“I could not refuse,” Alana said hoarsely. Alice was as interested in assessing her as Alana was. “We do not know one another, but we are sisters.”
Alice seemed distraught, as well. Alana wondered if their expressions were as identical as their features. The tension between them felt impossible.
Margaret exclaimed, “Father only told us about you recently. What a surprise it was!” Margaret seemed excited by the fact that they were sisters, and Alana felt a moment of surprising warmth in her heart.
“He told us very recently,” Alice said harshly.
The warm feeling vanished. “It must have been a shock.” If Bruce lost the war, Alice would be the Countess of Buchan one day. And Alana would lose Brodie....
“Yes,” Alice said tersely. “I had no notion that I had a half sister in the world.”
“I know this is difficult.”
“Do you?” Alice cried.
Alana felt like shouting back that this was as difficult for her, too. She had been abandoned by their father, she had been raised with nothing, and all she had was Brodie Castle and a lover who wished to marry her sister! “I am sorry,” she said again.
Joan stepped between them. “My daughters are exhausted. It is very late, and they would like to go to their chamber. But I would like a private word with you.”
Alana could not imagine what Joan wished to discuss with her. “Gran, could you show my sisters to their chamber?”
“Of course,” Eleanor said. She smiled at the girls.
Margaret smiled back and turned to Alana. “I hope we can speak tomorrow, Alana.”
She wondered if they would become friends. “I will make a point of it. Good night.”
Margaret hesitated, then impulsively hugged Alana. Alice nodded, and Eleanor and the two girls left. Alana was stunned by Margaret’s display of affection.
“Margaret is very young, and she is also naive,” Joan said, clearly disapproving of her daughter’s spontaneous outburst.
Godfrey glanced at her. Joan was clearly waiting for him to leave, and Alana decided she did not want to be alone with her father’s wife. “Godfrey is privy to all my secrets,” she said.
“Really?” Joan was cool. “Was he privy to the secret that you pledged your fealty to Bruce? And that you meant to take Brodie from him?”
Alana flushed. “Brodie belonged to my mother, as you well know. It should have always been mine, and I took back what belonged to me.”
“You look exactly like Elisabeth, so why am I surprised by all that you have done? My cousin was capable of many things, so many things, to serve her own self-interest, that she probably would have gone over to the enemy, too.”
Alana flinched. “My mother would not have had to swear fealty to the enemy,” she said tersely. “My mother was mistress of Brodie Castle. She had lands, a title, a husband. I did what I had to in order to get my lands back.”
Joan’s eyes widened. “So you are too clever for your own good. You think to speak back to me?”
“I beg your pardon,” Alana instantly said. Joan was her enemy, unfortunately, that much was clear. However, she was her father’s wife and Alana had no wish to fight openly with her. “I did not invite you to take sanctuary here so we could argue. It is my wish to help my father and my sisters, Lady Joan. It is my wish to help you.”
“Is it? I do not trust you, Mistress Alana. You betrayed us all—Alexander, myself, our daughters, Buchan and King Edward!”
“If you do not trust me, then why are you here?” She was beginning to regret having offered Joan and her sisters sanctuary.
“I did not want to come. I wanted to attempt to flee to England directly! But Balvenie is under siege, and such a journey was too difficult to quickly arrange. Alexander had no men to spare. He insisted we come here.”
“If you wish to go to England immediately, I will attempt to arrange it.”
“The sooner, the better.” She turned and glanced at Godfrey. “You do not look like a prisoner.”
Godfrey folded his arms, unperturbed. “I have known Alana since we were small children. I am not deserting her in a time of war.”
Joan laughed with contempt. “Oh, God! Alexander was smitten with her mother, and you are smitten with her. And what of her lover?”
