He perched on the bench and she sat beside him, staring down at the water, which rippled as a few leaves dropped onto the surface. It was so peaceful there, it was hard to believe that this could ever have been the home of a man as dangerous as Kiernan’s father. But, she supposed, he was long gone now. Kiernan remained, running this place as he saw fit, and she needed to trust that her husband was capable of doing what needed to be done.
Even if he seemed intent on doing it without her by his side.
She shifted in her seat slightly, and Archie glanced over at her.
“You cold, lass?”
She shook her head.
“No, just… enjoying the quiet.”
He paused for a moment and nodded, but she could tell there was something else on his mind, though he seemed loath to come out and say it. She peered over at him, narrowing her eyes slightly. There was still so much she had to learn about this place, but a man like Archibald, he had been there for so long, he had to have access to some part of its history.
“Ye should be wary of the quiet,” he warned her, his voice dropping slightly, as though aware that she was waiting for him to speak. “You never know what might be hiding in it.”
She laughed slightly, nervous.
“What could be hiding in the quiet?” she asked, shaking her head.
“Something that doesnae want to be found. Something you’d never see coming.”
His words hung in the air for a long moment, as much a threat, it seemed, as they were a warning. She stared at him, confused. Was he trying to tell her that something was working against her? Trying to warn her to get out of here while she still could? She didn’t know. But the tone to his voice sent a shiver down her spine, and she leaned in, planning to ask for more.
But, before she could, he rose to his feet quickly.
“I should get back to the Keep,” he remarked, and, hardly giving her a chance to blurt out a goodbye, he took off once more, leaving her alone on the bench.
She stared down at the water again, at the long ripples spreading out from the delicate leaves that landed on top of it. Those leaves, so frail, still left a mark on the water where they dropped, and she wondered what else might have been hiding under the guise of something so fragile. What else she might need to know about this place, and these people.
And what else was waiting for her behind the closed doors of the Keep that she had not yet had a chance to explore.
12
Mary laid the paper out in front of her, and stared down at the empty page. When Amelia had asked for her to write to her, she supposed she would not have expected it to come in such strange circumstances.
Her conversation with Archibald earlier in the day had been spinning around her mind ever since, leaving no room for anything else, and she knew she had to make some sense of it. Writing to Amelia, she hoped, would allow her some space to navigate her feelings and her doubts, especially since it was hardly as though she could go to her husband and ask for his help in all of this. He seemed to be doing his level best to stay away from her, though why, she could not make sense of. It was as though he feared being alone in her presence for too long might draw something out of him that he couldn’t control. Perhaps the same thing that had emerged when he had come to her room on the night of the wedding…
She brushed that thought aside, and picked up the pen that laid on the small desk beside the window in her bedchamber. She had asked her lady’s maid to bring her some papers, and she hoped that the implication she’d imbued not to tell anyone aboutit had reached her. She didn’t know if Kiernan would be happy with her reaching out to her family, or if he expected her to cut them off entirely now she was his bride, and she had no interest in testing those boundaries any more than she already had.
But what was there to tell Amelia? Nothing had happened that was worth relaying, not really. She hadn’t even shared a bed with her new husband yet, and life in the Keep had been quiet and peaceful; maybe too peaceful, if what Archie had said to her bore any weight to it.
She didn’t want to worry her sister unduly, and, as she hovered her pen over the paper, she struggled to find some way to put it into words, the truth of what she was feeling, the doubts that seemed to threaten to get the better of her at any moment. She wished she were a more verbose woman, so she could capture the sense of doubt that had been sneaking along her spine since the moment she had arrived here. She supposed it was still better than being married off to some ancient old man of her father’s choosing, but, in some ways, it was difficult to believe that…
Just before she could begin her letter, she heard footsteps approaching her bedchamber. She quickly stuffed the papers into a drawer, though she had written nothing on them yet. A few moments later, Kiernan appeared in the doorway, and she rose to her feet. She felt, for a moment, like she should curtsy in greeting to him, though she knew it would have been ridiculous. He was her husband, not her master.
“Come with me,” he told her sharply, jerking his head towards the door. “I’ve got something fer you.”
A gift? She followed him out of the door, and her fingers flexed at her side as she longed to reach out for his hand. No matter what had happened between them, no matter how tense it had been, she still ached for his touch. Perhaps that was thehardest part of all of this, to be teased with the pressure of his hands on her, then to be denied it all over again.
“Where are we going?” she asked him as they stepped out of the Keep and into the courtyard. The air was crisp and cool, and it bit at her hands as she clenched them into fists to try and stave off the cold.
“The stables,” he replied, shooting a look over his shoulder. There was a look in his eyes that silenced her in an instant. She found, sometimes, that she was still afraid of him, the memories of what Arran had told her about him fresh in her mind. She brushed it aside. She was married to him, she would have to find some way to muster her courage.
They reached the stables, a large wooden building with several smaller booths that contained the horses kept at the Keep. Most of them came to the door of their stable to see who was visiting, and a few of them let out snorts of excitement when they realized it was none other than Kiernan.
She watched as he reached out to greet them, resting his hand on their necks for a moment, smiling as he brushed his fingertips through their hair. His touch was surprisingly tender for these creatures, but she remembered how he had been when they had seen that horse down by the river together, back in Stonehaven. He clearly had a soft spot for these magnificent creatures, and a glimpse of this softer side of him did something to soothe the doubts that had been coursing through her mind all afternoon.
“What did you bring me here to show me?” she asked, doing her best to keep her voice light as they picked their way through the straw to the far side of the stable.
