes and lifted his eyebrows. She rose to her feet, holding his gaze.
