CHAPTER 25
“She’s no better today, then?”Hunter murmured.
Helena shook her head tightly. “She said she wasnae hungry at breakfast. I made her eat a little, which she did under protest, but then she said she was tired and wanted to sleep more. I’m at me wit’s end.”
Hunter clenched his jaw, thinking.
They had met up on the top of the keep walls, where it was less likely they’d be overheard. Already, rumors about what might be wrong with Skye were flying around the keep. Servants whispered in corners, and a few braver people even tried asking her or Helena direct questions.
Nobody except for his councilmen was bold enough to speak to him about it, and rightly so. He couldn’t remember the last time he was so seethingly furious about a thing.
“Ye arenae helping,” Helena added.
Hunter shot her a shocked look. “Me?”
“Aye, ye, lad. Ye are prowling around the keep in the blackest mood we’ve ever seen. Skye has told me that she’s terrified ye will declare war on Clan Bryden.”
Hunter tightened his jaw mulishly. The truth was that he’d been considering exactly that. And why shouldn’t he?
“He humiliated me sister,” he muttered through gritted teeth. “He sent her back to us like a parcel.”
“He didnae humiliate her. Ye are just so keen to be offended. Ye arepricklylately, son.”
Hunter growled. “Maither, I would like nothing more than to punish him. To… To hurt him the way he hurt her!”
Helena said nothing for a moment. She limped over to the wall, resting her elbows on the thick stone and staring out at the landscape.
Even on the warmest, stillest days, a brisk breeze generally blew over the top of the keep walls. Today, with the gray sky above threatening rain, a harsh wind raked them both.
There was rain on the way too, he was certain of that. He could taste it in the air. And maybe a thunderstorm, too. They were long overdue one of those.
“Yer sister doesnae want him hurt,” Helena said, her back still turned. The wind tugged at stray strands of her hair, whipping them about her face.
Hunter felt goosebumps climbing up his limbs in the wake of such a cold wind.
“She isnae thinking clearly,” he answered. “I’m the Laird, and surely I should ken what is best for her. Forus. And revenge?—”
“She’s nae interested in revenge. And since it’s her who has been hurt, it’s her who should make the choice.”
“Should she? As I said, she’s nae thinking straight. She?—”
Helena turned to face him. “War isnae what she wants, lad. None of us wants that.”
Hunter pressed his lips together, resisting the urge to pout like a child. Frustration tangled itself inside him, forming a hard knot.
“I cannae just do nothing,” he mumbled.
“Ye could comfort her. Be there for her, ye ken?”
“I am here for her. But if she’s such a fool as to keep moping over a man she barely kens, then?—”
“A fool? Ha!” Helena chuckled, shaking her head. “One day, Hunter, ye will be in love. Ye will fall in love, and yer whole world will turn upside down. Ye will understand then how quickly one cancatch the plague, as it were. Ye’ll understand that love makes fools of us all.”
He folded his arms tight across his chest. “Nae of me. I mean it, Maither. I have no interest in falling in love.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “Ye speak about it as if ye have a choice. I can assure ye that nothing is further from the truth.”
He sniffed, moving over to stand beside her at the wall. Below, a horde of people snaked in and out of the keep, coming and going all day long.
