‘How could you bring all this trouble down on us, Bran? The wrath of the Warden will fall on all of us if he cannot find his son.’
‘It will fall on us even if he does find Edmund. It is not Sir Henry who wants to destroy Jasper. ‘Tis that other one.’
‘What other one? Who are you talking about?’
He shook his head and backed away from the bars. ‘I’ll not say it aloud unless you let me out, for ‘tis more than my life is worth.’
‘God, you are useless.’
‘And you are a bitter lass, Rowenna. Do you know why I did not brag about you? Because you are a harpy, with nothing to recommend you, always gainsaying me and our father. Soon, you will lose your bloom. I hope Glendenning pounds it out of you until you have no value except for birthing.’
‘Rot in hell, Bran.’
Rowenna walked away, anger clawing at her throat.
‘Come back, you bitch. Let me out,’ cried Bran, but she ignored him
She reached the kitchen, wiping away tears, shaking with anger, where she encountered Jasper. He pulled her into a store room, out of earshot of the cook.
‘What is it, lass? You look grave. Did you find out anything from your brother?’
‘Aye, and none of it was good,’ said Rowenna. She could not tell him how skillfully Bran had sliced at her pride. ‘Bran boasted to Edmund Harclaw about Cecily’s beauty. So I think he may have sought her out, and Cecily might have run away with him - the Warden’s son, Jasper. You know how that might end.’
‘Aye, in her ruin and degradation.’
‘A lord’s son would not care about a lass with nothing to her name and no powerful friends to protect her.’
‘But if Cecily was in his power, and he used and discarded her, then what has become of Edmund?’
‘What if they truly fell in love and ran away together?’ said Rowenna.
Jasper frowned. ‘After what we have inflicted on each other, do you think that is possible for anyone?’
His bitter words cut her to the quick, coming so soon after Bran’s. Jasper would discard her, just as Cecily had been discarded. Men did that after they took your innocence or put a bairn in you. Why had she ever been so naïve as to think otherwise? Suddenly, she was unsure of Jasper again. He had listened to all the details of Bran’s and her father’s treachery without anger and insisted she return with him to Kransmuir.They had shared a bed without touching each other, just talking in the darkness. Was she mistaking lust for affection? Was she just seeing what she wanted to see? Why did he not kiss her now when she wanted him to?
‘I must go, Jasper,’ she said.
‘No. Stay here with me. I am avoiding Alec Carstairs who has come to pay court to my sister.’
‘I am sure Maeve will avoid him too, for she does not like him.’
‘He’ll do well enough as a husband.’
‘As I do well enough as a wife?’
‘That is not what I meant.’
‘Of course not. I am sure you have much to do, Jasper, so I will leave you in peace.’
He grabbed her arm. ‘Not so fast.’ His mouth claimed hers in a brief kiss, hesitant, gentle, totally unlike Jasper. ‘I would know that you are well, lass and that you are not miserable at being back here with me.’
‘It was my choice. But I must get on. Folk will think we are doing something we should not.’
He smiled, melting her heart a little. ‘And what might that be, lass?’ His hand slid around the back of her neck and up into her hair.
Rowenna’s cheeks took flame at how Jasper was looking at her, but instead of swooning into his arms like a weakling, she wriggled free of him and left him standing there with an injured look on his face. She hurried into the yard and came upon Jasper’s mother, talking to a heavy-set man with a laugh that carried over the sound of the wind howling around the walls.
The man noticed her and shouted, ‘Now, who is this comely lass?’
