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It could not be. Graeme wouldn’t leave for that long without saying goodbye. But looking at Aidan’s expression, she knew it was true.

Graeme was gone.

31

Gillian went about her day as normal. With Aidan as Graeme’s second in command, she was not needed to settle disputes, although the castle accounts had fallen to her, and Gillian was glad for it. The numbers had distracted her from the fact that Graeme had simply left Highgate without a word to anyone.

She pushed the ledgers away and looked around the solar, a small room hidden behind the great hall where Graeme conducted much of his daily business. Aidan despised the small space, preferring to sit in the hall instead. And while the candlelit room was dark, with no inside windows or arrow slits to speak of, she rather liked it.

“Gill, are you in there?” her sister called from behind the partially open door.

“Aye,” she replied, sitting back, apparently finished for the day. It was just as well. She could not concentrate any longer.

A vision in pale blue, Allie sat in the only other chair in the room and looked around. “Do you not feel confined in here?”

“Nay.” She shook her head. “Not yet.”

Allie attempted to smile. “I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for it.”

The it was, of course, Graeme’s disappearance. Even Aidan, who had been attempting to mollify her just that morning, telling her not to give up on his brother, was shocked by it. Graeme had never done such a thing before, Aidan insisted. Which did not make Gillian feel any better.

“I’m sure there is one,” she said, the tightness in her chest making itself known again.

“Tell me again, what was the last thing he said to you?”

“We spoke very little this morn, but we did speak about Father, and I thought it would help matters. I didn’t expect . . . this.”

“Nothing else?”

Gillian shook her head. “Nay.”

She’d thought about that conversation, and last evening’s, so many times. There was just nothing to explain his actions.

“Aidan is none too happy with him,” Allie said.

She’d introduced Allie to him earlier that day, and to her sheer delight, the two did indeed get along splendidly. Not surprising since they were very similar.

“He’s come in to check on me more than once. He is very sweet.”

“Sweet?” Aidan said from the door. “That is a word I can say with assurance has never been used to describe me before.”

Aidan entered the room and looked around, his gaze settling on the ledgers in front of her.

“Busy today?”

Gillian leaned forward, putting her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. “I suppose ’tis time to oversee the meal?”

Aidan and Allie exchanged glances. She’d said it without attempting to move.

“Gill,” Allie ventured.

She just wanted to be alone. “I will be along in a bit. You two—”

“Will speak to Fiona,” Allie said. “Do not worry about tonight’s meal. Shall I see if cinnamon-spiced pears can make their way onto the menu?”

“If only someone here would eat such a dish,” Aidan offered good-naturedly.

“I appreciate what you are trying to do,” she said to them both. “But—”