I stride over to him but don’t go to touch. “What do you want me to say? I can lie to you, say nothing, or give you all the details.”
He stands up and grabs my shoulders, makes me face him. “You’ve just fucked her and now you’re here. She doesn’t know. What does that make us? How can you look her in the face when we’re lying to her like this.”
I put my hands on the tops of his arms, steadying them. “There’s a solution.”
His eyes glint, danger in them.
“We draw out whoever it is who’s leaking information.”
Ben doesn’t let go of me and I understand at this moment just how difficult he’s finding this.
“How?”
He starts to relax. His shoulders drop and his breath slows.
“Rumours. Create stress on whoever it is. What do we know so far? Someone close to her can pass on information. What are they getting out of it?”
We sit down on the battered sofa, not lovers at this point, but comrades.
“Money. Something else? Look at your sister…”
Ben’s expression tightens.
“I’m sorry.” I push my fingers through my hair. “I shouldn’t have brought her up.”
He shakes his head. “No, you should. She got in that car knowing she wasn’t going to come out of it alive, Isaac. She was under pressure since I left – they didn’t trust her. It was more than the cause for Majken.”
“It was the family?”
He nods. “She was always searching for what she lost.”
His frown is a pained one and I know there’s no point trying to take it away. We all have scars that never fade.
“We’re looking for more than a person. It’s the cause.” Ben lounges back against the sofa and I wonder how much he’s been sleeping. “The oil. It’s in someone’s or a party’s interest for Scotland to be under someone else’s tax laws. That would be Norway, in this case.”
“Lachlan is making noises about Norway.”
Ben nods. “A lot of noise. The night I got away from where Majken was they were discussing the attack on the castle and making sure that Lachlan wouldn’t be there. They see him as key.”
“They want him in power so he’ll do a deal with Norway.”
Ben nods. “There are other principals. People involved in Alba wanted anything but an alliance with England. Scottish independence was a front though. Even Majken had been brainwashed by it. But she was easy pickings for them.”
“What ruins it?”
“Blair. They know she won’t budge.”
“There are rumours that she’ll abdicate.”
Ben looks towards the window. There’s a lack of light because of the trees and the filthiness of the glass. “We both know she won’t.”
“She may. Her mother’s been encouraging her to do what will make her happy for her, not for her father, but I don’t think she’ll abdicate.” I want to touch him, to give him that reassurance that touch can, but his body’s turned away. He wants to be there for her and it’s killing him that he can’t.
“She’ll go to the polls. A democracy.”
I nod. “That seems to be her way of thinking at the moment.”
“Or an heir.”
