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“Nay,” he said, “I would not.”

Kieran turned his head toward Niall. Though he could not see his eyes, Niall could imagine them. Where his might be judgmental, cold even, Kieran’s would be warm. Kind. Curious.

“I am drawn to her,” he said finally. “Drawn to her in a way I’ve not been drawn to any woman.”

His brother sighed heavily, clearly not pleased to hear it.

Niall continued, “She is an enemy, aye. Or should be.”

“But is not. At least to you?”

“Nay,” he admitted. “She is not my enemy.”

“But she is to our clan.”

On that, his brother was accurate.

“I kissed her,” he said. “And would have done more if I stayed in her chamber.”

“The reason you should not have been in her chamber at all.”

He’d not deny it. “She could not be more innocent. Yet her kiss awoke something in me.”

The words sounded strange to his own ears, so Niall imagined they sounded the same to his brother. Indeed, Kieran did not respond for a time.

“I remember that night clearly.”

A chill ran through him. Niall knew which night his brother referred to even if they rarely discussed it.

“But more than Father’s shouts and your apologies, I remember most your expression. The idea that you’d been responsible for the healer’s injury. . . you are a good man, Niall. ’Twas an accident—”

“Nay.” He rejected the thought. “’Twas no accident that we jested with her.”

“None believed the woman’s story, nor do they now. That she is visited by the devil? That she plays cards with him?” Kieran made a sound.

“Neither did that mean we should have pretended to be that very devil. If she’d not chased us that night and fell. . .”

“She would not have twisted her ankle. Would not walk with a limp and now a cane. Aye, I know it well. And do not fully pardon what you did, but also wish to remind you that you are a good man despite a bad decision in your youth.”

“A bad decision the healer pays the price for even now as an old woman.”

“Do you not think ’tis time to forgive yourself? I reminisce on it only to tell you the man who refuses to allow himself to be spontaneous, who plots and plans and buries his emotions so deeply. . . that was not the man I always knew. And so if you kissed her, then I say, so be it. At least the younger version of my brother is not long dead.”

“A good reminder of the consequences of being rash.”

Kieran sighed heavily. “’Twas not the point I tried to make, Brother.”

“But one you made well enough anyway. I shall not kiss her again.”

“A decision I agree with.”

“You confuse me, Brother. Advising caution and then carelessness and then caution again.”

“I advise nothing but only share my thoughts. That you play a dangerous game with Lady Avelina, but that ’tis good to see you. . . alive as well.”

“That does little to aid my decision.”

“What decision is that?”