“Ye might think ye ken the man beneath the armor,” she murmured, drawing in closer, her voice suddenly dripping with venom. She had been so sweet when Tavish had been there in the room with them, but now he was gone, she clearly saw no need to play pretend at her own kindness any longer.
“But he needs someone who knows his darkness, knows how to hold it,” she continued. “Not someone who’ll be crushed beneath it the moment that he reveals it to her.”
A flood of fear coursed through Ailsa at the sound of those words. She knew that she should not let this woman bother her in such a way, that she was just saying anything she thought she needed to to throw her off-center, but it was working.
Riona grinned at her, letting the words hang there for a moment, before she turned and made her way along the corridor to the chambers that had been arranged for the length of her stay here.
And, as Ailsa watched her go, she could not fight the certainty that her presence here was going to make whatever truce she and her husband had come to that much more difficult.
Chapter Fourteen
Ailsa grazedher hand over the letter to Malric, staring down at the ink on the page and wondering if she should simply swallow her pride and send the damn thing already.
It had been a few hours since dinner, and she had waited in her chamber for Tavish to join her; perhaps, when she got him alone, he would be better able to explain to her what on earth was going on between him and that woman; the one who had appeared out of nowhere to invite herself into their home with no warning.
But, instead, she had been left tossing and turning alone, her head filled with more questions than she could make sense of, and she’d eventually risen to write a letter to Malric.
Malric MacCairn.
The one man that she knew would know more than she did. If something had happened in those years that intervened, then he would be able to tell her.
And it seemed that Riona was determined to usurp her from her position of comfort and stability in this place, no matter what it took. And Tavish, for his part, seemed to have plenty of secrets of his own.
What had happened to Callum?
What had his relationship been with Riona before he had married her?
What had happened with the MacCairns?
She could have asked him, of course, but she found herself convinced with the certainty that he would not give her a straight answer.
She sealed the letter, dripping wax from the nub of the candle that had survived the night and pressing the two edges of the paper together beneath it. In the morning, if she still didn’t have any answers, she would send it, trying to put right the doubts in her mind once and for all.
But it was only fair, she reasoned, that she give Tavish a chance to fill her in before she went behind his back. He had said he was going to his study to deal with some matters of the county. He must have still been there, perhaps poring over papers with a drink in his hand.
Her heart fluttered at the thought, despite the circumstances. Even amidst all of this frustration, there was still something about him that thrilled her, something that she knew she could not deny or ignore.
Rising to her feet, she smoothed out her dress and wiped some of the ink stains from her fingers. Riona would have long since retreated to her own chambers by now, and she was glad that she had finally gotten rid of the woman.
She wasn’t sure exactly what Riona was trying to do, given that she and Tavish were married already; surely, she must have known that he would not be so foolish as to cheat on his wife so soon after they had been wed? It would have been the talk of the town, and his reputation as the cruel man everyone seemed to think him to be would be sealed in stone.
But, as she approached his study, her footsteps faltered when she heard laughter from within.
She slowed her pace, her heart sinking into her shoes as she reached the doorway of the study, and she peeped around to confirm what she already knew.
Riona was in there with him.
She had drawn her chair around to his side of the desk, her hand on his arm, leaning in so close that her hair was nearly grazing him too. And he did not look like he was trying to put much distance between them either. In fact, he was chuckling at something she had just said, shaking his head as if he was doing his best to dismiss some scandalous memory that she had brought up to him once more.
Ailsa felt ice coursing through her veins, a sick sensation clamping at the back of her throat as she took in the sight before her.
She could hardly believe what she was seeing, that he would have been so cruel to her as to spend time with Riona over her. He must have known that she was waiting for him, and yet, here he was, with this woman, laughing it up as though they were old friends.
Or maybe something more.
Riona seemed to notice the movement out of the corner of her eye, and she straightened up slightly to see Ailsa watching the two of them. She made sure to let her hand linger there a little longer than it had any reason to, and then, at last, she pulled back.
A smile curled up her lips, as sweet as it was sharp.
