“Would it change anythin’?”
Once again, Dunn was thrown off by Blaine’s words, not knowing how to answer his question. Was he trying to see if what they were telling them was the truth? If they were truly married? Was he already so suspicious of their relationship that he was trying to get Dunn to admit something?
Dunn didn’t know. All he knew was that he needed to tread lightly around Blaine. As dangerous as the laird seemed, it was Blaine who seemed like the clever one, the one who could see right through him.
“I suppose it wouldnae,” said Dunn after a moment of consideration. “Like I told the laird, I love Elayne. An’ I may nae be a laird, but the Mackintosh Clan would be a valuable ally tae ye.”
“That much is true,” Blaine said with no hesitation. “An’ it is precisely what ye need tae show the laird if ye wish tae get intae his good graces.”
Dunn couldn’t help but frown once more. Was Blaine trying to help him? He couldn’t see how such advice could possibly be misleading, how it could be a trap. Besides, Blaine seemed perfectly genuine, going as far as to slap a hand over Dunn’s shoulder.
Perhaps there was no love lost between Blaine and Laird McCoy. If for whatever reason Blaine didn’t like the man, then he could prove to be a valuable ally to Dunn and Elayne. Dunn could work with that.
“One could say that ye are happy with this development,” he said. He was trying his luck, he knew, and it was risky, but he needed to know where Blaine stood.
Blaine narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to peer right into Dunn’s brain. “I dinnae ken if I’d go as far as tae say I am happy,but I am nae as displeased as the laird. Like ye said, yer clan would be a good ally tae us.”
The two men stared at each other in silence for a while, sizing each other up. It was clear to Dunn that Blaine was trying to understand him, to see if he was hiding something, and so he didn’t try to hide his own intentions. It was better this way; he had no desire to play any games.
“Well then,” Blaine said, giving Dunn one last smile. “I will see ye at dinner.”
When he turned around to leave, Dunn did the same, his mind alight with all the possibilities that stretched beyond him.
It was too early for dinner by the time Elayne finished dressing, so she took the opportunity to do what she had been aching to do ever since she stepped foot in the castle: see Isobel.
As always, she found her in the healer’s quarters, where she helped her mother—since her father’s death—with the sick and the injured or, when there was no such work to be done, preparing pastes and tonics to keep as a stockpile. The familiar scent of herbs assaulted Elayne’s nose the moment she entered the quarters, a scent that always seemed to cling on her friend, making her smell like a garden.
“Elayne!” Isobel’s shriek echoed around the walls, momentarily alarming a man who was lying in on one of the beds at the far end of the room. She ran to Elayne, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her into a tight embrace, one that Elayne eagerly returned.
It had been so long since they had last seen each other, Elayne’s visit to her aunt making it impossible to communicate in any way other than through letters. She had missed her friend dearly, and now that they were together once more, she didn’t even know where to start with telling her about everything that had happened.
“Did ye only just return?” Isobel asked. “I didnae hear o’ yer arrival.”
“Aye, only just now,” said Elayne. “But I must speak with ye urgently.”
Isobel’s bright grin fell instantly and was replaced instead by worry. “What is the matter?” she asked. “Is it about…”
Isobel didn’t need to finish her sentence for Elayne to know about whom she was talking. “In a way,” she said quietly as she pulled her friend away from any prying ears. “Come.”
Only when they were out in the middle of the gardens, surrounded by nothing but quiet did Elayne speak again. By then, the storm was passing over them and the ground had turned into mud, but they found shelter under a canopy nearby, making sure to stay out of the rain.
“How did ye manage tae find out about me faither’s plan?” Elayne asked, her voice hushed and barely audible over the rain.
There was suddenly a flush spreading over Isobel’s cheeks and she averted her gaze for a moment, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth. “Blaine told me o’ it.”
Isobel didn’t elaborate, but she didn’t need to for Elayne to know that the two of them had gotten close. “Did he?” she asked, her lips quirking up into a smile. “Dae ye talk often, then?”
Isobel blushed at Elayne’s words, trying to suppress a smile of her own and failing terribly. “We’re friends, Elayne. O’ course we talk.”
“Just friends?”
“Just friends.”
Elayne was certain that wasn’t the case, but she didn’t want to torture Isobel any more than she already had. Besides, there were other, more important things on her mind now. She couldn’t help but wonder what else Blaine had told her. How much did Isobel know?
If I tell her what happened, will she tell Blaine?
“I need ye tae swear tae me that ye willnae tell Blaine what I tell ye now,” said Elayne, her voice desperate. She needed to speak to Isobel about this, but how could she if there was the threatof Blaine finding out hanging over her head? “Please, Isobel… I need ye tae promise me that ye willnae tell him anythin’.”
