“He has done naught wrong,” Tearloch assured her. “He was protecting his sister, valiantly too.”
Horrified, the woman scooped up the wee bairn and led the lad away. “Fither was wrong,” he said.
Kenna’s face had paled, though she gave him a brave smile. “May we go back, now?”
He took her hand again and they turned toward the inner gate. He wished he could explain what just happened, but that would require a truth that he, as yet, could not share with her. And as he led her up the stairs, he cursed his clan for their distinct lack of talent. Couldn’t any of them dissemble with a straight face?
Tearloch led her to his former rooms and ushered her inside. Nothing had changed since the last time he’d been at Lochahearn. There was nothing of comfort but the bed. And only the one tapestry. Grown men need few luxuries, after all.
Even the floor was bare.
“I had a fire laid. Ye may stay here until the door is repaired?—”
“Imay stay here? And where will you stay?”
He cleared his throat. “I need no door. And a woman…does.”
Her disappointment was quickly hidden, but he’d noticed, and he took heart. She would think of him, then. Miss him even. And hopefully, it would distract her from the details in her nightmare that he prayed would not repeat. If she woke in a rage as she had done, there would be no door to keep her from coming at him.
He couldn’t be certain she’d believed a word of his lies. For all he knew, somewhere on her person, she carried the very eating knife he’d handed her.
He bent to light the fire and shook his head. The later the hour, the more he doubted himself, and he was in no mood to test her. She had been through enough today, worst of which was being labeled a monster by a wee laddie.
He would simply trust that the subject of her dreams had been laid to rest.
“Would ye like help with yer bliaut?”
She shook her head.
“Then I shall bid ye a good night.” He turned back at the door. “Put yer worries aside for tonight. With luck, the king will arrive on the morrow and all will be right with the world.”
“A good night, then,” she said. “I will bar the door and stay put.”
He had a guard posted at the end of the hall just the same. “Let me be clear,” he told the man, “ye’re here to protect her. Anything unpleasant happens to her, ye’ll pay dearly.”
The next morning,Tearloch listened at Kenna’s door and decided the safest move was not to wake her. Not because she might be dangerous, but because it was dangerous to step so close to temptation when his willpower was weakening.
Instead, he broke his fast in the early hours and went in search of Duncan, who was not in his room and from the look of it, hadn’t slept there.
He found Monroe in the lists and asked where his lieutenant might be.
“He’s left, Milord,” Monroe said smugly.
“Left? For how long?”
“He said he may not be back fer days. He had some drinkin’ and wenchin’ to do. I believe Jamie went with him.”
Tearloch planted his fists on his hips. “And just what if the king comes today?”
“He said,” Leland inserted himself, “once the king comes and everything is settled, he may just come back.” He and Monroe laughed.
Tearloch was annoyed, but he understood that the two men had reached a tipping point. Kenna’s casual comment at the table last night had nearly been too much for him to bear as well. If not for his vow to the king, he would have fallen to her feet and revealed all, just to bury her memories of whatever tortures she might have suffered with a bright hope for the future.
But a vow was a vow. And in her own words, a knight never breaks his vow.
He hailed a servant. “Find a runner, send him to the solar.” To his captains, he said, “I will not wait to see if my first message reached Malcolm. We should have already been warned of hisarrival, and every day the king delays, I risk losing the lass in a dozen different ways. And I will not face him with empty hands.”
“Do ye suppose he’ll be unhappy that ye’ve already taken the woman to yer bed?” Leland asked.
