“You told him about the scrying bowl.” Gelis could feel her face coloring. “Instead of helping Mother stitch pillow coverings, you ran off to make trouble for me.”
“Och, ’tis trouble for you, to be sure, but not of my making.” Arabella grabbed her elbow again and started pulling her forward, toward the keep. “A courier arrived while you were out splashing along the lochside. He brought an offer for you and Father has agreed. He —”
“A marriage offer? For me, and not you?” Gelis stopped, shaking her head. “And Father agreed? Ach, I do not believe it.”
“Right enough ’tis for you. And, nae, I dinna mind. Not at all. Truth is, I would not want such a furor on my shoulders!” Arabella looked at her. “Why do you think everyone is in the bailey? They’re hiding from Father’s fury.”
She jumped aside when one of the castle dogs shot past, chasing two goats. “See? Even the dogs have left the keep, except for poor Telve and Troddan. And they’re both cowering in a corner of Father’s solar, looking frightened and with their tails between their legs.”
“I don’t understand.” Gelis swiped at an escaping curl. “You said he agreed.”
“He did. But that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it.”
Gelis was too stunned to think straight. “That doesn’t make sense. He’s never greeted such offers with gladness. He wouldn’t accept one that makes him so angry everyone in the castle runs outside to get away from him.”
“Well he has.” Arabella flicked at a speck of lint on her sleeve. “I heard him arguing with Uncle Marmaduke. He said something about his honor pushing him against a wall.”
“I see.” Gelis considered. “Whoever made the offer has Father by his danglers.”
“Gelis!” Her sister looked scandalized. “If you speak so crudely, no man will take you. Not even if he’s a two- headed ogre or if Father presents you on a silver-gilt platter.”
Gelis started to laugh, but closed her mouth when a cloud sailed across the autumn-blue sky, its passage darkening the cobbles and making her shiver. The raven’s shadow was following her. She could feel him with her, sense his great wings beating the air. Glancing up, she saw only the cloud, but another chill rippled down her back. Whether she could see him now or not, her heart knew he was there. In his raven-form, he spiraled over the bailey, hovering first, then swooping near, almost as close as he’d been on the strand. Then he pinioned away, leaving only the bustling, sun-washed courtyard.
Her breath caught and a distinct tingle of anticipation fluttered low in her belly.
Exhilarating, and . . . delicious.
A surge of triumph filled her and she pressed a hand to her breast. Hewasher intended, she was sure of it. Either the marriage bid came from him or he was letting her know it would come to naught.
A man as powerful as the raven wouldn’t let her be given to someone else.
On impulse, she seized her sister’s arms, squeezing tight. “Whoever has offered for me won’t be a two-headed ogre. I am certain of it. He will be the perfect husband for me. You will see.”
“How I wish it for you!” Arabella shook free and dusted her gown. “But perfect husbands don’t usually hail from obscure, dark-doomed clans. I heard Father say the man —”
“Pah!” This time Gelis did laugh. “As a man who’s been called a devil all his life, he ought not waste his breath railing over others.”
“He sounded genuinely worried.”
“Well, he needn’t be, because I am not.”
Arabella frowned. “You were born tempting fate. I just hope it doesn’t whip around and bite you this time.”
“It won’t.” Gelis reached out and tweaked Arabella’s cheek. “I haveseenmy fate. That’s why I’m not afraid.”
The words spoken, she hitched up her skirts and wheeled around, dashing up the keep steps before her sister could reply.
Those few souls still in the hall started when she tore past them. Jaws dropping and heads swiveling, they stared after her as she raced along the hall’s center aisle, making for the corner stair that led up to her father’s solar.
A comfortable, tapestry-hung room where she would not only reveal her astonishing new talent, but also hear the most monumental news of her life.
Or so she imagined until she reached the tower’s uppermost landing and burst into the solar, expecting to find her father prowling about, his eyes flashing and his fists clenched as he visited a litany of curses upon the head of her suitor. Instead, heavy silence greeted her, and it took her a moment to spy her father slouched in a chair near the hearth fire.
Gelis skidded to a breathless halt, some of her bravura leaving her.
Duncan MacKenzie wasn’t a slouching kind of man.
Nor was he one who accepted defeat.
