Page 120 of Bride of Ice
Feiyan scowled. “Damn it, Isabel, ’tis meant to be a secret. Where did you hear that?”
Isabel shrugged. “I pried it out o’ my ma.”
“And who else have you told?”
“No one.” At Feiyan’s darkening glare, she repeated, “No. One.”
“Who is it?” Hallie asked. “Who else is to be wed?”
Feiyan murmured, “I’m not at liberty to s—”
“Jenefer,” Isabel answered, earning her a chiding cuff on the shoulder from Feiyan.
Hallie gaped. “Jenefer?”
“But you didn’t hear it from us,” Feiyan warned.
Hallie shook her head in disbelief. “She won’t do it,” she whispered. “Jenefer won’t be forced to do anything. Least of all marry a man she doesn’t know.”
“That’s not the problem,” Feiyan said. “She knows him.”
“’Tis Morgan mac Giric,” Isabel volunteered.
“Morgan?” Hallie blurted. Feiyan winced, and Hallie lowered her voice to a murmur. “Jenefer would sooner kill him,” she predicted. She’d seen her attack the Highlander. Her hotheaded cousin loathed Morgan mac Giric with a passion.
Feiyan grimaced. “A week ago, I would have agreed. But much has happened in the last few days.”
“Exactly,” Isabel said, “which is whyeverythingmust be brought to light.” She gave Hallie a pointed, pressuring glare. “Everything.”
Hallie returned an icy look of warning. If her little sister mentioned her tryst with Colban, she would string the lass up by her braids.
Turning the conversation back to Jenefer, Hallie asked, “Do you honestly believe Jenefer will wed Morgan?” She couldn’t imagine her cousin bedding a Highlander, much less mothering his squalling infant.
“Honestly? I think she would. But I don’t think ’tis possible. Not now.”
Hallie glowered at her cousin. Sometimes Feiyan’s elusive answers were worse than not knowing anything.
“Because there’s a third party involved?” Isabel said, giving Hallie a smug smirk.
“How did you know about that?” Feiyan said with a puzzled scowl. “I’ve told no one.”
“No one had to tell me. I know the king can’t force someone to wedoneperson,” Isabel said proudly, as if she’d deciphered a coded missive, “if they’ve already slept withanother.”
“Shouldn’t you be going to the chapel with the others?” Hallie cut off Isabel before she could spill the family secrets to everyone within hearing. Whatever Jenefer had or hadn’t done, it was her own body and her own affair. Just as Hallie’s indiscretions were her own business.
But Isabel persisted. “Isn’t that right, Feiyan? If a person is sharing a bed with someone, the king can’t just—”
“You!” Hallie blurted out quickly, motioning to a squire in the armory. “Fetch my helm!” Then she flashed Isabel a glare that would melt steel.
“Aye,” Feiyan replied to Isabel. “One cannot have two wives.”
“Or two husbands.” Isabel turned to Hallie in triumph. “See?”
Isabel was spouting nonsense. Hallie didn’t know exactly whatcomplicationsFeiyan was talking about concerning Jenefer. But when it came to Hallie, no vows had been spoken. No matter how much Isabel wanted to believe the Highlander was The One, what had happened between them was not a marriage. It was a tryst.
She turned toward Feiyan, in the hopes of migrating the conversation to a safer subject. But the stealthy lass had already slipped away to converse privately with her mother.
“Go to the chapel, Isabel,” Hallie bit out. “Perhaps you can ask God for forgiveness for prying into other people’s affairs.”
