“I’d appreciate it if ye would stay out of me relationship with me betrothed from now on,” Creighton continued, meeting first his aunt’s eye and then his cousin.
Hunter’s mouth opened, poised to argue, but Aunt Helena answered in his stead.
“Aye, lad, we’ll let ye manage this yerself,” she said carefully, watching him closely.
Creighton swallowed and gave a sharp nod. “Good. I’ll take meself off to bed now, if ye daenae mind. It’s been a long day, and I wish to rest.”
Aunt Helena folded her hands gracefully over her walking stick. “Of course, lad. Ye are in yer usual room, in the east tower. I should tell ye that the sleepin’ arrangements are done in the traditional MacCrimmon way for betrothed couples.”
Creighton’s heart sank.
“Of course,” he answered, as smoothly as he could manage, and turned toward the castle.
One more thing to take care of,he thought, heart sinking.
The tower steps seemed to grow narrower and steeper each year. Creighton climbed them easily, knowing without looking which steps were shallower or deeper than others, which stone was cracked, and which one was so worn in the middle that it made slipping easier.
This room had always been his during childhood, when everything was so different. Reaching the top of the tower, he paused before a narrow, iron-studded wooden door. Trying the handle, he found it was locked, but he kept a spare key in his pocket.
That had been Aunt Helena’s idea of trust, years ago. They all kept one key each, belonging to their room in the other Keep.Aunt Helena’s room was on the ground floor, easy for her to reach with her bed leg. Like Creighton, Hunter had a room in a tower, the topmost floor. They both enjoyed heights, it seemed.
With a sigh, Creighton fished out the key and turned it in the lock. The door slipped open with no resistance, and he stepped inside.
The curtains were shut, keeping the room dark. It was a simple space with only a few functional pieces of furniture and a large bed pushed into the corner. The only real luxury, aside from the bed, was a padded window seat. That seat was empty now, with condensation fogging up the glass behind it. The bed was messy, blankets piled in a heap. Sighing again, Creighton closed the door behind him and moved toward the bed.
A long silence drew out. He folded his arms across his chest. Despite the tiredness and disappointment of the day, he felt the giddy urge to laugh.
“It’s nay good pretendin’ to be sound asleep,” he observed, tilting his head back and directing the words to the ceiling. “I ken that ye are awake.”
There was a moment of silence, then the pile of blankets wobbled. Slowly, oh so slowly, a pale face appeared from beneath them, hair wound into an untidy braid for sleeping.
“What are ye doin’ in me room?” Nora asked shakily.
This time, Creighton did smile, a tight-lipped thing that did not quite reach his eyes. A more sincere smile would require energy that he didn’t have. The single dance seemed to have, incomprehensibly, drained the very last of his strength.
“I think ye will find that it’s actuallymeroom,” he corrected gently.
Nora swallowed back a flush of embarrassment. The twinge of fear she’d felt at realizing that somebody was in her room had faded, at the very least. It was only Creighton, and she knew by now that he wouldn’t hurt her.
Not intentionally, at least. Notphysically.
Clearing her throat, she shuffled into a more seated position, peering at him over the pile of blankets. In the gloom, it was hard to get a clear look at his face. He had his arms crossed, face impassive as far as she could tell, and he was watching her with a sharpness that made her shiver.
“There must have been a mistake, then,” she managed at last. “I asked somebody to take me to me room, and they brought me here. But if this is yer room…”
“Ourroom, technically,” he observed. “It’s MacCrimmon tradition. Here, betrothed couples share a room while they wait to be married. Betrothals are viewed very seriously, ye see. It’snae unusual for a couple to already have a bairn on the way by the time they wed. Some couples share a room but nae a bed. It depends on what they prefer. Me aunt warned me that we’d be housedtraditionally, but it was too late to warn ye by then.”
A hot blush crept up Nora’s neck. At least he wouldn’t be able to tell in the dark.
“I daenae want to share a roomora bed with ye,” she managed at last. Her words came out with more confidence than she’d hoped. That wassomething. Creighton did not flinch.
“Aye, I did nae think ye would,” he answered comfortably. “But I’m afraid this is what ye are getting’. MacCrimmon Keep is nae as large as MacColl Keep. I doubt they’ve prepared another room.”
She shifted forward again, crawling further out of her nest of blankets.
This is exactly what I need,she thought sourly.I was just on the brink of sleep.
She’d been dozing, almost, in that funny land between sleep and wakefulness, where one’s thoughts grew strange, but the real dreams hadn’t begun. The click of the lock and the door opening effectively jerked her awake. Perhaps that was for the best, because the ache in her gut had not diminished, and she was sure that she saw Creighton’s face in her half-dream.
