“Are ye happy with how things went tonight?” Marissa asked, anxious to break the silence that had fallen between them.
“Aye,” he said. “The council seemed to take a likin’ to ye.”
She chuckled. “Most of them, anyway.”
“Dinnae let McKellen get to ye,” Arthur murmured. “The man has always been a pain in the arse. He was terrible to me faither,and now he’s terrible to me. I’m certain if ye asked him, he’d tell ye that me family was the reason for all the evil in the world.”
Marissa couldn’t help but chuckle. But when she looked at him, she was a little surprised to find his face solemn.
He’d stopped walking, his grey eyes glinting in the moonlight as he watched her move. Marissa stopped as well, turning to face him.
“Is everythin’ all right?” she asked, cocking her head to the side as she glanced at him.
For the first time since she had met him, Arthur seemed hesitant. Doubt shone in his eyes, and he seemed to be considering whether or not to speak.
I can be patient.
And patient Marissa was. She waited for a few moments, the gentle hum of those still at the cèilidh and the music of crickets the only sounds filling the night.
Finally, Arthur let out a sigh. “Joseph is a bastard,” he admitted.
At first, Marissa thought he was telling her a joke, about to start admonishing his brother. But when she started laughing, he shook his head.
“I mean, truly,” he said, his voice still serious. “Me faither sired him with one of the local village women. It wasnae until after Joseph’s maither died that he found out who his faither was. He showed up on our doorstep, screamin’ like a banshee that he was our braither. And ye need only look at him to ken the truth of it.”
“The council didnae treat him kindly,” he continued. “They tried to keep me from allowin’ him to live in the castle. Said that nay bastard should have rights to the castle, or rights to be me man-at-arms. But Joseph was so young, and he had just lost everyone.”
“I was a new laird meself. Our faither had passed shortly before his maither, and he was so lost. He didnae ken how to handle it all. I was all he had.”
He looked at her expectantly, and she stepped forward. With a shaking hand, she reached out and touched his arm.
“Ye did the right thing,” Marissa assured him. “He is yer braither. It doesnae matter how it happened. Ye two share the same blood. There’s nay shame in bein’ there for him.”
Arthur took her in, his eyes roaming over her. Emotions played over his face, one after the other. Shock, grief, worry, anger, acceptance. Each one lasting less than the last.
Marissa wondered how many people he had felt he could talk to, felt safe confiding in.
I can be that for him.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, there was a loud, sudden rustling in the hedges to their right. A hand darted out, and metal glinted in the moonlight.
Marissa hardly had time to register what was happening before a scream wrenched itself from her lips. All she could see was the glint of a dagger in the moonlight as it was thrown, heading directly toward her chest.
Arthur moved faster than she would have thought possible. One moment he was about to speak to her, and the next he’d wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him and out of the way.
She hardly had time to register anything at all. Only the feel of his large body pressed against hers, the strength of him as he wrenched her from the spot where she’d been standing.
The dirk that had been thrown landed tip-down on the ground with a thud. She stared at it, her heart hammering so loudly that it was all she could hear.
Someone was shaking her. Someone was speaking. But all the noise sounded like it was coming from very far away.
“Marissa!” Arthur yelled again, the sound of his voice finally breaking through her shock.
She blinked at him. Nothing made sense.
“Someone tried to kill me,” she muttered.
Footsteps came rushing toward them, and immediately Marissa’s heart raced faster.
