Instead, Cameron gave another low whistle, which made Conall turn on his heel and stride from the hall…though in truth, he was already thinking about Lisette, his heart thudding faster.
He had seen those smudges, too, which made concern flare deep inside him.
He was a brute!Callous and unfeeling to have not taken more care with her and slowed their pace, even a little.
The few times they had paused to rest and water the horses had been brief, their longest stop no more than a couple hours when she had slumped at the base of a tree and fallen asleep, too weary even to eat an oatcake.He had wrapped her woolen cloak more snugly around her, the night air chill and tinged with a fine mist—och, what had he done to her?
Conall took the stone steps of the tower three at a time, almost careening into Aislinn at the top.Yet instead of stepping aside, she blocked him with her body and pushed against his chest with splayed hands.
“Where do you think you’re going, Conall Campbell?”
Her tone fierce, he didn’t attempt to shove past her, though he did wrap his fingers tightly around the hilt of his sword.
He hadn’t forgotten how she had pulled Cameron’s sword from his belt and tried to strike him down, a woman warrior through and through and mayhap the very moment when she had won his brother’s heart.
“My wife.Does she sleep?”
“Aye, finally, the poor lassie.If you’re planning to wake her by climbing into bed with her, shame on you, Conall!She’s pale as a phantom and needs rest, not her new husband demanding his way with her.”
“Is that why you think…?”Conall didn’t finish, for how else would Aislinn judge him from the behavior he had displayed in the past with women?As if reading his mind, she dropped her hands that had balled into fists.
“I’m the lady of Campbell Castle now, and I’ll send any serving maid packing who dares so much as to glance sideways at you, do you hear me?So don’t be thinking you’ll find comfort elsewhere whileyourlady wife is trying to mend from all she’s gone through.An abduction!A sleeping potion!A wedding and bedding—”
“All ordered by the king,” Conall said tightly, though still he did not try to push past her for the indignation blazing in her eyes, aye, not if he didn’t want to find himself shoved down the steps.“She would have been spared the last two if she’d not deceived me—och!”
Aislinn had shoved him now, Conall saving himself from tumbling backward by grabbing the wall.She gasped, too, and caught his arm to help steady him, her lovely features lit by chagrin as she shook her head.
“Oh, Conall, forgive me, but you should know better than to vex a red-haired Irishwoman.I’m just so angry with you.”
“Truly?I couldna tell.”He found himself chuckling, which made Aislinn pull him with her into the hallway, her expression once again grown serious.
“I hope you’re not going to wake her.She’s so sweet a young woman and as yielding as a lamb.How could anyone hurt her so?Her half-sister, her stepmother—though that wretched woman’s gone to her grave, thank God.”
“I know nothing of what you speak,” Conall said with some embarrassment, remembering what Cameron had urged him in the great hall.“What hurt?”
“Years of it, since she was a babe.Lisette was exhausted, but she seemed to want to talk to me so I sat by the bed and listened.Her mother was a kitchen maid and beloved by Lisette’s father, but she died in childbirth.So her father brought Lisette into the house and that’s when the misery started.He did his best to protect her, but after he died last year, things only grew worse.You may fault her for not revealing that she wasn’t Isabeau, and she wept in the telling of how she deceived you—”
“She wept?”Conall felt his throat tighten as Aislinn nodded and rushed on.
“Aye, so sorrowfully that I wept, too, and the serving maids that helped me to bathe her and brush her hair and dress her for bed.She’s so lovely, Conall, but I fear not as strong as you mayhap thought her.”
“God help me, does a healer need tae see her?”
“Tobias has already come and gone.Too much has happened to her too quickly, the course of her life changed almost overnight, to my mind.He agreed that a few days’ rest was the best balm for her.”
Relief coursed through Conall, so furious with himself now that he felt close to choking upon it as Aislinn laid her hand on his arm.
“You’re a brother to me now, so I won’t hold anything back from you.Lisette told me that if you decide to seek an annulment from the Church, no matter King Robert bade you to accept the marriage, she will not raise her voice against it.She fears that mayhap you hate her—”
“Hate her?”Now Conall leaned his back against the wall and lowered his head.“Aye, I can see how she would think that of me.I hardly spoke tae her after we left Dumbarton and have showed her little else but anger…” Sighing heavily, he raised his eyes to look at Aislinn.“I swear tae you and Cameron that I dinna hate her.She’s my wife, though she surely deserves better.I wantednevertae wed, but I willna have the lass weeping because she believes I dinna want her.”
“So no annulment?”
Aislinn had whispered, as if she couldn’t believe what Conall had just said, while he shook his head.
“No annulment.”
“Then swear to me one more thing, that you won’t break her heart.She’s so kind, thinking only of you.She even said that if you choose to seek the company of other women, she will try to understand because she doesn’t wish you unhappiness—”
