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“Oh yes. ” She placed the pup in her lap, but he wriggled madly, and finally Elspeth just shooed him free. “Achilles was famously heroic, you know. And peripatetic, just like this fellow. ”
“Peripa… ?”
“He enjoys moving about. ”
He gave her a skeptical look. “Achilles seems a long name to shout about the glen. How about something simpler?”
“Like?”
“I don’t know. A real name. Like Duncan. ”
She bit back a disbelieving smile. “Duncan is the name of your nephew. ”
“Fine, then,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Why not Fergal, or Alasdair, or …”
The dog sniffed his way to the corner, and finding a patch of weeds that’d broken through the masonry, squatted and availed himself.
Aidan laughed again. “Pissing in the bloody dining hall. Bridget will be livid. ”
“You see? He is Achilles. ” Elspeth turned to face him, and this time she was the one to speak with mock stoicism. “He’s a warrior. ”
“A warrior? Seems to me pissing in corners is something more suited to drunkards in public houses. ” He looked back at the puppy, who was enthusiastically flicking bits of rock and weed over where he’d just let his bladder. “No, this fellow’s a sheepherder, plain and simple. ”
“A sheepherder with a white paw. ” She pointed to the white hind paw amid three black ones. “Just like Achilles, with his vulnerable heel. You see?”
“No, luvvie, I do not see. ”
She turned to face Aidan, realizing he didn’t get the connection. And of course he didn’t. When would he have had the chance ever even to hear about the Greek myths? She knew a flare of regret, but seeing the open curiosity in his expression, she relaxed.
“Well, there was this man …”
As she began to recount her story, Aidan marveled at how she seemed to forget herself, rapt in her own tale. He tried to listen to her words—it was a rousing story, after all—but he found he kept watching her instead, how those pale eyes lit with emotion, how her delicate hands fluttered with expression.
But the true revelation was her pretty smile. He realized he’d never seen it, not like this. She’d given him polite ones, nervous ones, self-deprecating ones, but never this broad, easy grin telling him that, for just a moment, she’d forgotten herself.
It was only a squirming, wee mongrel, but the way Elspeth had looked at Aidan, one would’ve thought she’d never before received such a gift. And who knew? Perhaps she hadn’t.
She finally seemed comfortable with him. His coarse ways had cowed her at first. That he’d finally put her at her ease was nearly as great a triumph as escaping Barbados.
The dog came sniffing back to them. Aidan saw how Elspeth longed to hold the creature, but as he bent to get the pup for her, she practically jumped out of his way, and her elbow knocked aside the inkpot she’d put out for the day’s lessons.
“Oh. ” She clapped a hand to her mouth, and chagrin bled her face of the joy he’d seen just a moment before. “I’m so sorry. ”
“You’ve naught to be sorry for,” he said, dropping to the floor to grab the rolling inkpot.
Unfortunately, she’d knelt at the same time, and they knocked heads. “Oh,” she said again, with a hand to her temple. “Sorry. I am so sorry. ”
Anxiety and embarrassment were seeping into her features, and Aidan would have nothing of it. He refused to surrender the contented rapport they’d attained. He snatched up the inkpot and said, “It’s all my doing, luvvie. I’ll fetch a rag. ”
He raced from the room, and Elspeth was convinced it was to flee the likes of her.
She plopped onto her bottom. Her hair had come loose, and she brushed a lock from her eyes. Too late, she noticed the black ink smudged along the side of her hand. “Fool,” she said, scrubbing at it, but her efforts only served to spread the blot along her fingertips. She was certain she must have ink spread all over her face, too. “You’re a fool. ”
She sat in silent shame for a moment, then realized there was an odd stillness in the room. She glanced around. “Achilles?”
Hearing a muffled whimper, she hopped to her feet, pacing the room, calling gently for the dog. She tamped down a surge of panic. Though Dunnottar Castle was clearly inhabitable, there were areas that’d fallen to ruin, piles of rubble in which a tiny pup could get lost or crushed. A high-pitched whine came from the corner.
“Achilles? Come on, boy. Where are you?” She heard
