Muireann’s smile grew. “And whose ships would we be sinkin’?”
“I think you already know.”
Muireann lifted herself out of the water on thin arms, perching far enough away to keep the water dripping down her greenish-blue tail from getting onto my breeches. “Ye know the rules.”
“And if the Queen wishes you to bend them?”
Her gaze dropped to my breeches, and her sharpened black teeth gleamed with her own grin. “I suppose I could be persuaded to speak to my father.”
Muireann’s father ruled the seas off both Airren and Tearmann’s coasts. I’d met him once—a hideous man with a snout and hair and teeth the color of seaweed. Was it any wonder the female merrow preferred dalliances with land-dwelling creatures?
“And to persuade you?” I asked, even though the thought of Muireann’s cold hands on my body didn’t stir me as it usually did.
“A swim is all.”
I kicked off my boots, removed my waistcoat and shirt, and fell backward into the freezing water.
* * *
Negotiations with Muireann had taken longer than expected. By the time I made it to the kitchens, Tadhg was already on his stool, hunched over a plate piled with enough food to feed an entire family.
Eava waved at me from where she stoked the fire. A plate of roast pork appeared on the table in front of my empty stool.
Tadhg’s gaze swept from my damp hair to my fresh breeches. “I doubt he’s hungry, Eava. He just had fish for dinner.”
Eava smacked him in the back of the head before giving me a disappointed frown. “What’re ye thinkin’, leadin’ that poor woman on when you’ve no more interest in her than this one does a steak?” She gestured to where my brother sat rubbing his skull.
“Muireann and I have an arrangement,” I said.
Eava grumbled something that sounded an awful lot like, “Arrangement, my arse,” before returning to the ovens to remove our dessert for the evening. Strawberry-rhubarb pie.
I nudged Tadhg’s shoulder. “Where’s your pet?” Ruairi must’ve been around here somewhere. He claimed to have a house of his own, but I wasn’t convinced considering he spent just about every waking moment in mine.
“Swiftfell.”
“And you didn’t join him?”
Tadhg shrugged and laid into his vegetables. A responsible decision for once. I would’ve been impressed if he didn’t smell like he’d slept in a puddle of puitín. No, my brother was probably just too hungover to leave the castle for another binge session.
We ate in silence except for Eava’s tuneless humming and the occasional scrape of cutlery. Once our plates were clear, Eava scooped out two generous portions of still-steaming strawberry-rhubarb pie, topping both with a glop of fresh cream.
“He got more than I did,” Tadhg whined, gesturing toward the plate Eava set in front of me.
I licked my dinner fork clean and stabbed a bite. “That’s because Eava loves me more than she loves you.”
Eava shifted a spoon and cut into the flaky crust for a nibble herself. “I love ye both the same, which is why yer slices are exactly the same.”
“What do you call that?” Tadhg pointed to the extra crunchy bits at the corner of my plate with his fork.
“Love,” I said with a smirk, scooping them up and stuffing them into my mouth before he could shift them to his own plate.
Tadhg’s hand shot out, stealing what was left of my slice and stuffing it between his lips.
I knocked him on his arse, choking him so he couldn’t swallow. I’d been looking forward to dessert all feckin’ day, and he’d stolen it from me. In Tearmann, theft could be considered a capital crime.Time for you to die, big brother.
He smiled the entire time, his teeth stained red with berries.
A spoon clattered to the ground near his head. Eava braced her hands on the edge of the high table, gripping until her knuckles paled.