Page 72 of My Highland Bride

He doesn’t flinch. “Aye.”

“Try again. And don’t neglect our host.”

“Your host,” he emphasizes. “I am here but briefly, to bring you news.”

Cettina waves me off, but she is disrespected enough behind her back. I’ll not allow it to happen in front of me. Or her.

“I am but her representative,” I say.

Father Aiken looks from me back to Cettina, and then to Lord Carwell. Something in him seems to give, and he nods once, a slight but definitive movement. Cettina and Carwell send all others from the hall, including Scott, who is rightfully displeased as he outranks me. But he says nothing as he leaves the room.

Only then does Father Aiken remove his hood.

“How did you know we were here?” I ask the priest.

“They move in two days’ time,” he says, ignoring my question. “Rawlins has retreated back to Hempswood, apparently thinking better of his involvement despite that Saitford was his doing. Whitley nearly called off the attack, angry over Rawlins’s retreat, but instead he means to move forward without the twenty men Rawlins was to provide.”

Cettina leans forward. “So Whitley is here already?”

“Aye. He and his men are scattered throughout the village with their supporters.”

“How many?”

“No more than fifty.”

“Do they suspect us? Is that why Rawlins retreated?” Cettina asks as I move forward to stand between her and Father Aiken.

“They do not. Rawlins retreated because he is a coward.”

He says it as a statement of fact, not opinion. And I’m reminded once again how dangerous this man is, and what he’s done in the past, in the Prima’s name.

He is not a man I’d trust if given the choice.

“Whitley is a fool and a coward,” Cettina says, her voice nearly as deadly frightening as the Elderman’s.

Father Aiken reveals nothing of his opinion of Cettina’s brother-in-law.

“Why do you help us?” she asks him. “And why does Father Silvester wish to start a war between Edingham and Meria?”

The priest lacks expression as he studies her. “Because Lord Hinton has made a formal declaration that he intends to fight King Galfrid for his crown.”

No words could have surprised the three of us more. I think of my meeting with the king’s commander, Lord d’Abella, in Murwood End.

“Galfrid is reluctant to name Hinton as heir, but the man is gathering support from the church. The same church that crosses the border. Hinton will be no friend to the queen.”

“Who will King Galfrid name instead?” I had asked.

“I do not know.”

“Father Silvester,” I say now, “wishes for war as a means to help Lord Hinton secure the crown. Turn the people against a king who cannot control the borders. Turn the king’s attention away from his usurper.”

Again, no reaction.

“Hardly a usurper,” Father Aiken says tonelessly, “as the king’s closest relative.”

Though no fan of the king’s, Cettina defends him now. “Their laws are the same as ours. The successor is chosen.”

But the priest does not seem to care.