Considering all the things he could have done, that didn’t sound all that terrible.
“Why do I have the feeling that isn’t all?” she asked.
He sighed deeply. “Very well, I also pinched his crown and tried to seduce one of his granddaughters, but in my defense I had no idea who she was—well, that isn’t true at all—but I was much younger and perhaps a bit stupid.”
She could only stand there and gape at him. “How old were you?”
He shifted. “Old enough to know better. She was also boasting of being betrothed to my half-brother Rùnach. I couldn’t not stir up a bit of trouble. Trust me, he had a narrow escape there and so did I. She was also dark-haired and substantially older than she looked. Lesson learned.”
She retrieved her jaw from where it had fallen. “Is that so.”
“I’ve set my sights on younger women, if you want the truth.”
She would have mocked him for being far too old for the likes of her, but it occurred to her quite suddenly and rather unpleasantly that she would likely not see the far side of four score while he most certainly would, and then some. Even if she did live longer than that, he wouldn’t look a day older than he did at present.
Butshemost certainly would.
He stepped closer, slipped his hand under her hair, then kissed her. She would have reminded him that they were in a bit of a hurry to get inside to relative safety, but perhaps the gate guards could wait. She also didn’t protest when he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
“You know,” he said very quietly, “we might, if you’re interested, rely on my ability to weasel impossible spells out of almost anyone I meet and see if a long and happy life might be granted to us together.”
“Is that possible?” she said, ignoring the anguish she could hear even in her own voice.
He nodded. “If you’re interested in a long and happy life with one such as I, that is.”
“Are you going to change your crown-nicking ways?”
“Quite possibly not.”
She leaned up on her toes and kissed him quickly. “Just don’t hide them under the bed.”
“If you insist,” he said, but he didn’t move. He looked over her head for a bit, then met her gaze. “Are you interested?”
“Is that a proposal?”
“Almost.”
She took his hand because that seemed more sensible than throwing herself at him, on the off chance the gate guards could see through his spell. “Then, aye,” she said simply. “Almost.”
He cleared his throat roughly. “I’ll see what I can do.” He took a step back and winced at Sianach’s nose snuffling his hair. “Please, get us inside so I can put this uncontrollable nag in a stall and we can be about our business. I’d like to be in and out before dawn.”
She thought that sounded like a bit more of a visit than she wanted to make, but ’twas too late to change course at present.
Acair reached out and rapped smartly on the gates. “Look down your nose a bit more, darling.”
She nodded, put her shoulders back, and hoped that would be enough.
She could hardly bear to think about what might happen to them inside such a place if not.
Seventeen
Acair walked behind Léirsinn, holding on to the reins of his horse who had, for a change, decided the time was not right for a bit of a nibble, and started a new list of things for which he would need to repay a certain Cothromaichian prince.
Masquerading as a servant to that glorious woman dressed in the finest traveling clothes he’d been able to provide for her was not one. He would have trailed behind her carrying her gear for as long as allowed.
That he thought he might be sleeping in the barn instead of with her in his arms, on the other hand, certainly might be. Hoping that no one would notice that he’d come brazenly through the front gates was definitely another.
Asking Léirsinn to put herself in peril to slip out of what he was sure would be a very fine guest chamber and let him in the back door was going to go at the top of that list.
