Page 55 of Her Highland Prophecy
“Eleanor? Do ye think ye can give us a moment alone?”
Eleanor glared at him.
“Ye ken that I cannae do that,a brathair. Ye are nae yet wed. I cannae leave ye alone in her bedchamber.”
“Eleanor,a phiuthar, look at her. She is ill. What could we do?”
His sister looked from Diana to Gordain for a long moment and then nodded.
“Verra well. But only for a few minutes and I will be right outside.”
“Are you done discussing whether or not I want to speak to Gordain?” Diana asked. “I am perfectly capable of making that decision for myself you know.”
“I’ll be outside,” Eleanor repeated and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Coward.
Gordain turned and faced Diana who had her arms crossed over her chest again as she stared at him. The silence stretched between them as he struggled for the words he wanted to say.
“How are ye feeling?” he asked finally. It was not quite what he had wanted to say, but it would do to start the conversation going between them.
“Now you want to talk to me?” she asked, her eyebrows nearly at her hairline. “You have been avoiding me for days and now suddenly you, what? You felt bad that I’m sick and decided to talk to me again?”
Gordain flinched but accepted her ire. He deserved it.
“I’m verra sorry,” he said. “It’s nae because ye are ill. I shouldnae have tried to avoid ye from the beginning.”
“Then why did you?” she challenged. “You promised that you would help me find my way around the Castle. That you would teach me how to find my way around. Why did you leave me to fend for myself? Do you know how difficult these last few days have been? Thank goodness for your sisters, otherwise I don’t know what I would have done.”
Her anger burned him like a flame and felt like he deserved every bit of it. If it had only been anger that he sensed from her, he would have eagerly welcomed it. It was the hurt that he could see she was hiding right beneath the surface that bothered him more and felt awful for causing her to feel like that.
“It’s hard to explain—” he hedged, only to be faced with her disappointed look at his words. He could see that she did not want to be reassured with platitudes, but still he hesitated to confide in her about the letter.
“Then why are you here?” she asked, interrupting him. “If you do not want to explain why you suddenly stopped speaking with me, then why are you here?”
“I wanted to see ye,” he replied honestly. “When I heard that ye were taken ill at breakfast yesterday I didnae ken what to think. I should have been with ye.”
“Well, now you’ve seen me, and there is no longer any need to feel guilty. As you can tell, I am feeling much better now. I’m not sure what happened yesterday, or why I fainted, but I am much better now, so you can go back to…whatever it was that you were doing that was so important before.”
With that she laid back down against the pillows and turned her face away from him. He grimaced at how hurt she sounded when she spoke. Why had he thought it was a good idea to stay away from her?
He took a step closer to the bed and sat down on the side of it, near her feet.
“I’m sorry. I thought I was doing what was right.”
“What were you doing that was so important?” she asked, her voice much lower than before.
“It doesnae matter anymore,” he answered, reaching out to take her hand in his. He was relieved when she allowed the contact, even as she bit her lip.
“It didn’t have anything to do with…I mean when we…in your room that day…” she stuttered, her cheeks turning pink.
It was such an unusual behavior for her that he pushed up a bit closer to her.
“What is it?” he asked, stroking her hand soothingly.
She swallowed audibly.
“It did not have to do with what happened in your room after you got injured?” she managed to say, her cheeks blushing even more.
He remembered the moment she was talking about. It had taken everything in him to keep from kissing her at that moment, but he had sensed her hesitation and held himself back.
