Page 54 of In Bed with a Highland Liar

Aaden raised his hands up as if in surrender, but there was little he could say to that, considering all the times he and Lilith had already been together. The last thing Lilith wanted was to give herself away, so she quickly tried to change the subject, laying a gentle hand on her father’s arm.

“I was only at the keep,” she said. “The one near the loch. I… it wasnae our intention tae go there, but there was the storm an’ Aaden feared I would be in danger if we didnae find shelter, so I took us there. If we could have come back, faither, we would have, I swear it. But ye’d rather I were safe, right? Is it nae better that we stayed there through the night?”

Her father could hardly argue with that. It was a little manipulative, appealing to his love for her and his desire to keep her safe to make him forget that she was the one who had put herself in danger in the first place, but it seemed to work. He nodded slowly and pulled Lilith into an embrace, holding her close. Lilith wrapped her arms tightly around him, and she could feel him trembling now that he wasn’t trying to hold himself together.

“I feared somethin’ happened tae ye,” he said, pulling back just enough to grab her face gently, his gaze still searching for any signs of injury. “After everythin’ Freya told me…”

Lilith looked at Freya over her father’s shoulder, but she could hardly be angry with her for telling the truth. Lilith would have done the same had she been in her shoes. Their father had to know what Ruadh had been planning all this time before one of his daughters could be swayed into a marriage.

“I had tae tell him, Lilith,” Freya said, taking a halting step towards her. “I had nae choice.”

“I ken,” Lilith assured her, nodding. “Ye did the right thing.”

“I dinnae ken what it is ye have told yer faither, Freya, but I can assure ye that nae o’ what ye heard me say is true,” said Evander. It was the first time he had spoken, and his sudden entry into their conversation drew all the attention on him. “It was naething but a lie I invented in a moment o’ anger. I only wished tae anger ye, too, Lilith, an’ fer that, I apologize.”

It struck her, how sincere Evander managed to sound as he was lying straight to her face. It was a talent of sorts, she supposed, one that perhaps had served him well up to that point in his life, making people believe everything he said. Lilith might have believed him, too, had she not known the truth from Aaden, convincing as Evander sounded.

Her father, though, knew better than to trust him. He turned to face Evander slowly, fury etched in his features. His lips curled back into a snarl, that same accusatory finger that had been pointing at Aaden up until then now turning to him.

“Quiet,” he hissed. “Dae ye take me fer a fool? Why should I believe ye? An’ even if I did, what does that say about ye, that ye would lie like this simply tae hurt me daughter? What kind o’ man does it make ye?”

“A terrible one,” Evander said. “But nae one who⁠—”

“That’s enough.”

It was Aaden who spoke, cutting Evander off before he could embarrass them both any further than he already had. With a sigh, he ran a hand over his hair, his entire body tense with agitation.

Evander looked between Lilith and Aaden, quickly coming to the realization that she, too, knew the truth. He had the common sense to stay quiet, though his demeanor changed. It was as though a mask suddenly slipped, revealing his true self, even though there was barely more than a shifting of his shoulders, a tiny change in the way he held himself.

“Very well,” Evander said. “Then I suppose it is time fer everyone tae find out the whole truth. There is nae point in hidin’ it anymore, is there?”

Everyone was stunned by the sudden change in Evander, but it was Aaden, more than anyone else, who stared at his cousin in shock, as though he could hardly recognize him. As Lilith watched him, though, Aaden’s shock slowly morphed into fury and hatred, a small vein in his forehead jumping with his heartbeat as the blood rushed to his head.

“The whole truth is it, cousin?” he asked. Suddenly, he, too, was different; so different from the man Lilith knew. The change was jarring. It was as though she was looking at an oncoming storm, violent and merciless. “So ye ken. Ye’ve kent all this time.”

He thinks Evander kens about their maither.

Could he know about her, Lilith wondered? Could it be that Aaden had been wrong, after all, in his assumption that Evander was innocent in all this, nothing more than a misguided young man whose father had been feeding him lies to keep him in line?

Could it be that he knew they were more than cousins?

Around them, no one spoke. No one even moved.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The last thing Aaden had expected was a warm welcome from Lilith’s family, and naturally, he received none. Laird Stewart was predictably furious, both with Lilith and with himself, though she had the advantage of being his daughter. If Laird Stewart was going to easily forgive anyone, it would be Lilith, not Aaden.

Still, Aaden had made his peace with the fact that the laird wouldn’t be happy with him. What he hadn’t expected was to find out that his cousin knew everything about Ruadh’s plan.

It was time to tell everyone the whole truth, he had said. It was time to reveal everything, more than Freya could have ever known.

That bastard kens. He always kent an’ he did naething tae protect our maither.

It wasn’t often that his mother spoke of Evander in her letters to Aaden. There was a gap in his knowledge of their relationship, but he had always assumed Evander loved her, just like Aaden did. He couldn’t fathom any other possibility. He couldn’t even imagine that Evander could hate her just like Ruadh did.

Then again, perhaps it had been Ruadh himself who had poisoned Evander’s mind, who had made him think of her as nothing but a tool to be discarded once it had lost its use. It wouldn’t surprise Aaden, not when he had witnessed firsthand just how manipulative and convincing he could be.

Had he told Evander the truth about Aaden? Had he told him they were half-brothers? No, it couldn’t be, Aaden thought. Ruadh himself had been adamant that Evander should never find out the truth, so why would he tell him himself?