“Who is it?” she called, not quite able to keep the tremble out of her voice. “Go away. I could have half a dozen guards here just by shoutin’ for them. Goaway.”
Lies, of course. She was truly alone. For some reason, her mind conjured an image of Creighton, leaning against the wall of the Keep balcony, gazing up at the sky as the night breeze tousled his hair.
“Whoisit?” she repeated, her voice somewhat strained.
The doorknob rattled again.
“Let mein, Nora,” came a childish, disconsolate voice.
Laurie!
Nora scrambled out of bed, throwing back the covers. She was at the door in a moment, unlocking it and yanking it open.
Part of her expected it to be a trick. As if she might open the door and find Laurie there all right, but with a horde of grim-faced soldiers, too. Maybe they’d be led by Andrew, come to burn her as a witch. That was silly, of course. And there were no soldiers and no Andrew, just Laurie. The little girl seemed smaller than before, drowning in an oversized nightgown. She blinked red-rimmed eyes up at Nora, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand.
“I had a bad dream,” the little girl whispered, hiccupping.
Nora bit her lip. “Oh, poor wee lassie. Where’s yer nurse, or maid? Ye must have one.”
Laurie scowled. “I have a nurse, but she sleeps very heavily. I didnae want to go into the next room to wake her. She willnae like it. She told me once that if I’m bad, a goblin will crawl out from under me bed and eat me.”
Nora fought to hold back a smile. “How awful. Ye didnae believe her, did ye?”
Laurie gave her a scathing look. “Nay, of course nae. But it wasbadthat she said it.”
“Aye, perhaps so, but… hey!”
Laurie apparently had gotten tired of standing out in the hallway and came diving into Nora’s room.
“I want to sleep in yer bed!” she exclaimed, making a beeline for the bed. With a flying jump, she launched herself into it, giggling with unadulterated glee.
“Nay, nay, Laurie, yer brother might nae like it,” Nora tried, closing the door and hurrying back over to the bed.
“Why nae?” Laurie pouted, already cocooned in the sheets.
“Well, he…” Nora scrambled to find an explanation that would suit a girl of Laurie’s age. “He doesnae want us to get too close, in case the betrothal doesnae work out.”
Laurie went still. “But I thought that the betrothal meant that ye were goin’ to marry Crey.”
“It does. But sometimes… sometimes things happen. Especially since two large clans are involved. And if I had to go home, ye would miss me a lot, would ye nae?” Nora tried. “That would be a shame. Ye would be sad, and I daenae want to make yer sad.”
Laurie considered this.
“I would be sadder if ye did leave after a while, and I never saw ye again, and we never got to play together properly. That would make me sad, that we never tried to be friends because we were afraid of havin’ to go away from each other.”
Nora blinked, finding herself with no good answer to this.
Of course, the most meaningful words I’ve heard in a long time would come from a bairn.
“I… I suppose ye are right,” she managed.
Laurie carefully loosened herself from her cocoon. “Do ye want me to go back to me room? I will, if ye say that I have to.”
Nora briefly closed her eyes. “Nay, it’s… It’s fine. Ye can stay here. Just daenae kick me in yer sleep, aye?”
“Yay!” Laurie squealed gleefully and dived under the covers, burrowing under the pillows like a little mole. Biting back a smile, Nora clambered in beside her. The bed was large enough, but she had a feeling that Laurie would take up most of the space anyhow.
“I used to let me sister come and sleep in the bed with me when we were small,” Nora said to the ceiling. Beside her, Laurie stilled her wriggling. “She would have nightmares sometimes, too. I always told her to tell me about them, to make her feel better.”
