Damn him.
“Aye. Wee Lizzie is three summers.”
“Captain?” she asked in a hushed voice after a few moments of silence.
“Aye?”
“Is there nothing you can tell me about my cousins that will help me make them like me more?”
“Bein’ yerself is part of what makes ye so—” he stopped and choked on his breath. “What I mean is…dinna try to be someone ye are not.”
What would he have said? Irresistible? Charming? He had to keep watch over his mouth. “I’m certain the children will love ye, lass.”
“I hope you are correct, Captain. I admit I have grown spoiled by you and the men at my back whenever I faced something new and alarming. I think about what I shall say to the church when I have to stand before them. I cannot sleep!”
He wanted to ease her fears and he thought hearing news of the steward’s bairns would help. “Ye remember Margaret, aye? She was three when ye were at the castle.”
“Aye. I remember her and her glossy chestnut curls, and how inquisitive she was.”
“She is the jealous one.”
“Oh?” It worked! She giggled softly, like music to his ears. “Who is she jealous of?”
“Me.”
“That is sweet.”
“No. ’Tis not,” he corrected. “She will rant and rave and then not speak to anyone for days.”
“Captain,” she said, sounding more serious. “She needs to be spoken to. It needs to be explained—”
“We have tried. Nothin’ has worked.”
“I see. But, Captain?”
“Aye?”
“Why would she be jealous of me?”
He closed his eyes. No! He couldn’t have been so damned dull-witted! “She would be jealous of any lass with me.”
“With you?”
He stopped talking for a moment. He wished he could stop for good. “Good dreams, Silene.”
“Captain?”
“Aye, lass?”
“I will miss you.”
His heart took on a whole new rhythm and made his tongue betray him. “I willna be leavin’ yer side, lass.”
Chapter Eight
Silene rode herhorse against the defensive barbican and gatehouse into the great outer court and stared, gaping at the huge castle before her. When she was here the first time, it was under the darkness of night and she had been in the back of a vegetable cart. She hadn’t stayed long, four days, just long enough to meet her uncle and his family, and Mother Superior.
Now, she followed the captain and his men over the long pathway to the inner courtyard.