He drew rein, slid down off his mount Struggling to school his face into lines of carelessness, he helped Caitlin from the horse. She looked about her, and Niall could see her quiet dismay.
Not that he could blame her. The ground itselfseemed to pulse with hostility, as if it would hurl the intruders from it if it could. Dark and forbidding, the walls towered above them, the stone work crumbling and sprinkled with clay-colored lichens. It seemed nature and neglect were doing what Niall could not, obliterating Castle Daire one stone at a time.
"This will be a good place to hide," Caitlin said, glancing about nervously. "No one could possibly live in such a place."
But at that instant, the door flew open. Caitlin cried out as a whirlwind with copper-bright hair and a rusted sword swooped toward them. Niall lunged for his own weapon, but it was too late. The point of his assailant's blade was at his throat.
"Move, and I will run you through," the grimy-faced warrior snarled with unmistakable relish, the breeze riffling through the gray rags that draped a painfully thin body. Niall could not speak, his chest afire as if the waif had driven the blade home.
Caitlin stepped forward, compassion softening her mouth. "We mean you no harm, lad. We are only seeking shelter here, as you have. We have food to share."
"I take no charity!" the waif scoffed. "This castle is mine!"
"The castle is mine, curse that it is," Niall growled, his voice harsh, unfamiliar to his own ears. "Do you not recognize me, Fiona?"
He caught a glimpse of Caitlin as she glanced up at him in astonishment that the waif before them was a girl, but it was Fiona's expression that lanced his heart. Disbelief, a tiny, unquenchable spark of joy for just an instant before it was drowned by hatred.
"Niall! You! You traitor! The chieftain's stinking cur, groveling at a murderer's feet!"
Dull crimson stained the hard planes of Niall's face. "Enough, girl." He reached up, trying to grasp the sword, but the girl dug the point deeper into the tender flesh of his neck. Blood welled up, trickled in a red path down his skin.
"Stop or die," she said fiercely, only the slightest tremor in her hand betraying her uncertainty. "There is no one I would rather run through with my sword except Conn himself!"
Niall stared at her, trying to gauge whether she would strike. Aye, he judged grimly, if only to prove that she had the courage. Shifting only his eyes, he glanced at Caitlin's ashen face and thenstruggled to steady his voice as he looked back at his sister.
"Fiona—"
"Do not call me that! I am Finn now, master of Castle Daire. Quick enough with my sword to drive away the thieving bastards who used to steal from us."
The words raked through Niall, flooding him with confusion. He wished he could close his eyes, ride away and scrub from his memory the sight of his sister and what she had become. "You were robbed?"
"Mother was helpless, and I was but a girl-child, alone, unprotected! What did you think would happen?"
"The castle was teeming with servants, and the fields—" Niall insisted, more to himself than his mutinous sister.
"Finn?"
Niall started at the sound of Caitlin's voice. Blood of Boru, could the woman not see how dangerous the girl was? Teetering between fear and fury? If the sword had not been at his throat, he would have grabbed Caitlin's arm. But she eased forward, hands extended palm up in the age-old gesture of peace.
"Finn?" she repeated. "Is that your name? I am Caitlin. I have earned Conn's malice as well."
"Any woman who would let such filth as Niall of the Seven Betrayals touch her deserves whatever befalls her!"
"Curse it, Fiona!" Niall snapped. "You will not insult her!"
"She can think what she wishes of me," Caitlin said. "But she needs to hear the simple truth. Conn ordered my death. Niall was supposed to kill me."
Fiona's brows lowered, her gaze suddenly flicking to Caitlin's face. "By a merciful sword thrust or by breaking your heart the way he did our father's?"
Niall's jaw clenched.
“By the sword. Niall tried to do as Conn ordered, but in the end, he could not kill me. We are outcasts now. We need to find someplace to rest, to plan, prepare the things we need to make our escape."
Fiona stared a moment in silence. "And so you come here. Conn would never believe you would sully yourself with the dirt of Castle Daire, would he, Niall?"
"I would rather hide her in hell," Niall admitted.
"Go there and be damned, then! There is nowhere I would rather see you!” Rage flared in Fiona's eyes, almost obliterating something like hurt. “Get off my land.My land,brother!"
