Page 3 of Desire's Ransom
“What’s happened? What’s he done?” There was no need to name their tormenter. When Aillenn didn’t answer, Temair widened the door. Her sister could hide in here with her. “Come in. Hurry.”
Aillenn glanced at the interior of the stable. For an instant, her pale blue eyes flickered with hope.
Then the spark extinguished. She shook her head.
“Come on, Aillenn,” Temair urged. “Yourléineis torn. Ye’ll freeze out there. Bran and Flann can keep us warm until…until he goes to bed.”
Aillenn winced as if Temair had struck her. She fingered the edge of her tornléine. Then, very slowly, an ironic and unsettling smile tugged at her lips. “He’s already in bed.”
Temair frowned. Aillenn was scaring her. Temair had never seen her sister look so strange, so disconnected, so lost in some other world.
“Please come in, Aillenn,” she begged.
“Nay,” she said woodenly. “’Tis too late.”
“What do ye mean?”
Aillenn’s eyes focused on her and then drifted away. “’Tis too late for me.”
After a moment, her sister’s brows pinched and she locked eyes with Temair. She abruptly seized Temair’s wrist in her icy hand, hard enough to make her gasp. “But ’tisn’t too late for ye,” she said, her gaze burning with intensity. “Go, Temair. Get away. Now. Tonight. Save yourself.”
Temair blinked. “What? Why?”
“Just go,” Aillenn insisted, squeezing Temair’s wrist with bone-crushing strength.
“Aillenn, what are ye sayin’? I can’t just leave,” Temair said, wrenching her hand out of her sister’s grip. “Where would I go? Besides, my home is—”
“Temair! Promise me!” Aillenn snarled.
The hounds rose off their haunches in alarm. Temair flinched from her soft-spoken sister’s unexpected harsh tone.
“Promise me ye’ll go, Temair,” she repeated. “Leave thetuath.Tonight.”
Temair’s first impulse was to dig in her heels. She wasn’t about to let her older sister tell her what to do. Especially when it involved kicking her out of her own home.
But she feared the longer she stood here arguing, the more upset Aillenn would become. And the more agitated her sister grew, the more attention she’d draw to Temair’s hiding place. The last thing she wanted was for her da to find out about the stable. If he found out about her safe haven, she’d have nowhere else to go.
“Promise me, Temair!” Aillenn demanded. “Promise me on our dear ma’s grave.” Her voice cracked over the words, and tears formed in her eyes.
Temair frowned. Whatever troubled Aillenn, it must be serious for her to invoke the memory of their ma.
There was no way to refuse her now. Temair reasoned that she could always spend one uncomfortable night in the forest and then return to thetuathin the morn when Aillenn saw the folly of her fears. At least the hounds would keep her safe and warm in the woods.
And she wouldn’t be breaking her promise. Aillenn had asked her to go away. She hadn’t said anything aboutstayingaway.
“Fine,” Temair said with a sigh. “I promise.”
Aillenn’s eyes spilled over with grateful tears. “Good. Good. Ye’ll be safe then. At least ye’ll be safe.” She stared at Temair as if memorizing her face. “I will miss ye, darlin’ Temair.”
“Come with me then.” Temair furrowed her brows. She didn’t want to leave Aillenn alone, not when she was acting so strange. “Bran and Flann can keep us warm. I’ll throw mybrato’er the both of us. We can snuggle together like we did when we were—”
“Nay. I can’t.” Aillenn shook her head in sorrow. “’Tis simple for ye, dear sister, but for me…”
Temair thought Aillenn was being overly dramatic and a bit insensitive. After all, their da never beat Aillenn half as badly as he wailed on Temair. Aillenn’sléinemight be torn, but her face didn’t have a scratch on it. Surely on the morrow, by the light of day, Aillenn would realize she’d been making much out of nothing.
Temair always found that the world looked bleaker when the sun dimmed and the shadows grew long. With the coming of dawn, even a black eye and a split lip seemed trivial.
Aillenn’s eyes softened. She reached out to pluck a piece of straw from Temair’s hair.
