Page 10 of Scot of Desire
“Bran would never need find out?” Catreena asked.
“Nay, yer Papa Bran never needs tae find out,” Ilyssa said with a laugh.
“Dinnae call him that.”
“He is the most fatherly amongst ye. Aye, I promise, he has nay need tae find out.” Ilyssa sat down on the edge of Catreena’s bed, just as her friend sat up. “We can go out for that drink, enjoy ourselves, then sneak back in without them ever discovering we left this room at all. What dae ye say?”
Catreena bit her lip again.
“What’s this really about?” Catreena asked. “Just a chance fer fun? Or is it… something more?”
Ilyssa didn’t answer right away. She was known enough for mischief that she had hoped it wouldn’t raise suspicion, but she could hardly deny that there was more at stake.
“I cannae just lay down and try tae sleep when me head is full of fears of what is tae come,” she said in a rush, desperate to get the words out and over and done with. “I need a distraction, Cat. Please?”
Catreena hesitated for a minute, but Ilyssa’s hope swelled within her. It would hardly be the first time that Ilyssa had persuaded Catreena to bend the rules a little in their lives. She had been doing it since they were very young, even if Bran occasionally told them off for pushing their rule breaking too far.
“Aye, very well, let’s go fer that drink.” Catreena stood from the bed.
Ilyssa smiled and excitedly jumped up.
“But there is one rule.” Catreena held her finger up in the air between them. “We are just going fer a drink, Ilyssa. Ye may be curious about other things in life as yer braither is, but I willnae be discovering them tonight.”
Ilyssa giggled. Now that Catreena had put the thought in her head, she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like, to share herself with a man. When Bran’s face suddenly appeared in her mind, she thrust it away forcefully.
“Let’s go.” She snatched up a warm wolf’s fur and hastened to the door.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Iam nae sure this one is much better,” Bran said between gritted teeth as he and Tad stepped into the tavern. The first one they had tried was so crowded that after one drink, they had given it up and decided to come to the other. They both now stood in the doorway, angling their heads back and forth as they looked for a little space. “Maybe we should just go back tae the inn.”
“Nonsense.” Tad shook his head. “Let’s enjoy some freedom, Bran.”
“Freedom? We look like pigs packed together in a pigsty.”
“Ye ken what I mean,” Tad whispered and winked as he let the wooden door slide shut behind them.
Bran merely sighed in answer. Tad was a laird. It must have been refreshing indeed to come to a tavern where he was just looked like another man in the crowd.
“One drink,” Bran said eventually, holding up his finger.
“Aye, very well.” Tad chuckled and led the way through the crowds with Bran following slowly behind him.
Bran cast a glance around the room, wary at once. He supposed anyone who did not look in detail at this place would be enamored by the soft orange candlelight and the warm red fires. The whole effect was one of warmth, with leather and pewter tankards full of honeyed mead and golden whisky being passed around.
Aye, it’s a beautiful sight, but there is darkness here too.
Bran saw what lurked in the corners. Men watched people getting slowly drunk intently, no doubt waiting for the opportunity to pickpocket. Some of the drunkards had gone past the point of laughing with their friends and were close to starting a fight with them.
“Whisky,” Tad called to the man at the serving hatch in the tavern.
Bran leaned on the timber pillar beside him, keeping his drawstring wallet on his belt close to the pillar to make sure no one had a chance to steal it off him. He didn’t look at Tad but watched the crowd, watching Tad’s back as he would watch any of his brothers.
“Calm yerself,” Tad said, turning to face him and offering up a pewter tankard of whisky. “Ye worry too much, Bran. That is yer problem.”
“Ye think nay bad can ever befall, dinnae ye?”
“Certainly nae,” Tad said hurriedly, shaking his head. “Our families have kenned enough sadness over the last few years, havenae they?”
