Megan was about to sayyes, but paused.
She eyed the little girl, taking in the faint expression of anxiety on her face. Sophie was a thin girl, and might well grow up to be lean and muscular like Megan herself. If Megan told her now that only soft, rounded girls were beautiful, was that something Sophie would carry inside her forever? Would it stay in her heart? A simply put sentence, an off-hand insult, or a passing comment could hurt a girl of Sophie’s age.
“Nay,” Megan said firmly. “It’s nae a bad thing. Beauty comes in all different forms, after all. Ye cannae compare a daisy to a daffodil, but are they nae both beautiful?”
Sophie nodded, cheering up. “Aye, that’s right. Theyareboth beautiful.”
She turned and began to skip up the stairs, leaving Megan to follow. She was about to ask how much further they had to go to get to Alaina’s room, but the words died in her throat when she reached the next landing.
A pair of guards was placed on the stairs—one a step below the landing and one a step above it—and a third guard leaned against the door itself. All three of them lounged around, smothering yawns. They seemed almost surprised to see Megan and Sophie there, which was a little worrying.
They must have heard us comin’,she thought, frowning.If they didnae hear us, then that isnae a good sign.
“Lady Sophie,” one guard said, stepping forward. “Who is this woman?”
“This,” Sophie pronounced seriously, “is Megan.”
The guard met her eyes, his gaze sweeping up and down her figure with clear approval. Megan clenched her jaw and fought the urge to cross her arms. That would only amuse him.
“What a fine-lookin’ friend ye have brought,” the man leered.
“Oh, aye,” Sophie continued blithely. “She’s goin’ to marry Ry.”
There was a half-second of frozen, horrified silence. The look of terror on the guard’s face was almost amusing to behold.
“L-L-Laird MacCulloch is betrothed?” the man stammered, tightening his grip on his pike until his knuckles stood out white. “Toye? That… that cannae be true.”
“It’s a recent development,” Megan responded coolly, meeting his eye and holding. “Ye may inquire of him if ye like.”
And better nae let him catch ye leerin’ at his betrothed,she added mentally, allowing herself a small, satisfied smile.
The guard nodded energetically, the knives on his belt rattling.
“Aye, me Lady, I will.”
“We want to see Alaina,” Sophie piped up. “She willnae come if ye three are here. Can ye move away?”
The guard hesitated, but Megan took a step forward, up onto the landing. They were almost at eye level, and he visibly shrank back.
“I think it would be best,” Megan said sweetly. The man swallowed, then nodded nervously, glancing at his companions. He jerked his head, and the three of them moved down the steps, disappearing around the curve of the staircase.
“Alaina says that they talk all night when they’re outside her room,” Sophie sighed. “They make bawdy jokes and burp. It drives her mad. She’s told them that she can hear everythin’ that goes on outside the door, but they daenae seem to listen. I am nae sure that they care very much.”
“Nay, I imagine nae,” Megan agreed. She glanced at the still-closed door and lifted her eyebrows. “Shall we knock, or does Alaina ken that we are here?”
There was a quiet screech on the other side of the door, the sound of a bolt being pulled back, and the door opened.
A girl of sixteen stood there, tall and thin. She had a pale oval face and a relatively long nose, exactly the same as Ryder’s. Her face reminded Megan of the old paintings, of white-faced beauties with long, impossibly beautiful dark hair floating in clouds around them. Alainawasbeautiful in an almost tragic way. Her eyes were green, whereas her sister’s were brown, but both of them had large eyes, fringed with long, dark lashes.
There was a gawkiness about her, the sort of awkwardness one might find in a teenage child, and she had two spots on her chin which were probably currently the bane of her life.
“I see that ye have met me lovely guards,” Alaina said, with just a hint of contempt in her voice. “They are here day and night. They arenae supposed to stop me from comin’ and goin’, but me braither has ordered me door barred at night. He says I only have to knock and ask when I want to leave, but they often pretend nae to have heard me. I think they just daenae want to stop their card game or conversation or whatever they are doin’.”
Megan frowned. “That is terrible. Have ye told yer braither of this? He wouldnae approve.”
Alaina gave a short laugh. “Aye, and ye ken him well, do ye?”
Her gaze dragged up and down Megan’s frame again, and she pursed her lips.
