“It isnae ye who should apologize, Blaine,” said Dunn as he poked his bottom lip with his tongue. Blood bloomed over it and he winced, the cut deep enough to hurt. “But it’s fine. I wasnae expectin’ anythin’ better from such a man.”
As Elayne stepped away from him, Dunn seemed to vibrate once more with barely concealed rage. He looked towards the castle, where Laird McCoy and her father had disappeared, and his fists clenched tightly as though he could barely control himself.
“Excuse me,” he said, as he started to walk away. “I will be in our chambers, Elayne.”
For a few moments, Elayne, Blaine, and Isobel watched him walk away. As necessary as the performance had been, Elayne couldn’t help but be alarmed now, her stomach twisting with guilt.
If I had answered the laird’s question at dinner… if I hadnae spoken with Isobel about this here, then this wouldnae have happened.
“Perhaps I should make sure Dunn doesnae meet with the lairds,” Blaine said, pushing past the two women to follow him into the castle. Elayne was quick to stop him, though, placing a hand on his arm.
“I will go,” she said. “I’ll stay with him an’ I shall find ye both later.”
As much as Blaine wanted to help, Elayne doubted he was the right person to be around Dunn now. She didn’t fear Dunn would lash out at him—he wasn’t that brash and he seemed to like Blaine well enough—but she was certain he would rather see her than him.
By the time she made it to their chambers, Dunn was already there, his shirt discarded as he tried to take a look at a wound on his back in the small looking-glass that stood on top of her dresser. He seemed to be having some trouble with it, and once Elayne closed the door softly behind her, she approached him to take a better look.
“Can I help ye?” she asked as she reached for the damp cloth Dunn had in his hand. He gave it to her easily, turning his back to her so she could begin to clean the shallow wound. Elayne worked carefully, wiping the traces of blood from his skin, her movements gentle so as to not hurt him further. “How did this happen?”
“While trainin’,” said Dunn. “I didnae even realize I had it until I saw the blood.”
Elayne said nothing more on the matter. She didn’t want to provoke Dunn, to remind him of Laird McCoy’s viciousness and her father’s dismissal of the event. If she could calm him, even for a while, then she would be happy.
For a while, they fell silent, but with nothing to distract Elayne from the sight of Dunn’s muscles, the smooth planes of his back, all she could do was stare and touch, her fingers brushing over his skin. There were a few raised bumps on his flesh, old scars from injuries he must have sustained in battle, and Elayne followed them with her gaze and her touch, transfixed.
She stopped when she heard him gasp as her fingers trailed over one of those wounds. It wasn’t a sound of pain, that much was certain.
This cannae happen.
She had to distract herself in any way she could. The more she allowed herself to explore Dunn’s body, the more she risked taking this too far, just like they had that night a week prior.
“Tell me about yer family,” Elayne said, just so they had something they could talk about, something to take her mind off his body. “If I am tae be yer wife, I should ken about yer family, dinnae ye think?”
Dunn chuckled softly, nodding. “I suppose ye should. What dae ye wish tae learn?”
“Well… how many siblings dae ye have?” she asked. It was something Elayne had always wanted—a brother or a sister, someone with whom she could be so close. The closest thing she had to it was Isobel, but she had been raised by parents who were loving and caring. They had tried to be there for Elayne after her mother’s death, but there was only so much they could do when her father was so cruel and their laird.
“I dae,” said Dunn, and Elayne could hear the smile on his voice, even though she couldn’t see his face. I have three brothers an’ a sister. Me sister an’ I are twins.”
“Twins!” Elayne gasped, her own lips stretching into a soft smile. “What is that like, havin’ a twin?”
“She can certainly be insufferable at times,” Dunn said, but his tone was teasing rather than mean. “But we are very close. Her name is Catreena. Ye must have heard o’ her husband… the Laird MacBean?”
Elayne had, indeed, heard of her husband, but she had always thought Laird MacBean he was much older. If Catreena was Dunn’s twin, then she couldn’t be more than a couple of years older than Elayne, who was only twenty-one.
“I can hear ye thinkin’,” said Dunn with amusement. “What is it?”
“I was only thinkin’, the Laird MacBean must be younger than I thought.”
“Ach nay,” said Dunn. “He is simply older than Catreena. Me an’ me brothers were certainly nae very happy about it at first buttheyseem happy, so we cannae complain.”
“I see,” said Elayne. She could imagine Dunn, along with three men resembling him, trying to intimidate Laird MacBean into abandoning his plans to marry Catreena. “An’ yer bothers?”
“Alec, Bran, an’ Evander,” said Dunn. “Alec an’ Bran are recently married an’ Evander has been engaged since the beginnin’ o’ the year.”
“So, ye’re the only one who is still single?” asked Elayne as she finished cleaning the wound. With a smile, Dunn turned around, and for the first time Elayne realized just how close they were standing now that they were face to face.
“I’m wedded tae ye, am I nae?” he teased. Elayne rolled her eyes at him, but she couldn’t help but respond with a smile of her own. “I never thought Alec would wed, but he proved us all wrong.”
