“Aye.”
She closed the door quietly.
“Who was it?” Leah asked.
“I am going for a walk with Petro.”
“But yer hair.”
Keely preferred to wear it down. “There’s still plenty of time before the feast starts,” she said, choosing her best cloak and securing it around her shoulders. “If Alex sends for me, tell him where I am.”
“Aye,” Leah said, watching as she walked back to the door.
“The scholar is my friend,” she assured the maid. “And those are in short supply here, Leah. Be happy for me.” Keely slipped into the corridor.
“We will go out the back way,” Petro suggested, taking her arm. “Your father and brothers are in the great hall.”
“Drinking again?”
“Your father has a certain zeal for life.”
“Aye, and once he starts drinking heavily, he willna stop until he falls off his chair.”
Petro chortled. “We come from very different worlds.”
“Yet ye chose to stay here. Why?”
Petro steered her through the passageway, then down a narrow set of stairs that led to the chambers where the maids slept. “I will not leave Alex. And the Highlands remind me of home.”
She’d expected a more complicated reason for him giving up everything he knew. But it dinna matter, she wanted him to stay. He made life more enjoyable.
Impressed with his knowledge of the layout of the ancient, stone keep, she couldna keep it to herself. “Ye’ve only lived here for six weeks, how is it ye’re so comfortable with where to go? Do ye spend time exploring?”
“That’s a nice way of saying it.”
“Whatever do ye mean?”
Petro blushed! She couldna believe it. She’d never seen a man get that embarrassed before.
“Wait,” she said as they stopped on the landing. “Only the women use these stairs.”
“And I am not a woman.”
“Nay, ye are very much a man.” Keely tapped her chin in deep thought. “Are ye wooing one of the maids, Petro?”
The guilty look on his face provided the answer she needed.
“Aye. Her name is Glenna.”
Keely knew the lass and her sister. “She’s a fortunate woman to have attracted a man like ye.”
“We meet at night, after everyone has gone to bed.”
“Does Alex know?”
Petro nodded, and it greatly disappointed her that her husband wouldna confide in her.
“Come,” Petro urged her to keep walking. “I do not want anyone to catch us here.”
