Page 46

Chapter

M ayhap it was just as well they never did discuss the night before.

As Kieran and Maisie walked into the Red Stag Inn, he watched as she immediately went to work. She seemed to be everywhere at once, flitting through the hall of the inn as if she owned it. Which, of course, she did.

Capable.

It was the word he thought of most when watching Maisie work. Some others came to mind as well, especially after the evening they’d shared—the one, courtesy of a fight just outside the alehouse and their quick departure, they never did discuss.

Sitting in his usual spot, Alice immediately serving him ale, Kieran considered their ride back. More than once he thought to speak with her about last eve, but Maisie’s clear reluctance to do so held him back.

“Kieran,” said a familiar voice.

He’d been so intent on Maisie, watching her work, Kieran had not seen his brother approach. It was a problem, being taken unaware.

“You are not my brother.”

He could see the hurt on Niall’s face at his words, but Kieran would not take them back. Niall knew and did not tell him. For that, Kieran could not forgive him.

“I am as much your brother now as I’ve always been.”

Without asking, Niall sat across from him. Looked toward Alice, lifting his arm. The serving maid immediately brought him ale, Kieran saying nothing. Like their father—or the chief of Duncraig, rather—Niall was a stubborn man. He listened to few people, and asking him to leave would be futile.

“How did you find me?”

“It was not as easy as I expected. But a man such as you does not go unnoticed, Kieran. As you well know.”

He’d wondered if Niall might come looking for him. Kieran had always known if he did, Niall would find him. He did not know a better tracker than his brother.

“Brother,” he spat, unable to consider the word without bile rising in his throat. “If you were my brother, in truth, you’d have told me, Niall.”

“If you had not left without speaking to me, I might have explained that I planned to.”

Kieran had traveled to Glenhaven to visit his brother and his new wife, the sister of the chief of Clan MacKinlay, when he’d overheard that conversation, changing everything.

“I dinnae intend to listen,” he said, oddly not wanting Niall to think it was intentional, the conversation he heard. “The solar door was ajar when I came to see you.”

Maisie had just noticed them. She clearly wondered who the man was that sat with him, but with a gentle shake of his head, he asked her to wait. She understood and moved away, toward the kitchens.

“I realized immediately what had happened when you were nowhere to be found. That you would think I’d keep such a thing from you. To say we are not brothers.” Niall leaned forward. “Kieran. You know me. Better than anyone alive. Look at me.”

He had already been looking across the table, but Kieran’s gaze now did not waver. He did as Niall told him, mostly because he’d always done so. He idolized his older brother. Thought there was no better man alive, including the chief.

It was the reason his betrayal cut so deep.

“You. Know. Me.”

“I thought I did.”

Niall made a sound, like a wounded animal, deep in his throat. It was the sound he made when he was frustrated. “You truly believe I dinnae plan to tell you?”

“I’d been at Glenhaven from sunset to sunrise,” he pointed out. “You’d plenty of opportunity to do so.”

“Aye,” Niall agreed. “But none worthy of such a conversation. ‘Tis not an easy thing, to tell your brother you’ve learned he is the son of your enemy.”

Kieran raised his chin. “‘Tis not an easy thing to learn such a thing either.”

Niall lifted his mug. “Touché.”

His brother drank. Kieran did the same. And asked the question that had plagued him, despite himself. “How long did you know?”

“I learned when Mother came to Glenhaven a sennight before you.”

Only a sennight before? “I thought . . .”

Niall’s jaw flexed. It was his brother’s turn to be angry. “You thought I knew long ago and dinnae tell you?”

Kieran thought back to the morning he discovered his mother had gone to Glenhaven alone. He’d been angry she took only two men as escort and did not ask him to come along. The thought of her traveling, even for just the day, without him or his brother or father, was something Kieran liked little.

“She went to Glenhaven to tell you?” he guessed.

“Aye. With all the talk of you being named Father’s second-in-command, she came to tell me to cease such speculation. When she gave me the reason for it, I was as surprised as I’m certain you were when you heard the conversation between Lina and I.”

That still did not explain . . . “Why did you not tell me as soon as I arrived that day?” Niall was growing impatient, but Kieran, for once, did not back down. “Why, Niall?”

“If you stayed to hear all of the discussion between Lina and I, you’d have known I planned to that eve.

I simply asked her how best to tell you.

I was surprised by your visit, unprepared, in fact.

But there was never a question of whether or not I’d tell you, only how.

And when. I knew it would be a difficult thing for you to hear. ”

“A MacKinlay, Niall. MacKinlay. The clan we’ve been raised to hate.”

“I will remind you I’m now married to the chief’s sister.”

Kieran shook his head. And asked the second question he’d wondered most. “Does she remember?”

“Nay. She was but a child. But wishes to help you discover the truth, if you wish to do so.”

Having Avelina, the chief’s sister, would indeed make learning his truth easier. But Kieran had not considered asking before. He’d been too angry with Niall.

“I’ve been to Aberdale more than once. Have been staying here and visiting each day.”

“Here?” Niall looked around the hall. “Why do you not stay in Aberdale?”

Kieran avoided looking at Maisie. He was not ready to tell Niall about her yet. Not ready to define their relationship. Yet.

So he simply ignored the question. “You planned to tell me that eve?”

Already the sting was gone from his tone. Kieran knew the truth of it: Niall was as honorable a man as any.

He had not known either.

“Of course.”

Kieran had another question. Many questions, actually. “Did she ask you not to tell me?”

His brother looked directly into Kieran’s eyes. “Aye.”

Before he could say anything, Niall continued. “She tries to protect you, Kieran.”

“By keeping the truth from me? What does she know?”

Niall shook his head. “She would not tell me. Only the story they’d always given, that you were found on the riverbank barely alive, a gash on your head, and taken to Mother. She claims none knew of your identity.”

“And yet, she learned I am a MacKinlay somehow.”

“On that, she would not elaborate. Said only that none but she and Father knew, and it was her hope you’d never learn of it. I argued with her, Kieran. Told her it was not right.”

“Arguing with Mother is akin to arguing with Father. Neither will budge.”

“Agreed. Which is why Lina said she will aid you. I will aid you too, if you’d let me.”

“Lina is here?”

“Nay, but I will send for her.”

He looked down into his ale. His brother, a Duncraig. Was he? Or a MacKinlay? Or perhaps both? Of that he was still unsure. He still had no parents to speak of. Was betrayed by a mother who never intended to tell him the truth and was as lost now as before.

Kieran looked up.

Perhaps not as lost.

He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“I know, brother. Now tell me what you’ve learned so far. And how we might fetch a meal. It seems the Red Stag Inn is both our homes for now.”