“Gareth.”
“Why do you go by Gar?”
“Probably for the same reason you are called Mattie,” he said. “Something in childhood that stuck. That is my identity now. Gareth is a stranger.”
The necklace came off and Mattie carefully set it on the table. “Are you named for someone?”
“Nay,” he said. “But my siblings and I all have singular names. Nothing nearly as elaborate as yours.”
She went to pull the pins out of her hair. “How many siblings to you have?”
“Six,” he said. “Four brothers and two sisters. My sisters are young and silly and they will be thrilled to have an older sister in you. I hope you are prepared for a good deal of hero worship.”
Mattie looked over her shoulder at him, grinning, as she pulled an iron pin out of her carefully coiffed hair. “How old are they?”
“Elsbeth has seen eleven years and Madeleine has seen nine,” he said. “Sometimes, we call Madeleine ‘Maddy,’ so in order not to confuse you with my ridiculous little sister, I hope you do not mind if I only call you Matilda.”
“I do not mind.”
“Good,” he said, watching her unwind the hair from her head in a fascinating moment for him. He’d never watched a woman groom herself before. “Because Mattie is a name for a girl. Matilda is a name for the wife ofCù fola. A great and noble queen.”
She paused in her movements. “Cù fola,” she repeated softly as she translated it. “Blood dog? Blood wolf?”
“Exactly,” he said quietly. “A name the Scots gave me. For fierceness in battle, I suppose.”
She resumed unwinding her hair, but her movements were pensive. “And the name of your castle again?”
“Gleann na Fola.”
“Valley of Blood.”
“Correct.”
She fell silent as she finished unwinding her hair. When it was all unpinned, she began to run a comb through it. “You said that your fortress was brutal and remote,” she said. “I am coming to understand that it must be the truth. Valley of Blood Castle? It sounds like a terrible place.”
Gar had been swept up in watching her comb her hair, the way it glistened in the firelight.The woman belongs to me,he found himself thinking. Of all the things he’d thought he would be feeling at this moment, awe wasn’t one of them. He was positive he’d only feel resentment and bitterness, but that exquisite creature before him had changed his mind. At least, she had for the moment. He had no idea what he would be feeling in a day or two, but right now, it was awe.
Awe and interest.
“It has its moments of beauty,” he replied belatedly to her comment. “It sits on the banks of a beautiful stream. There is peace in the valley when no one is trying to kill us. And there is an entire city of rabbits nearby. I will trap some and have a cloak made for you.”
She looked at him in horror. “When I was a child, I had rabbits as pets,” she said. “I cannot eat them to this day. Your offer is generous, but I am not sure I could wear a cloak of dead rabbits.”
He snorted. “Not to worry,” he said. “I can have something ugly killed for you so you can wear its hide. How do you feel about ferrets?”
“I had one of those as a pet, too.”
“Whathaven’tyou had as a pet?”
She glanced at him, giggling, because his tone was one of exaggeration. “Pigs,” she said. “Cows. No goats. But plenty of rabbits, ferrets, dogs, and cats.”
He shrugged, sitting down on the bed. “That does not leave me much to work with,” he said. “I can always shave my head and weave you something warm out of my hair.”
Mattie burst into laughter. “A nice scarf, mayhap?”
“Anything you like.”
She continued laughing. “Keep your hair,” she said. “But I appreciate the thought.”
