“’Tis no’ wise.” She would not look at him now. She gazed at her basket. At the floor.
“Tell me ye’ll return.”
“I will.” Dark with misery, her eyes touched fleetingly with his. “To check your bandages. That is all, Leith.” She turned to the door. “’Tis all can ever be.”
She went out as softly as she’d come in, leaving Leith in pieces.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rhian had littlesleep that night. At dawn she rose and went in search of the one person from whom she could expect a measure of understanding—Moira.
Following Da’s death, when Moira had taken the place of chief, she moved into his quarters, the same Ma and Da had occupied when the family members were young. It felt strange to scratch at that door now, and even stranger when Moira swung it open.
Clearly having come straight from her bed, Moira stood half-clothed in a simple chemise, her hair hanging loose in a wild red cloud. Rhian glimpsed Farlan sprawled in the bed, one brawny arm still stretched across the empty place where Moira must have been lying.
“I am sorry,” Rhian said quickly, unexpectedly affected by that sight. “I should no’ ha’ come so early.”
Moira blinked at her. “What is it? Is somewhat wrong? Is it the prisoner?”
“Aye.”
“God, has he died?”
“Nay.”
“Good,” Moira said in a low voice, striving not to wake Farlan. “I can think o’ naught calculated to make Rory MacLeod angrier, and he is angry enough already.”
“I need to speak wi’ ye, sister.”
Moira measured Rhian with a swift glance. No doubt she would prefer to return to the warmth of her bed, but she nodded. “Let me don some clothes, just.”
She dodged back inside but did not shut the door all the way. Rhian heard a deep murmur that must be Farlan coming awake, and Moira’s voice in reply.
When she reappeared, she looked more like the sister Rhian knew, composed and in control.
“Where can we go to talk?” Rhian asked. “Where no one will hear?”
“Your quarters. Come.”
“Nay, I ha’ been tossing and turning there all night. I canna bear it.”
That made Moira look at her more closely. “The council chamber, then.”
The council chamber lay at the rear of the great hall, which remained cool, dark, and deserted at this hour. They went in, and Moira struck a light.
“Now, Rhian, what is all this?”
Where to begin? Now that Rhian had roused her sister from her comfortable bed, she scarcely knew. In the habit of caring for others, she did not often express her own feelings. When she did, she often regretted it.
Feelings were for others. And admitting to them rendered one vulnerable. She dealt in practical realities.
Not unlike Moira herself. And look what had become of her cool, disciplined sister—at the hands of a man.
Unable to face Moira after all, Rhian turned away and began laying a fire in the cold hearth. That, she knew how to do.
“Rhian?” Easing back on her heels, Rhian looked at her sister. With concern on her face, Moira hunkered down beside her. “Tell me what has frightened ye.”
Frightened? She wanted to deny it, but aye, it was fear that held her in its grip. Fear that she could not evade her feelings for Leith, and the effects of his kiss.
