“You are my sister, even if we are strangers.” How she wanted Alice to understand.
But Alice shook her head. “But you pledged your fealty to Robert Bruce. How could you be so loyal to me and so disloyal to our family? I cannot understand.”
Alana wet her lips, wondering how she could explain. She finally said, “Have you heard that I am a witch?”
Alice paled, her eyes widening. “Is this a jest?”
“No. I have visions of the future, Alice, and I have had them since I was a small child. Our father gave me some land for a dowry, but no man would have me, because of my visions.”
Alice’s eyes were as huge as saucers. “Did Father know?”
“Yes.” She smiled, but it felt tight and odd. “I am a bastard and a witch. When I was eight, our uncle gave Brodie to Duncan, and made me his ward. I have grown up unwanted and unloved, as well as ostracized and shunned. The exception, of course, being my grandmother.”
“But Lady Fitzhugh isn’t really your grandmother.”
“No, she is not. But she has always loved me as if we are flesh and blood.”
Alice was shaken. “I grew up with two doting parents, with nurses and maids, with silks and velvet...always knowing that I would one day marry a fine nobleman with titles and lands.”
“Yes,” Alana said softly. “You are so fortunate. I did what I had to do in order to regain my mother’s lands, Alice. It was a horrible decision to make, but now, I have no regrets—Brodie is all that I have.”
“We have had such different lives,” Alice mused. Her eyes darkened. “It isn’t really fair. But you do not seem bitter.”
“I have been bitter. At times, I have been jealous and resentful.”
Alice suddenly laid her hand on her arm. “If you were truly resentful, you would not have defied Iain to take us to Elgin, and you would have let me suffer at Buchan’s hands.”
Alana shook her head. “I was his prisoner once. I was afraid for you—I could not bear it if you had suffered as I did.”
“I am so sorry I was mean to you when we first met. Alana, I was the jealous one then.”
“What could you have been jealous of?”
Alice shrugged helplessly. “Father told us about you. He told us he loved you. I was afraid of you—afraid Father loved you more.”
Alana was in disbelief. Sir Alexander had told her sisters that he loved her! She realized that some small vulnerable part of her had been in doubt over his last words. But her father had genuinely loved her.
She gave in to impulse. She hugged her sister briefly. To her surprise, Alice hugged her back. Then she stood up. “Can we begin anew? As friends? As sisters?”
“Yes,” Alana answered, feeling dazed. But didn’t every coin have two sides? Didn’t the phoenix rise from the ashes? For now, it seemed as if her father’s death was giving her a family after all. “Alice? I made a promise to our father that I would keep you safe. I am going to do everything in my power to get you to England.”
“That would be wonderful...but you will defy Iain yet again? For us?”
“I am a woman of my word,” Alana said. “And I believe he will find it in his heart to forgive me.” She somehow knew her words to be true.
But what about Robert Bruce? He would not be pleased if she helped her sister, a valuable hostage, to escape. Alana feared Bruce’s anger—but she must help her sisters and Lady Joan, anyway.
Alice was suddenly tearful. She smiled and put down her mug. “You are truly my sister!” she exclaimed, hugging her again. She stepped back. “It is late. I should return to my bed.” She went to the door, and then paused. Very seriously, she faced her again. “Alana? I would never marry him, not when you love him so.”
Alana exhaled in relief.
* * *
THESPRINGTURNEDwarm, the days lengthened and another week passed, but with agonizing slowness, ending with a terrible jolt. For Alana received a missive from Iain, one filled with ill tidings. Sir John Mowbray had violated his truce with Bruce, and had brought a great army to Elgin to relieve it from Iain’s siege. Iain could not predict how long it would now take for Elgin to fall—or if Buchan’s stronghold would actually capitulate.
Alana was despondent. She was sick and tired of the war. And while Margaret seemed oblivious to the news—she was still grieving over their father’s death—Alice was pleased. They were becoming friends now, but nothing could change the fact that they remained on opposite sides of the war. Alice did not want Elgin to fall. She wanted Bruce’s defeat, even if she never spoke openly about it.
Yet somehow, their new friendship blossomed. Long walks outdoors turned into long conversations, mostly about Sir Alexander, and his virtues, his character and his life. Alana finally began to understand the man that her father had been—a man of honor, a man of courage, with great strengths, and some weaknesses. And she loved him more.
