Page 144 of First Light
“Aisling…” Lachlan let out an exasperated breath. “It’s an infatuation, Carys. It doesn’t mean anything. She’s had this affection in her heart since we were children.”
“Lachlan, she’s nearly thirty years old.” Carys spoke softly. “This is not an infatuation. The woman is in love with you.”
“It doesn’t matter. Seren saw it as clearly as you, but she knew that I’ve never felt that way about Aisling. I couldn’t. I loved Seren. Always.” He walked toward her, his hands held out. “And now I love you.”
“Because she’s not here.” Carys closed her eyes even as Lachlan took her hands in his.
“Who? Aisling?” He scoffed. “Aisling is nothing to me. A sister more than a woman.”
“No, you don’t…” She swallowed the lump in her throat and stared at Lachlan’s chest where it rose and fell with his breath. “Do you ever wonder what would have happened if I’d met Duncan before I met you?”
Lachlan was silent.
Carys looked up. “Do you?”
“I…” He closed his eyes and shook his head a little. “I don’t know why you’re asking that. You didn’t meet him first, you met me. It makes no?—”
“Cadell tells me that souls find each other. That souls are drawn to their lovers on either side of the shadow. That’s why so many marriages are the same here and in Scotland. So if you and Seren were meant here, does that mean?—”
“Did Duncan tell you this? Did he put this idea in your head?” Lachlan bent down and forced her eyes to his. “He’s trying to confuse you.”
“Is he?” Her voice was quiet. “Or is he trying to protect me?”
Lachlan stepped back. “So that’s all then?” He lifted a hand, clenched it in a fist, then let it drop. “That’s all there is for us?”
“I don’t know.” He was getting her off track. “Talk to me about Aisling and Seren.”
“You think Aisling killed my wife?” Lachlan let out a rueful laugh. “Aisling, of all people. AislingadoredSeren. They were as close as sisters.”
“Sisters fight.” She didn’t know from personal experience, butshe’d seen Laura and her siblings. No one fought more viciously than siblings. “Brothers fight.”
“Brothers are going to fight about this,” Lachlan muttered. “Forget Aisling. As soon as Regan is finished with her mage training, Aisling will be married to some minor but strategic Anglian lord to shore up her family’s trade position. Nothing you or I say will change that. She’s Orla’s granddaughter; that’s her role.”
Carys frowned. “What? I thought she was going to be a mage.”
“That may be what Aislingwants—that’s what her mother wanted—but that’s not going to happen. Aisling’s mother was married off to a boorish Anglian, and her daughter will be too.”
“That’s not what Aisling said.”
Lachlan crossed his arms. “Well, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Carys remembered Aisling’s bright eyes when they spoke in the library.Seren and I used to talk about it all the time. Once I’m a mage, there will be positions available to me in other courts.
Had Aisling only been wishing? Did she know her fate like Lachlan claimed, or was she clinging to hope that things could be different?
Maybe Aisling had other plans.
Maybe Seren had been part of those plans.
Seren and I used to talk about it all the time.
Like Lachlan, Seren must have known what would happen to Aisling once she was of no more use in Alba. She hadn’t tempted the Alban prince, but she could always be married off to another. It didn’t matter what Aisling wanted.
I might even travel to the continent if I could fly by coracle. Seren promised…
What if Seren’s promises were what got her killed? If Seren—heir to the Cymric throne—had made plans to get Aisling away from Alba and spoil her family’s plans for her, that would have been an international incident of massive proportions.
“Where’s Aisling?” Carys asked Lachlan. “Where is she right now?”