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“Especially since the woman he married wasn’t an aristocrat,” I pointed out. “Mary—the mistress—was a maid with no noble blood. The wedding was a scandal in more ways than one, even without the whole parentage of John being considered.”
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
“Who his father was?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to do more in-depth research to know for sure, but my gut says John wasn’t the duke’s son. They married very quickly, and he was born eight or so months after the wedding, so there’s a very good chance it wasn’t his child. The duke might not have cared since he needed an heir, and it was his bloodline.” I shrugged as we reached the banks of the loch.
It was breathtaking.
The hills on the other side were blanketed in the snow, and the sun’s rays made it seem like it wasn’t snow at all, but millions upon millions of sparkly little diamonds all knitted together to create the most wonderful kaleidoscope of glitter.
The loch was partially frozen, mostly around the edges, and the ice-cold water lapped at the ice ridges. I watched as one bit of ice broke away and floated along, disrupting the flight path of a small bird that was going back and forth across the loch, dipping every so often for a drink of water.
“Woah,” I breathed, looking around. “This place is beautiful.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” William said, looking out at the loch. “You’re reminding me of that.”
I smiled at him, and it widened when he pulled a key out of his pocket.
“You can’t see the mountains from down here,” he told me with a mischievous smirk. “Let’s go. At least you’re wearing proper shoes this time.”
“Shut up,” I shot back. “It wasn’t like I knew last time, was it?”
He answered with a laugh, and I trudged along the path after him. The trees coated the majority of it, but it was still covered in ice. It crunched and snapped beneath our wellies, and Bruce wove in and out of the trees, never straying too far from us.
That dog was very well behaved.
I definitely preferred him to the bird.
Why couldn’t Bruce be the castle alarm system? He’d probably lick you half to death rather than bark, but still. I wasn’t the biggest fan of being licked by dogs, but it was much better than being repeatedly pecked by a gobby cockatiel.
William unlocked the door to the watchtower and opened it, holding it for me to go in first. “Go all the way up this time.”
“I suppose I can see where I’m going this time,” I joked. “And I’m less likely to break an ankle.”
“Now you’ve jinxed it. Bruce, stay here.”
I looked over my shoulder, and Bruce curled up under a nearby tree and looked at us with big puppy-dog eyes. I pouted, turning away before I gave in and let him come.
I wasn’t sure a millennia-old building was the right place for the little ball of energy that Bruce was.
Carefully, I made my way up the old, uneven stone steps, first to the halfway point we’d exited from before, then kept going. The steps got a little worse as we went up, but a slow ascent was key, and we soon reached a round room with a thick, wooden door.
William stepped ahead of me and pulled another key, inserting this one into the lock and turning it. It clicked, and he opened it, nodding for me to step outside.
Holy.
Shit.
If I thought the view from halfway down was incredible, then this was otherworldly. The mountain range in the distance was fully visible from here, and the rocky, rugged peaks were all white from the snow. Clouds hovered around them in misty groups, not dark enough to bring more snow, but just enough to add an air of eeriness to the setting.
The sky seemed bluer than it did on the ground, and the viewdownwas both stomach-twisting and exhilarating. We were much higher than I’d realised, but it gave us a great view of the thick trees that had grown to circle the tower without impeding on the view.
And it was cold.
Very, very, cold.
