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“Aye, because we were children,” Aidan said.

“And younger brothers both.” Lawrence smiled at Clarissa. “And so we decided to become blood brothers, and promised never to treat each other as mere ‘youngins,’ the word my own brother used to describe us. I despised the word and all of the trappings that came along with being second—”

“Blood brothers?” Clarissa interrupted. But then she seemed to notice Lawrence’s thumb still hovering in the air. “Do not tell me you—”

“We did,” Aidan assured her. “Which is why I ask now,” his voice turned serious, “for your family to take her in. We have reason to believe—”

“’Tis done.”

When Lawrence held out his hand to Clarissa, Aidan’s chest swelled with pride. He could not have chosen a better brother, with the exception of the one he’d been born with.

“I will explain on the way to Theffield.”

About to lead Clarissa into the keep, Lawrence laughed aloud. Luckily, none but the three of them were there to hear it.

“It seems my friend does not want me to get much sleep,” he said. “His nighttime jaunts have become more and more common of late.”

Aidan found himself grinning as he followed the pair back toward the keep’s entrance.

“I fear it is my fault,” she said.

“If I faulted you for anything,” Lawrence said, “it would be for choosing him”—he nodded his head back toward Aidan—“rather than a real chief’s second son. A man worthy of such a woman—”

“That’s enough,” Aidan said, knowing his friend did indeed have a reputation with women to uphold. Or at least, Lawrence thought he did.

Though he couldn’t see Clarissa’s face, Aidan could imagine her sad smile when she said, “A woman whose very presence has become more of a burden than she would like.”

He was about to respond when his friend did so for him. “Your father is a burden on you—and so are his cruel interventions to a matter that should have been put to rest long ago.”

Lawrence turned back toward him, his sly smile making Aidan groan in anticipation of the words he was about to utter.

“I knew you would not let her go,” he said. “And now we will show Lord Theffield exactly what it means to be the second son of a Scots chief.”

Despite the dire situation they’d found themselves in this night, Aidan could not help but smile at his friend’s words. He’d always said a second son was the fiercest of them all, for he was freed of the expectations that weighed down the firstborn. And though he did not quite believe it to be true, the knowledge that Clarissa was safe, for a time, and that Lawrence would be by his side, come what may, Aidan breathed a bit easier.

If they walked into a trap of Theffield’s making, then it would be up to them to find a way out.

Chapter 18

“Where is she?”

Aidan ignored Douglas, who glared at him from the corner of the room. Theffield had deliberately kept them from speaking alone, so the warden knew only what the earl had told him—that unless Clan Scott confessed to hiding his daughter from him and revealed her whereabouts, they were at an impasse.

Knowing he risked raising the earl’s ire, Aidan nonetheless refused to give him what he desired.

“The same day you left Theffield Castle, after calling upon my good graces to assist you—”

“You were willing to do nothing more than stall our progress.”

Though he said the words, Aidan did not share Clarissa’s confidence that her father had never intended to help them. But it was the only move they had left, and so he would make it.

“How dare you question my honor,” the earl snarled.

Aidan did not back down. “How dare you accuse me of kidnapping your daughter.”

“Enough!”

Douglas had not become Lord Warden of the Scottish Marches by keeping quiet. Men feared him, but unlike Theffield, most respected him too.