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“I will not apologize for that,” she said, stubborn as usual.

“I’d not ask you to,” he replied. Though they were alone in this corridor, Galien moved them back, farther away from the hall, lest their voices might carry. What he would tell his sister was not something Galien would have repeated. His cheek still stinging, he bit out the words that would not matter to her but that needed to be said. “Though I am sorry.”

Her tears well dried by now, the Oriana he knew and loved returned with the full force of her anger. “Sorry? You leave here to escort the most hunted man in all of Scotland into England.” It was good he’d moved them. His sister was shouting now. “After you promised. Promised not to get killed.”

When he’d arrived and learned Ori was at Dunmure visiting their cousins, Galien assumed he would have at least a few days’ reprieve before she learned he was home. He’d underestimated her, a mistake Galien should have learned to avoid by now. “Am I not standing here? Alive?”

Not the correct answer. “You know as well as I ’twas by miracle that you avoided the king’s noose.”

“How are you here, Ori?”

For a moment he thought she would plant her hands on her hips and purse her lips together, as she often had as a child. Instead, Oriana’s eyes narrowed. But she did answer. “Word travels quickly among the clan. Uncle Alex escorted me immediately home.”

“You traveled through the night?”

“Aye.”

She’d come with his uncle, their clan’s second-in-command, riding all eve to be here. Galien pulled her toward him once again, kissing the top of her head. “I am sorry to have scared you so, lass.”

This time it was his sister who eventually let go. Calmer now, having gotten her chastisement of his supposed betrayal out of the way, Oriana began the questioning. “How were you captured?”

“Protecting William. He cannot be caught, Ori. He is a symbol of resistance, and hope, to our people now, and you know it well.”

That did not make her any less displeased.

“Why were you in England?”

“William received word that the Stone was being housed temporarily at Rockborowy Manor.”

“Is it true you were rescued by Anbarth’s daughter? And that she is the babe of Dennochbrook?”

“Aye, she rescued me so that I might help her discover the truth. If she is, or not, we’ve yet to learn.”

“What are you not telling me, Gael?”

This woman. Galien pitied the man that would take her as a wife.

He sighed, knowing, as well as he knew the sun would rise in the east each morn, that she would learn of it before long. And because he’d told his sister most everything since they were children, he did not hold back.

“I am in love with her.” From her widened eyes and dropped jaw, it was clear that one piece of information, at least, was new to her. “She is a remarkable woman. A healer, of sorts. But has been sheltered from the outside world for much of her life, likely because her parents wished for her true origins to remain a secret. She released me, risking herself, and has shown a most remarkable strength on our journey here. I’d intended to take shelter at Bristol, to send word here that I was safe, but Anbarth’s men were there already.” At her expression he added, “They’d not made the connection to me, according to Rory. It was he who rode out to warn us.”

“So you were nearly caught twice?”

“I was caught once,” he corrected, “and evaded them the second time.”

“Thanks only to Rory.”

“Our family’s victories are our own. Rarely do we accomplish anything alone, Oriana.” He could be referring to the time he saved Haydn, or any number of other occasions where his extended family had proved stronger together than they were apart. Galien could not imagine a time when the Kerrs and Waryns were not allies. Indeed, they’d been enemies once. Thankfully, those times were long past.

“I would not let her go,” he said, the words Galien had uttered last eve, ones that continued to play over and over again in his mind. The moment he uttered them, he wanted to take them back. Not because he didn’t mean them, but because Galien was not yet prepared to abandon the cause that he’d pledged himself to. And so, he’d taken the coward’s way out.

Kissed her sweet lips one last time and bid Reina to get some rest.

For the first time since she ran across the hall to him, Oriana smiled. A broad, happy, beautiful smile. “She will be the one to save you, Galien. And for that, I love her already.”

With those words, his sister marched off. And Galien was sure he knew precisely where she was heading.

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