Bride of Ice (The Warrior Daughters of Rivenloch #2) - Glynnis Campbell Page 0,96

Geoffrey’s shoulder. The lad was stealing toward the door.

“Hey!”

Geoffrey turned his head to follow Archie’s stare. “Hey!”

The lad squeaked, opening the door and wriggling through it as slickly as a trout escaping a net.

Geoffrey started to bolt after the lad, but Archie grabbed his arm to halt him.

“Shite, let him go,” he said with a sigh. “He won’t say a word. And I’ve lost my appetite. He was a bit too ripe for me anyway.”

For an instant, rage simmered silently behind Geoffrey’s eyes. Apparently, Geoffrey hadn’t lost his appetite. And he’d probably gone to a great deal of trouble to secure the lad.

But he shuttered his anger and nodded his head. “As you wish.”

Geoffrey straightened, sweeping up the royal decree from the table. Then he slipped it inside Archie’s embroidered gambeson, beneath his leine.

“Be brave, Old Cock,” he said, a pet name that always made Archie smile, since only two years separated them.

But this time Archie’s smile was bleak as Geoffrey departed with a deep bow and an elegant flourish of farewell.

All the while, the king’s decree rested against Archie’s bare chest, burning an angry hole in his heart.

“You have to tell her today,” Isabel insisted, as she’d been insisting every morn for the last seven days.

Hallie sighed as she shivered into a fresh leine. She wasn’t about to tell anyone about her tryst with Colban. Especially her mother. Her mother was so confident about Hallie’s ability to put the clan before herself. How could Hallie disappoint her?

“Why would I do that, Isabel? ’Twould only upset everyone.”

Isabel pursed her lips as she struggled into her own leine, which was beginning to grow tight around her blossoming chest. “’Tisn’t just.”

“Life isn’t just.”

“You deserve to be happy, Hallie.”

Did she? Or was her happiness just the price of being the most powerful laird at the border?

“I will be,” she lied, rifling through her garments to find a suitable kirtle.

“Nay, you won’t.”

“I’ll learn to be, Isabel,” she amended. “I’m not the first person to have an arranged marriage, you know.”

“I know,” Isabel pouted.

“Besides, I’ll be in good company,” she said, giving Isabel a teasing pinch at her waist. “Jenefer and I will be able to commiserate about our miserable husbands.”

“Don’t be so sure about that,” Isabel said, drawing out a rose-colored kirtle for herself.

Hallie frowned, waiting for her to explain.

“I don’t think Jenefer is miserable at all,” Isabel said. “I think she’s in love with Morgan mac Giric.”

“You too?” Hallie scoffed. “’Tis what Feiyan said. In love with a Highlander? Jenefer? You are a dreamer.”

Isabel pulled out Hallie’s forest green kirtle, the one she said warmed up Hallie’s eyes. “Wear this one.”

Hallie shrugged. She didn’t much care which one she wore. The ladies of Rivenloch were visiting Creagor today to deliver word of Jenefer’s arranged marriage. Hallie should probably wear chain mail, in the event Jenefer reacted badly to the news.

“Let me plait your hair,” Isabel offered. “I have a new braid I want to try.”

Hallie frowned. Isabel’s transparency was annoying. She knew who they’d see at Creagor today. Isable wanted to make Hallie look beautiful for Colban an Curaidh. The Champion. The One.

Rather than argue with Isabel, she shrugged. “Fine. But make haste. We’re supposed to leave after we break our fast.”

Hallie hated to admit it, but the thought of seeing Colban again made her heart flutter.

Part of her longed to see him. These last seven days had felt like an eternity. Visions of his sparkling eyes, his heart-melting grin, and his breathtaking body intruded upon her day and night, invading her thoughts and haunting her dreams.

Part of her feared to see him. Though it would be a blessing in some ways, she wondered if her absence had changed his feelings. Perhaps now that he’d returned to the bosom of his clan, he saw things more clearly. Perhaps his desire and affection for her had waned.

Not that any of it mattered. Her future was set on its course. Fate would not be waylaid.

Still, when they arrived at Creagor several hours later, fate had stationed Colban at the palisade gates. And one glance from him rocked the foundations of her world, making Hallie desperate to rearrange her stars and change her destiny.

Colban’s reaction was well worth Isabel’s special attention to her appearance. His jaw went slack. His nostrils flared. His gaze raced over her every contour, hesitating for an instant at her eyes.

The brief connection hit her like a bolt of lightning. Bright with energizing love. Hot with electric desire. Distance had increased the