to the keep. While you gut the animal, you can wonder who I am—healer or hunter?”
Chapter 8
“Stop! Stop and leave it for Aliss to do,” Raynor complained, pushing her hand away from his face.
“Aliss is busy with Tarr. You are stuck with me, and I am just as gentle,” Fiona insisted.
“As gentle as a stomping bull. You and your sister are as different as your voices.”
His remark stunned Fiona silent, though only for a moment. “There is no one who can tell our voices apart.”
“I can, and with ease.”
The door flew open suddenly and Aliss stood in the doorway appearing flustered.
Fiona knew immediately that something troubled her sister, and Tarr had to have been the culprit.
“I think I have made a dreadful mistake.” Aliss’s chest heaved as though she had run miles.
“I assume things did not go well?” Fiona asked, standing and dropping the washcloth in the bowl of warm water on the chest beside the bed.
“Tarr did not hurt you, did he?” Raynor asked, his effort to rise proving futile.
With a firm hand to his chest, Aliss pushed him back on his pillow. “Nay, he did not.”
“This should not be discussed in front of the prisoner,” Fiona said sharply.
“My concern is for Aliss,” he snapped. “She has been kind to me and I will not see her hurt. Tarr is not dim-witted, and in no time he will distinguish the difference between you two, since it is obvious you play a game with him.”
“Tarr knows nothing,” Fiona said, bending over Raynor. “You would do well to keep any knowledge of our identities to yourself.”
“You threaten me?” Raynor made to move again.
Aliss held him down and nudged her sister away with her shoulder. “Stop, the both of you. Threats will settle nothing.”
“Nor speaking in front of the prisoner, as I have advised time and again,” Fiona said, frustrated. “We need to speak in private.”
“My eyes, Aliss, you promised.”
“There are more important matters than your eyes,” Fiona said.
“You will open your eyes this night, I will make certain of it,” Aliss assured him. She squeezed the warm cloth in the bucket and placed it over his eyes. “Leave this on and rest until I return. I will not be long.”
They walked outside, Fiona insisting a reprieve from the keep would do them both good. They smiled, presenting a perfect picture of twin sisters taking a leisurely stroll, and all the while Aliss detailed how Tarr attempted to kiss her and how she had gotten flustered, they tripped, he landed on top of her, and she had frantically pushed him off.
Fiona realized that her sister thought she would be mad, but she smiled. “I would have loved to have seen that.”
“You are not upset?”
“Why would I be?” Fiona asked as they left the group of cottages to walk in the open meadow.
“For one, I feared I exposed my identity; and second, I think you begin to care for this man and I worry I may have hurt your chances with him.”
“I admit he stirs an interest in me. I am amazed at his patience in dealing with us. I thought by now he would have been frustrated and returned us home.” She shook her head. “Instead, with patience, he shows us all he has to offer a wife”
“Do you wish to alter our plan?”
“Not unless I see a reason to change it.”
“What if Tarr actually toys with us?” Aliss asked. “What if already he can tell us apart?”
“Not likely,” Fiona said with confidence. “He has demonstrated that he is a man on a mission. He is as determined to have a strong wife who will defend his land and bare him mighty sons as I am to wed for love.”
Aliss stopped and turned a soft glance on her sister. “You and Tarr are much alike.”
Fiona crunched her face, about to shake her head.
“You cannot deny it. You are both skilled hunters, strong-willed, independent,” Aliss said. “You match each other perfectly.”
“Where is love in all this?”
“Perhaps it would grow if you wed and gave it a chance.”
“And if it does not? I am stuck.”
“The problem is that time is running out, and quickly,” Aliss said, addressing the obvious. “This ruse cannot go on for long, one of us is bound to make a mistake or Tarr, sharp-witted as he is, will figure out that he is actually spending more time with Fiona than Aliss. Then there is Raynor. I have not healed him only to see him die.”