“Thank ye, Arran. I doona deserve yer kindness. I’m no so good as I believe ye think that I am.”
Arran stopped walking and spun to face Edana once more. “Doona talk in that manner, lass. Ye deserve every kindness in the world.” He paused, deciding that he could attend to the stables later. Perhaps what the lass needed most was to be left alone. “Now, I’ll leave ye in peace. Spend as much time with the horses as ye wish. If ye decide ye would like to go for a ride, Kip would be more than happy to assist ye.”
Smiling briefly, he turned and left. Perhaps it was time he talked to his brother about their guests. They needed to choose a leader and then return back to their own castle and territory. He dinna like to see Edana so distressed. The least he could do for her was to see her safely settled.
*
Edana Kinnaird watched until she was sure Arran was out of sight. Shivering beneath her clothes, she reached up to brush her shoulder harshly where he’d touched her. She could scrub the spot all day, and it would never be enough to rid herself of the Conall filth that he’d now placed there.
She couldn’t stand another moment in captivity here. Each day she spent with the ever-kind and polite Conalls made her hate them that much more.
Her father had been a horrible man. Violent, angry, and disgusting, he’d beaten her mother’s spirit until she’d died of sadness. He’d spent much of his life trying to do the same to Edana. But she was far stronger than her mother. At least her father had even admitted that much.
Edana had always hated her father as well, but he was all she’d had in the world, and she would never be able to forgive the family responsible for his death. Edana had even gone to the Conalls before her father’s planned attack, warning them that he planned to murder them. She’d tried to do the right thing, but it had cost her everything.
Despite Arran’s well intentioned promises, she knew that as soon as a leader rose up among the cowardly men of her father’s clan, she would lose her place as lady of the keep. The new laird would marry, and Edana would be cast out, hated for her father’s crimes.
She’d learned enough of manipulation from her father to know that she had Arran just where she wanted him. With each quick glance away from him and each blush of her cheeks, she knew he thought she cared for him. It would make him weak, as love does to all people, and then she would be in the perfect position to avenge her father’s death.
With each bat of her lashes in Arran’s direction, the desperate seed of revenge took root, twisting its way through every last corner of her mind as she worked out a way to continue her father’s work and destroy the Conalls.
She’d failed her father once by giving away his plan, she would not disappoint him again.
Chapter 3
“Just stay still for a minute, Mom. Can’t you tell I’m trying to talk to you about something?” Bri reached a hand out to grab onto the side of her mother’s dress, hoping it would defer her from continuing the raid on her closet. A habit her mother had developed in the twenty-first century remained even today when all she owned was a handful of dresses. Her mother still enjoyed stealing her clothes.
“Do you think I could talk Mary into making a few more gowns for me? She does such lovely work.”
Bri watched as her mother turned and joined her at the end of the bed. Quickly hiking up her dress, Adelle kicked off her shoes and jumped up onto the feathered ticking so that she sat cross-legged facing Bri. Both women, while now considered beloved members of the family, stood out as oddities in this century. Their relaxed social manners and American accents branded them as the foreigners they were.
Bri smiled, amazed at her mother’s vanity when they now lived in a place where mirrors were few and far between, and just the fact that they had all their teeth set them apart as rare beauties. “I’m sure she would, but I’d expect she will have you chipping in on a lot of the work.”
Adelle laughed. “Oh yes, I expect that she will. Now, what is it that you were wanting to talk about?”
“Blaire.” Bri paused, knowing that the mention of her look-alike would cause a reaction from her mother.
“Oh. Why? I miss the sweet girl terribly, but there’s nothing I can do for her here except hope and pray that she’s happy and has adjusted well.”
Bri watched as her mother’s eyes shifted downward, an odd occurrence for such a forthright woman and a sure sign she truly was heartsick over the idea of Blaire being left in the twenty-first century all alone.
“Well, maybe there is something we can do. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the spell room…”