“Easy, me Lady.”
Calum’s voice set everything back in place, and she let out the breath she had been holding.
“Ye nearly took ten years off me life, Calum,” she said lightly.
He let go at once and stepped back so she could see him properly in the firelight. His red hair shone briefly, but her eyes remained on his face. His expression sat between apology and alertness.
“Forgive me. I should have called out.”
They stood there for a moment while the passage grew calm again.
Erica rubbed her arms beneath her shawl and tilted her head.“Are the halls always this quiet so late?”
“Aye,” Calum said. “By design, when we can help it.”
“Because of the note,” she said.
“Because of the note,” he agreed. “And because it makes sense.”
She looked past him toward the turn that led to the outer stairs. “He doubled the guards.”
“I tripled them in places,” Calum revealed. “We take protection seriously here. We watch the inner yard, the gate, the wall walks, the kitchens, and the stables. We check hands we ken and names we daenae. If a shadow moves wrong, one of the men will see it.”
“I see. That doesnae terrify me at all,” she said dryly.
Calum laughed under his breath. “There is comfort in caution, if ye live with it long enough.”
“And what about him? Has he slept?” she asked.
“Nae much,” Calum replied, nodding like he understood exactly who she was referring to. “He has been driving the men hard. They can hold a line half asleep by now. He will push them until they can do it in their dreams.”
Erica nodded. A man did not earn a reputation like Laird MacMillan’s if he hadn’t put in the work in the first place. This was also part of the work.Or so she had assumed.
Calum studied her for a moment. “Forgive me if I speak out of turn,” he said, “but I mean to offer me congratulations.”
She blinked. “On what?”
“The wedding,” he said, as if it were something casual. “Folks around the castle speak about it. The idea of a new lady. Adifferentone. The girls are practically floating in excitement. Everyone is happy for ye and the Laird.”
Erica looked down at her hands. “I said nothing.”
“Aye,” Calum said gently. “But there is nothing else to say other thanaye, is there?”
She did not trust herself to answer.
The silence stretched out again, and Calum nodded, as if he understood exactly what she was thinking.
“He is cold,” he said after a moment. “But daenae let that overshadow the fact that he is dutiful as well. Ye cannae find a man more honorable.”
“That isexactlywhat frightens me,” she whispered before she could stop herself.
Calum’s lips thinned. “Honor binds people, but I suppose people forget it cuts as well.”
“I just wish he could offer more,” she said, the truth slipping out with her breath. “Be more present. I wish I didnae have to guess.”
Calum nodded. “‘Tis because he isnae over his first wife.”
Erica swallowed.For some reason, the wordwifechanged the air.
