Page 68 of Bride of Ice
He narrowed his eyes in return. Why would she ask that? “None that I know about.”
“Then you don’t know how fierce a brother’s love is.” She uncrossed her arms to run a finger idly along the edge of the table. “Gellir would die before he’d divulge anything that might endanger his siblings.”
Perhaps. But Gellir was young. The youth’s misplaced admiration for Colban and his pride in Rivenloch would lead him to reveal useful information without even realizing it.
Colban had already learned much about the Lowlanders’ fighting techniques, watching the two lads battle beneath his window.
“But perhaps you do understand,” Hallie allowed. “’Tis possible you protect your laird with the same sort of brotherly devotion. You grew up together, aye?”
“Aye.” He supposed there was no harm in telling her the truth about that.
“Of course, it would have been clear that he was heir to the title, while you…”
He chafed at the uncomfortable reminder that he was of lesser status and not born into the clan.
Hallie’s fingers drifted toward one of the tiny bottles on the table, and she casually picked it up.
Colban stiffened. Her fingers were only inches from Ian’s 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 thatnobodycould 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 beenhisidea.
“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 hewasvaluable 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.
