Page 57
“Heather, my lord.”
He glanced at Aidan. The girl, no more than ten and three, was poorly attired. He intended to find out why—and to help as need be.
“Well met, Heather. Thank you for the ale.”
She curtsied again and scurried from the room.
“Where is she from?”
Aidan shook his head. “I will find out.”
“And see that she—”
“Of course, brother. But more importantly—”
“Is anything more important than the well-being of Highgate’s people?”
Aidan rubbed the back of his neck, a sure sign of his annoyance. “So prickly this eve. One would think you’d be in a better mood.”
Graeme gave him a look that would wither a lesser man.
“Very well. That may indeed have been out of turn.” Aidan took a swig of ale. “Though I am happy for you. And for Gillian. It’s about time—”
“Aidan,” he warned, and his brother thankfully stopped talking.
“What happened?”
It took him a moment to realize Aidan was talking about the Day of Truce.
“What did the men tell you?” Graeme drank deeply, cringing at the thought that the bastard Blackburn was walking free even now.
“That Lord Lyndwood, among others, spoke on behalf of Blackburn’s character, allowing him to be declared innocent.”
“Then you have most of it. None were surprised by the other men’s testimony. But Lyndwood . . .”
Aidan took a long draw from his mug before responding. “Revenge?”
Graeme shrugged. “Perhaps.”
“What will you do?”
He looked up, surprised by the question. “What would you have me do?”
Aidan’s eyes narrowed. “This cannot stand. The man was responsible for a raid that
killed—”
“I know well what happened in the raid.”
“Then surely you—”
“What? Am I to call our allies against Blackburn and all twelve men who spoke on his behalf, Lyndwood included? And then what, Aidan? We would start a war, and well you know it. We’d be back to the chaos of our grandfather’s time, when murder and kidnapping occurred daily, on both sides of the border. Is that what we should do?”
Aidan’s voice rose to match his own. “What is the alternative? To sit back and allow an English bastard like Blackburn to lead a raid on our land? To kill innocents and then walk away without so much as a lashing?”
“I don’t know.”
For some reason, Aidan’s own tone softened. Perhaps it was because Graeme so rarely uttered those words. “Cross-border raids are becoming more common. Blackburn would never have attempted such a thing even a year ago.”
