"Aye, a muckle lot."
"I dinnae suppose ye need any consoling."
"Nay, not the sort ye speak of."
"A shame. Will ye settle for a wee dance then?"
She laughed and nodded letting him tow her out to mingle with the dancers. Many looked at them with knowing expressions and Islaen sighed. Clearly they thought there was only one reason a woman would have anything to do with Alexander, or he with a woman. When she caught a glance from Iain, Islaen could tell that he wondered the same thing as the others. It annoyed her as well as hurt. She was offended by his mistrust, yet could not help but wonder why, if he thought she and Alexander were having a liaison, he did nothing to stop it.
For the first time since Mary's arrival, Iain found that he was easily distracted from her. The sight of Alexander and Islaen enjoying each other's company thoroughly troubled him. He trusted Islaen but knew how easily Alexander could seduce most any woman. Iain knew he had shamefully neglected Islaen for another woman and now worried that she would be vulnerable to Alexander's charm.
Inwardly he grimaced, a little ashamed at the way he wanted to violently stop her from having a lover while he was thinking of taking one himself. Mary's hints that she was willing to take him to her bed were subtle but clear. Iain was finding it a temptation too strong to resist. As the evening wore on, Mary's invitations grew stronger and he grew weaker.
Islaen heard the soft murmur of voices as she returned from visiting the garderobe. When she recognized the man's voice, she slipped into the shadows, her heart beating furiously as it anticipated the pain it might soon have to endure. The couple hesitated before her hiding place and Islaen pressed deeper into the shadowed niche, her hands clenched into painfully tight fists as she fought the urge to dart out and scream her anger and hurt at the adulterous pair.
Mary frowned when Iain hesitated. She had thought her success at hand. Already she had begun to lay her plans for ridding him of his wife so that he might be free to wed her. In the four years they had been apart he had gained more of the riches and power she craved. Even better was his closeness to the king which promised even more money and power.
"Why do ye hold back, my love?"
"Mary, I am a wedded mon."
"Had I only come to court sooner I could have stopped that folly,” she breathed as she twined her arms around his neck and then kissed him with all the seductive skill she possessed, a skill she had begun to hone shortly after her first flux. “We were torn from each other's arms,” she said huskily, pleased with his apparent bemusement, as she subtly urged him towards her chambers, “and forced to take others as our mates. Come, my love, let us not shy again from taking what is our right due to the love we share."
Iain let her lead him along. He was bemused after her kiss, unable to think clearly, because it had not gone as he had expected it to. His passion had not flared to life despite the somewhat unsettling skill Mary had displayed. It had stirred slightly in response to sweet memory but nothing more. He found himself thinking of how easily Islaen could set him aflame and began to wonder if anything he could share with Mary was worth risking what he had with Islaen.
The pain that had begun to sear through Islaen's insides when she had watched the pair kiss seemed to double when they continued on, Iain saying nothing else in protest. Giving a convulsive sob, she covered her face with her hands and began to weep. Just as she began to sag against the wall two strong arms encircled her. Islaen spared one startled glance to affirm the identity of who held her before collapsing against Alexander's broad chest and giving herself over completely to her misery.
"What are ye doing here?” she rasped when she finally calmed down.
"I kenned ye were down this hall and wished to stop ye from seeing just what ye have seen."
"Here, what are ye doing with our sister?” Malcolm's easily recognizable bellow echoed through the hall an instant before Alexander was forcefully yanked away from Islaen.
"He wasnae doing anything wrong,” Islaen hastened to say as she saw how belligerently her brothers were eyeing Alexander.
"I but tried to console the lass."
"Aye, and I ken how ye do that, Alexander MacDubh. Ye would console her right into your bed,” Malcolm growled.
"Islaen would never use me that way, sir.” Alexander then winked at her. “Howbeit, I am at her disposal if she wishes..."
"That be enough out of ye,” Robert said shortly, then placed an arm around Islaen's shoulders in a gesture of consolation. “Ah, ye have been weeping. So ye saw the black scoundrel, did ye. Weel, dinnae fash yourself, sweeting. We go now to make him pay."
"That was the other reason for my being here, lass,” Alexander said quietly. “I had a wish to stop a killing."
"Nay, ye wouldnae,” she gasped, pushing away from Robert and looking at all her brothers, seeing the truth of their intentions in their taut, hard faces. “Ye cannae do it."
"Lass, he has shamed ye. Aye, and hurt ye."
"'Tis not your concern, Donald."
"Ye be our sister and we willnae let him treat ye so,” Nathan hissed.
"I dinnae care."
"Of course ye do. ‘Tis clear to read upon your face."
"Of course I care but nay enough to want him dead. Aye, there was a moment there when I did and a wee part of me is telling me I should urge ye to go after him, impale him and his whore to their adulterous bed. I cannae let ye do it, though. Ye would cut me far more than he e'er could. T'would not only be him that would bleed ere your swords touched him."
