“I was,” she admitted. “The chief healer. I earned that position, but it didnae earn me any friends. I had some people I could talk to, but never friends. I suppose I am a loner. Or so me sister always said.Sheis more gregarious, I think. She made friends wherever she went. Everybody loved Margie.”
“Loved?” he echoed, tilting his head.
Nora did not respond to his unspoken question, and he chose not to press her. Was her sister dead? She must be, for Nora to speak of her so firmly in the past tense.
After a moment of silence, Nora cleared her throat, glancing away. The moonlight played across her cheekbones, illuminating the delicate bones of her face in silver.
“I should go back inside,” she said at last. “Me room might have cooled down by now. It’s hot tonight.”
“Unseasonably warm,” he agreed. “Look, I’ll nae force ye back to yer too-warm room. Sit out here with me, if ye like.”
He turned his back without waiting for her response and returned to his spot at the end of the balcony, elbows resting on the wall, staring blankly. A minute passed, then two, and he almost wondered if he would turn around and see that she wasgone when she appeared beside him. A ghost emerging from the gloom. Her robe was now securely tied around her, pinning her nightgown in place and giving her figure a much-needed opacity.
So much the better. He was only a man, after all. Men could be tempted. A gentle gust of wind ruffled her hair, and he caught a passing scent of mint. Herbs, again. His bed smelled of herbs still, or perhaps that was his imagination?
She rested her elbows on the wall beside him, a good hand-span of space between his shoulder and hers. She didn’t look at him, but she didn’t leave, either.
“So,” she said at last, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. “Why are ye wandering around here, in the remotest part of yer own Keep?”
“I always come out here when I cannae sleep,” he said at last.
“Really? Why this spot?”
He shrugged. “It’s peaceful.”
“It certainly is quiet. There are no guards here. Why not?”
Creighton paused, pursing his lips. For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to answer. She’d almost given up home when he finally spoke.
“I daenae care to have the guards kennin’ when I cannae sleep. People gossip, ye ken. There’ll be talk if I’m wanderin’ the halls listlessly at two in the morning, right before a battle or a serious council meetin’. Part of being a laird is to show a fearless face to the world. People look to me and expect me to be a sturdy tree trunk in the midst of a flood, but that’ll nae comfort them if I’m shiverin’ with fear meself.”
“Surely nobody would think ye were afraid, only because ye could nae sleep before a serious decision.”
“Ye would think nae, but that’s how it is,” he sighed. “Still, it’s quiet here. The clans might change alliances and betray their friends. With time, even this keep will be ground down to nothin’. The moon and stars, however, will always be here. Just the way they are.”
“I suppose that is reassurin’,” she conceded, tilting up her chin. “Whenever I look at the stars, I always think of teachin’ me sister to find constellations. I thought it would help her navigate, ye ken? But she has nay patience for that, for anythin’. She said all the stars look the same.”
He chuckled. “There’s some truth in that. Is she a healer too, then, yer sister?”
“Nay, nae Margie. She could be, if she wanted. She’s got a sharper mind than I. She loves to learn, loves to go to new places, and see new things.”
He glanced down at her and found that she was staring off toward the horizon, her eyes glazed over and fixed on something distant that only she could see.
“This sister of yers,” he said at last. “She’s younger than ye, is she nae?”
She looked up at him, surprise briefly passing through her face. “Aye, she is. How could ye tell?”
He chuckled. “I just can.”
There were a few more moments of silence, more comfortable than before. He didn’t bother pushing the conversation along. In the dead of night, they were unlikely to be interrupted. They could talk as long as they wanted.
We have already talked for longer than is wise,warned a small voice at the back of his head. Creighton ignored it.
“Ye were right about me, ye ken,” she said abruptly. He shifted to face her, the cold wall digging into his side in a hard line, just above his hip.
“Oh?” he murmured. “That is a surprise.”
She twisted her fingers together. “A surprise? I thought ye had a very high opinion of yer own, well, opinion.”
