“Aye, I swear it.”
“Say it again,” she demanded, “and louder for all to hear!”
“I swear it!”
Now Cameron looked truly furious as Aislinn dropped the knife to the floor, Conall rubbing his throat and starting to chuckle.
“A brilliant move for getting your way, Lady De Burgh—”
“Aislinn,” she cut him off, retreating a few steps backward as a buzz of voices grew louder, though she didn’t dare to turn around to look. “No one at home calls me Lady.”
“Aye, with you in your man’s garb, I can see how that might cause some confusion,” Conall countered with amazing good spirits considering she had just held a knife to his throat and drawn blood. He seemed about to say more, but a feminine squeal across the hall made them both turn around.
“Oh, Laird Campbell, is it really you?”
Aislinn watched in wonderment as a young woman with flowing blond hair hastened toward them in a flutter of green silk… while on her heels came another one, dark-haired and a wee bit on the plump side in a purple gown embroidered with gold.
Their faces alight with smiles that soon turned to looks of dismay as a gruff curse behind her made her whirl around to see Cameron striding away—the whole while barking orders at Conall as servants scattered to get out of his path.
“Take Aislinn back tae her room!”
“Aye, brother!”
“Then send those women home!”
“Aye, straightaway—but might they have breakfast first?”
Cameron didn’t answer, Aislinn wholly astonished as he slammed open the double doors that must lead to the fortress kitchens and disappeared.
Both she and Conall accosted in the next moment by the two women who not only looked crestfallen, but had burst into tears.
“Conall, where has he gone?” cried the blonde, while the dark-haired one set off as if to follow after Cameron, though Conall quickly caught her by the elbow and steered her back.
Meanwhile, Aislinn had begun to cough at the overpowering scent of roses emanating from them, her eyes watering.
“Did you douse yourselves with an entire vial of perfume?” she demanded, not surprised that the young women both looked her up and down, still teary-eyed and hiccoughing. “That alone would send any man running! Saints above, do you blame him?”
The two blinked at Aislinn as if they hadn’t fully comprehended what she’d said, but a scarce moment more and they both broke out in fresh wails, now clinging to each other.
“Och, God help me,” Aislinn heard Conall mutter, though an instant later he bestowed the most handsome smile upon the women, which made their weeping cease almost at once.
As Aislinn watched in sheer amazement, he took them both by the arm and led them to the table, his soothing tone as smooth as satin.
“Ease yourselves, lasses. I know how much you’d like tae meet Cameron, but he has tae leave this very morning—”
“Leave?” blurted the blonde, glancing toward the doors where Cameron had disappeared.
“Aye, important business with King Robert. So you’ll have tae leave us as well and return tae your homes—but mayhap you’ll meet my brother another time. Now, why dinna you enjoy some porridge and cream while I attend tae our other guest—”
“Does she hope as well tae become Laird Campbell’s bride?” The dark-haired one looked quite doubtful as her gaze again swept Aislinn from head to foot—which made her bristle.
“Bride? Me? You can have him with all of his scowls and little to say!” With that, she drew Cameron’s breacan more tightly around her shoulders and left Conall staring after her as she proceeded across the hall, though he caught up with her before she’d gone halfway, and took her arm.
“My brother’s orders,” he began, but she yanked herself away.
“You don’t have to accompany me, I can find my own way,” she insisted, giving a nod back to the table where he had left the two women. “Prospective brides? Laird Campbell doesn’t look to me like he’s eager to marry—disappearing from the hall like he did. Whatever is the matter with him? You’d think he was afraid of women the way he went running—”
“Not afraid, just afflicted—och, he wouldna be pleased if I told you.”
