“To be fair, I daenae think he kens.”
“Well, ye should tell him. Look, ye told him that the guards made ye uncomfortable and followed ye too closely, and so he made changes. If ye would only talk to him, Alaina, ye might be surprised.”
Alaina stared at her for a long moment, her expression impassive. Then she shook her head, abruptly turning away.
“It’s only a cake,” she said quietly.
There wasn’t much talking after that. Megan thought of a hundred things she’d like to say, but the right time never seemed to present itself. So, to avoid saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, she stayed quiet and concentrated on eating her black bun.
They began to walk through the crowded square, idly taking in the sights. A man was juggling, throwing more and more small cloth balls into the air until there seemed to be dozens of them. A storyteller was standing on a box under a clump of trees, weaving a shocking tale to a group of children.
“I wonder if their parents know that they’re out,” Megan remarked, nodding at the children.
Alaina’s face darkened, and Megan knew that she’d said the wrong thing. It was too late now, of course. Best to go with it.
“Children need freedom,” Alaina stated. “If they daenae get any, they grow from children to adults very quickly without people noticin’. It’s like wearin’ a dress that’s too small for ye. After a while, it gets painful.”
“Och, Alaina, I’m sorry. I can see how difficult all of this is for ye. I hate to keep goin’ on and on about the same subject, but yer braither truly does want what’s best for ye.”
“I ken, I ken,” Alaina muttered, taking a vicious bite of her cake. “But he willnae listen to me, and so I daenae particularly want to listen to him. Fair’s fair.”
“Alaina…”
“Daenae ruin it,” she interrupted, shaking her head hard. There was a frown between her eyebrows. “For what it’s worth, Megan, I like ye a lot. When I thought that ye and Ryder really were betrothed, I was happy. I wanthimto be happy, and I thought that the two of ye… well, I thought ye would be a nice match. I still do think that, even though ye will probably be leavin’ soon, and I’ll nae see ye again.”
“Ye daenae ken that.”
“Well, unless ye areactuallygoing to marry me braither, I do ken that,” Alaina retorted. “And Ryder is never goin’ to marry.Everyone thought it was so strange that he had changed his mind.Ithought it was strange, and now I ken why. It really was too good to be true.”
They walked in silence for another minute or two and came to a stop before the wide dancing platform. It was full of couples flinging each other around, laughing loudly, throwing up their arms, and kicking up their legs. The musicians sat on upturned barrels at the side, faces flushed red with exertion. Sweat was dripping off the fiddler’s nose. They were all smiling, though.
Megan let herself wonder, just for a moment, what it would be like to dance like that. So freely, so happily. She couldn’t imagine it.
“Why is Ryder so against marriage?” she asked at last. “Nobody has been able to tell me. I suppose that since I’m to be his betrothed, nobody is willin’ to tell me the truth.”
Alaina shot her a quick, thoughtful glance. She popped the last morsel of her black bun into her mouth and chewed luxuriously, dusting the crumbs off her hands.
“His maither died a war captive,” she said at last.
Megan flinched. “What?”
“Oh, aye. Terrible story, it was. She was abducted and later killed. Nobody talks to me much about it, but I can only imagine what she suffered. Honestly, I think I’m happy nae to ken.”
“How old was Ryder when this happened?”
“Eight.”
Megan swallowed hard and shuddered. At eight years old, her Ma had still been alive, caring for them all, a pillar of strength and wisdom. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose a parent in such an awful way.
“I cannae imagine what he endured,” she whispered.
Alaina nodded, swallowing hard. “Nobody talks to me about this either, ye ken. But I ken Ryder, and I ken how he thinks. He thinks bein’ a Laird brings danger to the people ye care about. Maybe he’s right. The old laird—me faither—married me maither a while later. I always remembered us being one big, happy family. I never even kent that Ryder had a different maither until I was much older.”
“What happened to yer maither?”
A twinge of pain crossed Alaina’s face, but she forced a shrug.
“Oh, nothin’ good. After Father died, Ma sort of… she crumbled, I suppose. Marriage to Laird MacCulloch didnae do either of them any good.”
