He stared at her for many moments. “Ye need to go to yer chamber, Alana,” he finally said. “I’ll send for ye when I am ready to speak with ye again.”
“Nothing has changed!”
He sent her a dark look. “Everything has changed.”
* * *
ALANAWENTINTOEleanor’s arms as Angus shut the door upon them. She closed her eyes tightly and fought the incessant tears. She had expected Iain’s anger, but she had not expected him to think that she had used witchcraft on him.
“It will be all right, Alana,” Eleanor said.
“Will it? He is furious, and he has sent me away! He thinks I cast a spell on him, to make him want me! And have we been locked up again? Are we Iain’s prisoners?”
Eleanor stroked her hair. “You had to tell him. He was going to find out. And it is who you truly are.”
“But I didn’t tell him, because I have been a coward.” She wiped her eyes and stood, thinking of how Iain had told her she was brave. Now he knew that truth, too! “Godfrey told him—to spite me—and I do not blame him.” Her heart sank with more dismay. Poor Godfrey. Had he come to truly care about her? “I have hurt everyone.”
“You never meant to hurt anyone. You found love when you have been treated like a leper your entire life. You had Brodie returned to you, when it should have never been taken away. You have done nothing wrong, Alana.”
Alana did not believe her. She felt as if she had betrayed everyone, and for what purpose? For the sake of having Brodie returned to her? To spend a few nights in her lover’s arms?
She walked to the door and tested it. To her surprise, it was not bolted, and when she opened it, no guard stood there.
She sighed in relief. At least Iain was not keeping her prisoner...yet.
“I eavesdropped on you,” Eleanor said, patting the place beside her on the bed. Alana returned and sat down at her side, and they held hands. “He is shocked, as he should be. And he is angry. But the shock and the anger will pass.”
“He is filled with suspicion again. He is filled with doubt, when it was so hard to win his trust. And he sent me away.” She trembled, a knife stabbing through her heart.
“I heard an angry, shocked man in the hall tonight, a man trying to sort through his own confusion, a man trying to comprehend you. A man who wanted to understand.”
“What are you saying, Gran?”
“Was he horrified? Frightened of you?”
She was afraid to have any hope, but she had not seen horror or fear on Iain’s face. “No.”
“You must give him some time, to realize what you truly are—a wonderful woman with a power that is at times a gift, and at other times, a curse.”
Her grandmother was the wisest person she had ever met. “Gran, do you think he might come to accept me as I am?”
“I think he is different from other men, Alana.”
Iain was different. The fourth and youngest son of a Highland lord, he was intelligent, shrewd and ambitious. He was powerful, and not just as a soldier. He was ruthless, but he could be kind. He was, truly, exceptional.
Alana shook herself free of her fanciful thoughts, her fanciful hope. “Even if he could accept me, he will marry someone else. I asked Bruce for Iain as a husband, and I was refused. Bruce has made it clear that Iain will have a great heiress for his loyalty, and Iain has been as clear that he expects as much.”
“There are worse fates than being a beloved mistress.” Eleanor smiled and touched her hair.
“I am not beloved now, Gran.”
“Are you certain?”
Did her grandmother think that Iain loved her? Alana was unable to speak, when a knock sounded on the door. “Enter,” her grandmother said.
The door was pushed open. Iain stood there on the threshold, staring at Alana, unsmiling and grim.
Her heart surged and she slowly stood up.
