“The man who attacked ye… Laird Barclay sent him. He wants to take yer lands.”
“Barclay?” Fergus wracked his brain but could not seem to come up with a face to go with the name. “The man had mentioned Leary.”
Aiden looked startled. “Aye? I suppose Barclay was always loyal to Leary, but it’s been years…”
“Aye,” Fergus said, cutting him off. “We’ll wait to hear more before we attack.”
“Me Laird, I think ye should let me do the investigation.”
Fergus looked at him, surprised. “Aye. Who else would do it?”
Aiden smiled, the motion making him look fifteen years old all over again like when Fergus had first met him.
“Aye,” Aiden said simply. He looked down at his hands and then back up at Fergus. “Have ye seen Lottie today?”
“Nay,” Fergus answered, raising an eyebrow. “Haveye?”
“N-nay,” Aiden stuttered. “I was just wonderin’ if ye had heard from the healer. Liliana.”
Fergus almost asked who the bloody hell Liliana was before he remembered the name he had given.
“Nae yet. I’ve been busy,” Fergus said although he had not been doing anything but daydreaming about the said healer.
“She’s bonny,” Aiden said, and Fergus gave him a hard look, his knuckles turning white as he held on to the arms of the chair.
“Ye keep harpin’ on that, and I will take ye down durin’ our next spar,” Fergus barked.
Aiden chuckled. “Ye ken I only have eyes for one woman.”
Fergus relaxed slightly. Hedidknow that, knew that Aiden had been gone for Lottie since they’d both come of age a few years ago.
“Then keep yer eyes off the healer, bonny or nae.”
“Aye, Me Laird,” Aiden said, but he was still smiling. “I think I will go and see if Lottie has had dinner.”
“Tell her I will come and see her in the morning. And Aiden?”
Aiden turned to look at Fergus.
“Leave no stone unturned. Find the man who attacked me, and find out his ties to Barclay and Leary. We’ll strike when he’s outside the safety of his own castle. I will have his head before the end of the month.”
“Aye,” Aiden answered, nodding curtly, and he left the room.
It was past dinnertime, and Aiden wondered if Jeane had found her way back to the great hall or if she was lost somewhere in the castle. A smile twisted on his lips, feeling unnatural. She had been cute as a little mouse, trailing here and there with no idea where she was going.
Everything she did, every word she said, entranced him. Maybe shewasa faerie like he had teased her with all that white-blonde hair and those doe-brown eyes. Not to mention the way she had just appeared when he had needed a healer. When he had needed…
He was not sure what he had needed, but Jeane was it, and Fergus could not deny that to himself. He was not in the business of lying, not to others or himself after all.
He left his study after a couple more moments and headed to the great hall.
He often missed meals—lunch here, dinner there—so it was not unusual for him to show up late. Usually, he had Aileen, his cook, make him something whenever he got around to it. But with Jeane here, he wanted to see her, wanted to dine with her.
Jeane sat in the same place as this morning, her plate empty, leaning back from the table. He loved the way she looked up at him, all big brown eyes and small features. He loved the way she instinctively sat near him. She did want him as badly as he wanted her. He just knew it.
“Liliana,” he murmured, sitting down at the head of the table, “have ye seen me sister yet?”
“Aye. I was plannin’ to give ye me report in the mornin’. Lottie said ye were comin’ to visit her.”
