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He had already been looking across the table, but Kieran’s gaze now did not waver. He did as Niall told him, mostly because he’d always done so. He idolized his older brother. Thought there was no better man alive, including the chief.

It was the reason his betrayal cut so deep.

“You. Know. Me.”

“I thought I did.”

Niall made a sound, like a wounded animal, deep in his throat. It was the sound he made when he was frustrated. “You truly believe I dinnae plan to tell you?”

“I’d been at Glenhaven from sunset to sunrise,” he pointed out. “You’d plenty of opportunity to do so.”

“Aye,” Niall agreed. “But none worthy of such a conversation. ‘Tis not an easy thing, to tell your brother you’ve learned he is the son of your enemy.”

Kieran raised his chin. “‘Tis not an easy thing to learn such a thing either.”

Niall lifted his mug. “Touché.”

His brother drank. Kieran did the same. And asked the question that had plagued him, despite himself. “How long did you know?”

“I learned when Mother came to Glenhaven a sennight before you.”

Only a sennight before? “I thought . . .”

Niall’s jaw flexed. It was his brother’s turn to be angry. “You thought I knew long ago and dinnae tell you?”

Kieran thought back to the morning he discovered his mother had gone to Glenhaven alone. He’d been angry she took only two men as escort and did not ask him to come along. The thought of her traveling, even for just the day, without him or his brother or father, was something Kieran liked little.

“She went to Glenhaven to tell you?” he guessed.

“Aye. With all the talk of you being named Father’s second-in-command, she came to tell me to cease such speculation. When she gave me the reason for it, I was as surprised as I’m certain you were when you heard the conversation between Lina and I.”

That still did not explain . . . “Why did you not tell me as soon as I arrived that day?” Niall was growing impatient, but Kieran, for once, did not back down. “Why, Niall?”

“If you stayed to hear all of the discussion between Lina and I, you’d have known I planned to that eve. I simply asked her how best to tell you. I was surprised by your visit, unprepared, in fact. But there was never a question of whether or not I’d tell you, only how. And when. I knew it would be a difficult thing for you to hear.”

“A MacKinlay, Niall. MacKinlay. The clan we’ve been raised to hate.”

“I will remind you I’m now married to the chief’s sister.”

Kieran shook his head. And asked the second question he’d wondered most. “Does she remember?”

“Nay. She was but a child. But wishes to help you discover the truth, if you wish to do so.”

Having Avelina, the chief’s sister, would indeed make learning his truth easier. But Kieran had not considered asking before. He’d been too angry with Niall.

“I’ve been to Aberdale more than once. Have been staying here and visiting each day.”

“Here?” Niall looked around the hall. “Why do you not stay in Aberdale?”

Kieran avoided looking at Maisie. He was not ready to tell Niall about her yet. Not ready to define their relationship. Yet.

So he simply ignored the question. “You planned to tell me that eve?”

Already the sting was gone from his tone. Kieran knew the truth of it: Niall was as honorable a man as any.

He had not known either.

“Of course.”