Sin didn’t join them for supper that night and as soon as it was over, Callie went to find him. Simon suggested she try the castle parapets and though it seemed an unlikely place, she went anyway.
True to Simon’s predication, she found Sin sitting alone, perched between the crenelation. He had his back braced against one stone wall, his foot against the one opposite it and his left leg dangled dangerously over the edge, out into the night.
“Thinking of jumping?” she asked.
“It would make you a rich widow if I did.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Care to push me?”
There was something about his tone that made her wonder if it was a teasing comment or a sincere test to see if she would.
She moved to stand by his leg and gave him a chiding stare. “Nay, I rather like having you about. But you haven’t been about this evening, have you? You’ve been hiding again. Care to tell me why you are out here?”
“I wanted some fresh air.”
“But up here?”
He shrugged. “I like it up here. People generally don’t bother me.”
She cocked a teasing brow. “Bothering you, am I?”
“Nay,” he said to her surprise. His gaze was warm and tender as he looked at her. It was a vast improvement over the normally empty stare he used. The one that kept her from seeing his mood.
He was gorgeous in the moonlight, leaning back against the wall. The moon was large and bright and allowed her to see his features plainly. There was something very masculine about the way he sat almost straddling the wall. He was at ease and yet she knew he could spring into action like a hungry lion at the slightest provocation.
Shivery from the intensity of his presence, she reached out and touched his knee. “What are you thinking about?”
“Trying to guess where the rebels will strike next.”
“You don’t think you quelled them tonight?”
“Do you?”
“Nay,” she answered honestly. The Raider had never ceased when Aster had asked him to. And she supposed The Raider, being one of their clan, actually liked Aster. Therefore, it was rather hard to imagine he would stop for Sin.
Sin folded his hands over his taut stomach as he studied her face. “I’m sure all the rebels are together tonight, plotting. Did Dermot make an appearance at supper?”
Her heart stilled at his question. Could he possibly suspect...
“Aye. Why do you ask?”
“He didn’t stay the whole meal though.”
Fear ran rampant through her. Where was he going with this line of questioning? In truth, she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out. “How did you know?”
He gestured to the yard below and she saw a shadow moving toward the castle. “Dermot went to Fraser’s a short time ago.”
“They are old friends.”
His gaze went back to her and sharpened on her, making her even more fearful than she’d been before. “Why are you suddenly so nervous?”
“Nervous?”
“Aye, you have the same look about you that you had the day I met you on the turret stairs and you were trying to escape.”
The devil’s hairy toes if he wasn’t eerily perceptive at times. No wonder Henry valued him so. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear the man had the gift of Second Sight. “How are you able to read people so easily?”
“It’s what allowed me as a boy to be able to tell if my masters were going to allow me to approach them in peace or if I’d be searching the rushes for my teeth should I disturb them. Now answer my question.”
Callie watched her brother walking back toward the keep. In spite of their differences, she would never betray him. She’d never told anyone about the time she’d seen him riding back from a raid. Aster would kill him if he knew Dermot rode with the rebels.
