Part 21 (1/2)
She quickly averted her eyes, her mouth thinning. She shook her head and seemed about to speak, but she said nothing. However, her expression was unmistakable. Regret. She regretted what happened and the pain she had caused.
”What's the matter?” he asked.
”I didn't know that so many would die... I thought-”
”You didn't think! Otherwise it would have been obvious!” He was angry suddenly-at himself, at her. Had he not been so eager to bed her, believing her absurd fiction about being a wh.o.r.e, no one would have died. He would have stayed alert, she would not have knocked him in the head with a jug, and no Grahams would have penetrated Annancreag.
Her regret vanished, replaced with resentment. She stared into the fog, silent, stoic.
Alex's anger dissolved. Well, he'd lost that opportunity. She wouldn't speak to him when he was raging at her and he didn't blame her. After a pregnant pause he asked, ”When I came upon you in the forest and again at Lochnith... you were trying to escape. Surely you had a plan for a new life. Or will you pretend to be a boy forever? Riding alone or with outlaws?”
”I have a plan.” Her voice was stiff and she still refused to look at him, staring instead into the swirling darkness.
He nodded thoughtfully. ”Very well. What plan were you advancing when you proclaimed yourself my nephew?”
”I was hoping to discover my stepmother's whereabouts.”
”Your stepmother...? The dowager Lady Graham?”
She slid him a sideways look. ”Yes. The one who ran away with your brother, Sir Patrick.”
”The one who bewitched my brother.”
Fayth made a disgusted sound. ”She did not bewitch him.”
”Oh, aye, she did. I've proof.”
”Proof?” she scoffed. ”Please, share. I'm beside myself.”
”After you and Wesley kidnapped Caroline, we went to Graham Keep, hoping Caroline was there, as well as Patrick, since Ridley had promised to release him when Rob and your sister wed. But he never did. Ridley swore he had neither of them and let us search Graham Keep to prove it. I found a small sack in your stepmother's chambers. It contained nail parings and a lock of Patrick's hair.” It contained another item that Alex was not about to share with her, that he'd shared with no one but Rob. ”What else could it be but bewitchment?”
”Your brother had been a prisoner for nearly a year. Why would it be necessary for Mona to bewitch him? Wouldn't he already be indebted to her for helping him escape?”
”Perhaps. But Patrick hates being beholden to anyone and I have a hard time envisioning him selling his sword arm to protect a woman.”
”Who says she needed him? Why must women always need men?”
”The Clachan Fala.”
She rolled her eyes. ”Not that rubbish again.”
”It's not rubbish. Well, at least your brother doesn't believe it is.”
”What about you?”
Alex shrugged thoughtfully. ”I don't know what I believe. Legends are oft based on truth. Even if she's not the keeper, she might believe she knows where it's hidden and she'd need protection in her quest. So she put a spell on Patrick that made him her servant.”
Fayth let out an incredulous breath. ”What a fantastic story. I would never have thought it of you.”
Irritated, Alex said, ”Obviously you believe them traveling together, otherwise you wouldn't be asking after Patrick. What's your theory?”