“A healer? How can a woman be a healer?”
She sized him up; it didn’t take long. He was the sort of man who made himself feel better about his failings by diminishing everyone else’s accomplishments.
She smirked. She was not the sort who shriveled away once her intelligence was questioned.
“I understand ye might lack the faculty for the task, but I assure ye that I am well equipped.”
He turned beetroot red. If he undressed and lay across the floor, he would surely be mistaken for an overgrown tomato. He harrumphed and stormed out of the hall.
Darragh watched the man’s retreating figure, unable to chase after him, at a loss for words.
Talia sat and picked up her teacup. She watched his expression turn sour as she took a sip. He could not fault her whenhehad gone behind her back and tried to foist those men on her.
“Are we done?”
The grandfather clock in the corner chimed for the third time, marking the third hour since the first introduction.
She hadn’t realized how much time had passed until she noticed how dim the room had become. The sun slowly hid its rays behind the afternoon clouds, casting an almost grey light.
“Will ye always be this stubborn?”
“If ye ambush me again, then aye.”
They stared at one another, both intending to impose their will on the other. Talia was calm and coy, which seemed to irk him, and he was… well, irked. She had truly enjoyed irking him… until he had touched her so tenderly.
She tore her gaze away.
He sighed, and she realized she had won. But had she truly won, when she still couldn’t meet his eyes?
“I have an appointment this afternoon, so I shall leave ye be for now.” He turned his back to her, so he did not see her scowling.
Who did he think he was to dismiss her like that?
She rose from her seat and stormed out of the hall, hoping not to see his face for the rest of the day.
7
Amber had found Talia just as she reached her room. The moment Talia’s fingers wrapped around the bronze doorknob, Amber turned the corner, almost as if she had been lying in wait.
Talia inwardly chided herself for thinking her overeager.
“I didnae mean to bother ye.”
When Amber smiled at her, she realized she had been overwhelmed by her ordeal that morning. The pressure sluiced to her feet and slipped between the cracks in the floor to its next victim.
“Ye didnae.” Talia looked up at the woman, who had not seemed so tall when she had leaned down for an embrace.
“Lady McGhee has retired to her chambers, and me husband… well, he is with Laird McGhee.”
“Ah, so I am a last resort for yer entertainment?”
“That would be Jenson…” Both women laughed as if sharing a joke. “Let’s take a walk, shall we? Ye shouldnae spend yer first day hidin’ in yer rooms when there’s so much to explore.”
Talia readily welcomed Amber’s companionship. It would be hard to plot her escape if the only path she knew was from her bedroom to the dining room. And not only for that reason. If she were to stay longer, a friend might just come in handy. Amber seemed like the perfect choice.
Amber linked arms with her and led her along. It had been a long time since Talia had felt this way, like a young girl enjoying an afternoon of meandering with a promise of gossip.
Gossip!She decided that was what she needed.
