Page 32

“Rory,” Galien started, but his cousin wouldn’t let him finish.

“This is Keston House, not the Boar.”

“She’s safer without me.”

As Rory filled his mug, the memory of his last glimpse of Reina as he shut the door, ensuring she was secure for the evening, came back to him. There was no mistaking that look. Since their first night in the woods, Reina had not hidden her interest in him. That was all this was. An interest. A curiosity, one he knew well would lead to more than he was prepared for, even after just having escaped death.

“You are a fool, Gael.”

“Just thinking to learn from your mistakes.” He raised his mug.

Rory frowned but toasted him nonetheless. “If you think the lesson was to avoid women altogether, you were not paying attention.”

“You were nearly forced to marry for the same transgression you seem determined for me to commit.”

All eve Galien looked for the owner, a man named Edgar. His son had welcomed them earlier, but it was the father who would know more of Dennochbrook. Whom he would question. His son said he would be along eventually, but there was no sign of him yet.

“I’ve determined nothing. But am simply an observer.”

“Observer, ha! No man alive acts more than you, even when caution would serve him better.”

“And no man alive is as inflexible as you, cousin. I despise the king as well as a Scot. But I also know to keep myself alive long enough to fight him.”

“I thought we were speaking of Reina?”

A song broke out on the other side of the hall. Smugglers, from the look of them. Along the passage, they were tolerated, until they dared cause harm. Here, at Keston, such men were revered. At least, the coin they provided was, if not the men themselves.

“We were, though your unrelenting drive to see yourself killed and the torture you’re putting yourself through, even now, are one and the same.”

“I am not tortured.”

Rory laughed. “Nay? And I suppose you didn’t mean to kiss her outside, either? I watched all eve the way you look at each other. If there were two people more tortured, surely I don’t know them.”

Galien could think of a few names, but he was sure Rory didn’t wish to hear of his companions who hadn’t had an angel of mercy to free them from their prisons.

“Do what you will, cousin. I am curious, though, what Lady Reina plans after she learns the truth?”

“You think it is her, then? That she is the babe of Dennochbrook?”

Rory shrugged. “I know not. Though the circumstances do seem peculiar. Either way, she will need to return to Anbarth. You are prepared for that?”

Was he? Galien had given little thought to her return, having focused, until now, on their escape. “What she does next will be up to Reina.”

“Aye? As I see it, she could decide to return, no matter your findings, and you will never see her again. Or she will learn her father is as much a bastard as his king, be disgusted by her findings, and decide to become a nun. What other choices does she have?”

The absurdity of such a thing would have made him smile if the situation were amusing. Which it was not. “A nun, Ror?”

“You think any man will have her after this?”

Galien had thought something similar, though he’d never have voiced it so crudely. But he also knew, while her prospects may have changed, they were not completely diminished. Her father was a wealthy man, and that wealth could even buy a husband. However, the thought of it, of Reina being purchased like a prized mare, made him ill inside his stomach.

“Forgive me for speaking true, cousin. But she is not Oriana. She has no clan to catch her, should she stumble. Her people will be. . . less forgiving.”

Galien finished his ale and held his hand up to deny another. “So you would have me act on my impulse, bed the woman, and what? Marry her?”

Rory’s shrug was his answer. “If there is anyone in this family less equipped to give advice on women, it is me. I simply am stating what I’ve observed.”

The man was infuriating. “I am to bed.”