Page 48 of Edge of Yesterday

Sir Lawren? She’d been so lost in thought, she’d forgotten. Lost in thought? She’d been watching Cailean.

“Julianna,” her mother urged.

Ire flared. She might be willing to go with Sir Lawren, but her mother’s command that she wed—and her meddling—had worn thin her patience. But Julianna’s feelings were of no consequence. She knew better than to gainsay her mother, particularly in front of guests.

Julianna nodded and accepted the hand that Sir Lawren extended. She rose and his fingers tightened as she stepped from the dais. She didn’t have to look back to know that her mother had turned her attention to her nephew. Lady Ravenstone had not one fear that her daughter would disobey her.

Sir Lawren led her between the tables and she caught Cailean’s attention as she passed. His gaze sharpened on Sir Lawren’s hand, covering her fingers where she grasped his arm. A corner of Cailean’s mouth twitched upward and Julianna resisted an urge to yank her hand free of Lawren’s grasp. She wanted to throttle both men.

She and Sir Lawren passed Cailean and her frustration grew with the intuitive knowledge that he wouldn’t give her—or Sir Lawren—a second thought. Once she escaped her mother’s sight, Julianna could feign a headache and retire to her bedchambers. No. Sir Lawren would return to the festivities and her mother would immediately head to her bedchambers. They exited through the hall’s arched entry. If only she could send Sir Lawren from Raghnall. No, that wouldn’t work any better. Her mother would ferret out the truth. She always did.

Sir Lawren led her down the three steps into the bailey and then over to the garden gate. When they reached the stone bench surrounded by her mother’s favorite roses, Julianna plopped down there.

He sat beside her. “Is something amiss, my lady?”

“What?” She looked at him. The lights of Raghnall shone behind him, casting his face in shadow, but the concern in his voice told her she had hurt him.

She offered a gentle smile. “Forgive me.”

He touched her arm. “Have I displeased you?”

Her guilt deepened. He hadn’t done anything to offend her, not truly. She’d been peeved with his interference last night, but his actions were nothing less than she had expected. Yet her ardor had cooled so suddenly and completely that she would have spent the next four Sundays in chapel on her knees if it would keep him from kissing her.

“You have been…distracted,” he said.

“Aye,” she admitted. The last two days had been far more eventful than she liked. Her thoughts swung between the memory of what she’d seen Crowe and his men do in the forest and questions Cailean incited in her.

Lawren gave a slow nod. “You worked hard in preparing for the celebration. I should have realized how tired you were. Forgive me.”

“You are too kind,” she said.

He leaned closer. “I live to please you.”

That, she thought, would end all too soon. But that, too, was natural, and it was uncharitable of her to find fault in him for being human.

“Let me escort you to your bedchambers.”

She gave a short laugh. “That would not please my mother.”

He stood and extended a hand. “Then we will not tell her.”

The castle lights lay behind him and she couldn’t discern his expression, but she heard the amusement in his voice. It would be some time before he let her forget that he knew her little secret. Did he intend to draw her closer by keeping more secrets from her mother? The idea bothered her. So much about him suddenly irritated her, but she placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

She would have to be careful. What would he do if he knew she’d spied on Crowe? Or that she had hidden a stranger inside the walls of Raghnall?