Walking across the room, I knocked at the door and tried to rouse Eoghanan. I knew he sat just outside the door. He spent every moment leaning against the doorway since Baodan left. Until now, I’d only managed to get a few words out of him. I intended to change that today.
“E-o, look. In case you haven’t noticed, your name isn’t the easiest to pronounce so I’m just going to call you, E-o. Is that cool?” As expected, he didn’t answer, and I slumped down in the doorway and sat with my shoulder leaning against the hinge. “Come on. I know you’re out there. I see you every time a meal’s brought, or a bath, or they come to empty my chamber pot. You haven’t left, not even at night. I can hear your snoring through the door. Open up. I won’t try to leave, I swear. I just want to talk.”
He groaned, annoyed, but still said nothing.
“You have no idea what a talker I can be, and I have nothing to do in here. So you can either open up this door and talk to me for a little bit or you can sit there with the door closed and listen to me talk at you all day long.”
“Ye doona need the door open to speak to me, lass. If ye insist on doing so, talk as ye are now.”
I shook my head, stopping when I realized that, of course, he couldn’t see me do it. “Nope. I’m afraid that’s not going to work for me. I like to speak to people face to face, not through big wooden doors.”
He laughed, but I could tell I made him uncomfortable. I really didn’t care.
“I doona think Baodan would want me talking to ye, lass.”
“I don’t give a damn what Baodan wants. I’m being held in here like a prisoner when I’ve done nothing wrong. The least you could do is open the door and talk to me.”
I heard him stand and I smiled. I could out-pester anybody. Although I knew I shouldn’t pride myself on it, I usually got what I wanted.
He shouted and I jumped, but it wasn’t at me. He told the guards at either end of the hallway to stand down. “If she tries to run, stop her lads. I only mean to talk to her.” After a moment of no movement, I heard him slip the key inside and open the door.
Seeing me sitting on the floor, he did the same, mirroring my position so that we faced each other, each of us leaning against the inside of the door frame.
“Thank you.” I smiled and leaned across him to peek down the hallway, but he quickly grabbed my arms and pushed me back inside.
“Did ye no just tell me that ye wouldna try to leave? I’ll no hesitate to shut the door again and leave ye to talk with only yerself.”
“I wasn’t trying to leave, I just wanted to see what it looked like. All I saw was the upside-down view. It’s beautiful.”
He nodded and looked up and around him as if he hadn’t taken the time to appreciate its beauty in some time. “Aye, lass, it is. Now what do ye wish to speak about?”
Where to begin? Anxious to ask many things, I decided to start with what pressed at the forefront of my mind. “Why have you been sitting outside my door? Caring for me and being a creepy stalker are two very different things.”
“I’m sitting out here for yer protection.”
“Why?”
“Because ye doona want the men of this castle to enter yer room.”
I crossed my arms but quickly uncrossed them, remembering Baodan’s reaction. The fact that I allowed Baodan to see, but wouldn’t let Eoghanan game me a moment of pause.
“What does that mean? Are you saying that I need to be protected from you?”
He shook his head and looked down at his hands awkwardly. “No, lass. I swear to ye I willna hurt ye.”
“Then who? The other brother? Niall, is that his name?”
“Ye are no afraid to say whatever ye think. ’Tis unusual in a lass.”
“Sorry.” I wasn’t sorry at all. I had no filter, and I didn’t imagine that would change anytime soon.
“Doona be sorry, I doona suppose anyone ever has to fear that ye are pretending to be someone ye are no and that’s more than most people can say.”
“Yes, it’s a problem. What’s Baodan’s problem with you?”
He hesitated as if deciding to share that information, then relented. “He believes that I am responsible for a great hurt, and foolishly he doesna trust me.”
E-o wouldn’t hurt me. I’d spent all of five minutes with him, and I would stake my life on that fact. A pain in his green eyes made my chest hurt, but a deeply rooted kindness lived within him. A kindness I expected he’d been unable to express for some time. “He’s wrong about you.”
He looked up from his hands at me and smiled, obviously surprised. “Why would ye say that, lass? Ye doona know me at all.”
I shrugged my shoulders and grinned at him. “I have a knack for that sort of thing. I’m good at reading people.” I thought of Brian and grimaced. “Well, most people anyway.”
He laughed and I saw his smile for the first time. Large and crooked, his lower lip stuck out in the most adorable way. What could he possibly have done to make Baodan despise him so much?
“Ah, well we all have pasts, doona we? By the look on yer face, I can see ye are thinking about someone in yer’s.”
“Yes, but it’s nothing worth thinking about. Can I ask you a question?”
“Aye, for ye will anyway.”