Page 16 of Laird of Steel
Swannoc scoffed. “The men o’ Darragh say he could best Laird Dougal.”
Ede gasped again and turned to Merraid. “Were ye friends with him then?”
“Aye.” They might never have been more than that, but they had definitely been friends.
“So he spoke to ye?”
Again, Swannoc answered. “O’ course he did. He looked after Merraid when she got her nose broken.”
Ede’s mouth went round. “He did?” She clutched a napkin to her chest. “What was he like, Merraid?”
He’d been kind. Gentle. Chivalrous. And self-sacrificing. He’d offered to look after her, even though he would have much preferred to join the battle.
But she wasn’t about to tell them all that.
“He wasn’t so very grim, if that’s what ye want to know.”
Ede hid a smile behind the napkin and murmured, “I wish I had a broken nose so he’d look after me.” She giggled.
Swannoc smacked her arm. “Put your eyes back in your head,” she scolded. “Ye’re only half-grown. Besides, he’s a noble knight. He has no use for a wee servin’ lass like ye.”
Merraid’s jaw tensed.
Ede pouted. “Ye’re a mean old killjoy, Swan.”
“Swannoc is right,” Merraid told her, snapping a napkin in the air. “’Tis a muddle-headed maid who’d waste her breath makin’ such a silly wish.”
Merraid’s harsh words and the ugly truth might hurt Ede at the moment. But in the end, the lass would be glad she hadn’t spent years as Merraid had, feeding an imaginary beast. It was much better to face reality now than to cling to false hope.
Merraid briskly folded the napkin and placed it on the table.
Everything was put in its place now.
The tablecloths.
The napkins.
And the maidservants.Allof them.
“Fetch your shears, and meet me in the garden,” she said. “We need to cut herbs for the cook.”
Moments later, crouching beside the thyme, Merraid still had trouble letting go of her own silly wish. With each snip of her shears, she tried to sever her long ago memories of Gellir.
His devotion to her as war blazed around them. Snip.
His protectiveness when he’d confronted her attackers. Snip.
The joy they’d shared when the enemy was defeated. Snip.
His shame when he’d loaned Feiyan his clothing and was forced to stand before Merraid in nothing but his…
“Merraid!”
She jumped, narrowly missing her fingers with the shears.
Ede was running full-tilt toward her, shears in hand.
Swannoc caught Ede by the scruff of the neck. “Don’t run with shears, ye ninny.”
