Bride of Ice (The Warrior Daughters of Rivenloch #2) - Glynnis Campbell Page 0,49
notebook. If she happened to notice it…
She uncorked the vessel, taking a sniff. “You were more like his guardian, protecting him from injury, risking your life for him while you had to fend for yourself.”
He bristled at that. “Nay, ’twasn’t like that at all. There was many a time Morgan saved me from harm.”
“Indeed?” She corked the bottle again and raised a dubious brow. “He didn’t protect you from my cousin.”
Her cousin? The one who had come out of nowhere like a bolt of lightning and hurled the wicked steel star into his chest?
Before he could tell her that nobody could have protected him from that, she set the bottle down and added, “You could have been killed.”
That was true. But it wasn’t Morgan’s fault.
“And leaving you alone to guard the gate.” She clucked her tongue and picked up a second bottle, this one of amber glass. “Why not simply station a pair of fresh men-at-arms there?”
He frowned, wishing he could get her away from the table.
She was right about the gate, of course. The task should have been left to fitter men. Colban had had very little sleep. But guarding the keep had been his idea.
“Leaving you to battle the entire Rivenloch army by yourself…” Hallie shook her head in wonder, lifting the bottle to squint at its contents. “And why hasn’t he sent anyone to find you?” she mused. “’Tis almost as if he considers you…expendable.”
Expendable?
The word jarred him from his self-doubt. Suddenly he saw her ploy. Colban himself had insisted he was a worthless hostage. The clever Valkyrie was trying to trick him into admitting he was valuable after all.
Now that he was on to her game, he could make a move of his own.
He straightened and gave her a smoky smile. “I am expendable. And I warned ye about that before. He won’t pay a farthing to see me returned, let alone surrender the castle that is his birthright.”
Disappointment made a tiny crack in her mask of confidence.
Nonetheless, she continued. “That remains to be seen. How well is your laird connected to the new king? Has he even met him?”
“There have been…correspondences.”
“Correspondences. That’s all?” She flashed him a cool smile. “Even now my kin are seeking an audience with the king. They’re petitioning him and his court for ownership of Creagor.”
Bloody hell. Was that true? Had her clan gone to the king in person to usurp Morgan’s legacy?
Colban didn’t want to think about it. Morgan might not have the status of the Rivenloch clan. But he’d already lost his wife. He didn’t deserve to lose his holding as well.
If the outcome turned out to be unfavorable to Morgan, it was up to Colban to find a way to seize the advantage.
His glance fell on the notebook. The castle plans sketched there might help. If he could hide it somewhere until he had a few hours to study them…
“The Rivenloch warriors have guarded the border for centuries,” she told him, “conquered many a rival army. The shields of the fallen line the great hall.” She set the bottle back down. “I saw no such shields on the walls of Creagor.”
In the Highlands, resources were scarce. If you were lucky enough to obtain a shield from your foe, you didn’t hang it on the wall. You repainted it and put it to good use. But he wasn’t going to brag about thriftiness. Instead, he gave her a cocky grin.
“They wouldn’t all fit.”
She smirked at his boast. Then she began drumming her fingers on the table, an inch from Ian’s notebook.
He had to find a way to lure her away from the precious thing before she discovered and confiscated it.
“Why would a Highlander want to live at Creagor anyway?” she mused. “Wouldn’t you rather be among your own kind?”
“My own…”
He tamped down rage at her obvious slight. His own kind indeed. She was poking him. He refused to be goaded into anger. Besides, he could give as well as he got.
“We’re not so different, Highlanders and Lowlanders,” he said. “We serve the same king, do we not? Ye and I have a sworn duty to protect the innocent. Defend the weak.” He shrugged. “Why else do ye think I leaped from the window?”
It took an instant for her to realize he’d just insulted her, calling her weak. Her eyes frosted over like ice crystals. But she too refused to be prodded to anger.