Page 5 of The Guardian’s Favor

“Indeed. She’d not have gotten very far, of course. And I was surprised she opened to me, told me she could no longer endure her father’s cruelty. Which, had I not intervened, would have been on display that day.”

Aidan recounted how he’d convinced Lady Clarissa of the dangers she would face at such an age were she successful. He told Gillian of the large amount of coin it took to persuade the maid and others who had witnessed the incident to agree to keep it silent.

“I thought often about the desperation that Lady Clarissa must have felt to consider herself safer outside Theffield’s walls, alone, than within them.”

“Meeting her affected you,” Gillian correctly surmised.

“Aye, and Graeme too. She was such a pretty girl, her wide eyes telling us even before we spoke of the difficult life she’d endured. Theffield’s daughter was quite sheltered. Meeting us was a novelty for her.”

Gillian frowned. He’d not meant to sadden her.

Brought back to the present, Aidan attempted a smile. He did not want to appear a sentimental fool by asking aloud how they’d managed without her for so many years. Lady Gillian’s mere presence brightened Highgate End.

Shifting in his seat under Gillian’s gaze, he resumed his story.

“Graeme teased me the entire day about the incident. As we were given a tour of the manor, my thoughts were indeed elsewhere.”

“On the girl?”

“Aye. Her eyes haunted me that day and for years later until—”

A soft knock at the door interrupted them. Gillian’s maid, a young woman nearly as protective of Gillian as he was, entered the room.

“Is there aught you need, my lady?”

“Nay,” she said. “As you’ve likely heard, we are expecting guests. See to them, if you please.”

“Aye, my lady. I believe they’ve already arrived.” She bobbed a curtsy and left.

“Until?”

Aidan stood. “Until many years later. It appears Douglas was much closer to Highgate than his messenger anticipated.”

He held out his arm. The lady of Highgate End would want to greet their guests.

Gillian took it but did not allow him to pass over the rest of the story so easily. As they walked from the chamber, she prodded him to finish the tale.

“Did you see her again?”

They wound their way through darkened corridors and to a set of circular stairs that led down to the great hall. He deftly avoided answering her question by moving in front of her, a habit he’d gotten into whenever they descended such a tight stairwell. He did not need to be told a fall in her condition would be detrimental to his wee niece or nephew.

“You did. You saw her. When?”

Taking her arm again as they reached the landing, Aidan delayed for as long as he could without appearing rude. Just as they arrived at the entrance to the hall, he said, “Years later. We ought to greet our guests.”

Gillian gave him a look that told him his escape was only a temporary one, and well he knew it.

Escorting her into the hall, Aidan watched his brother, who was speaking to one of the most powerful men in Scotland. A large, fearsome-looking one who would not be waylaid, no matter his request. And when both men looked his way—Douglas with a nod of greeting and Graeme with a look of worry—Aidan already knew the outcome.

They would be traveling south, to Theffield.

Bloody hell.

* * *

“My lady?”

Eda entered the chamber hesitantly, as if she were a stranger who had not been there when Clarissa burst into the world, killing her mother in the process. As if she had not been present for the one and only time Clarissa had ever stood up to her father—the argument that had left him red in the face, spitting mad and denouncing her as a daughter.