“I would rather sink my dirk into his black heart than cower before him.”

Aidan paced in Graeme’s solar, back and forth, as he’d been doing since his brother had come to fetch him from Clarissa’s chamber.

“I can go in your stead—”

“No.”

The message had just arrived for a representative from Clan Scott to appear at Theffield Castle at once. Presumably Douglas was already on his way, and whether it was the warden or the earl who had requested their presence, it hardly mattered.

They could not deny Douglas.

If it were the earl . . . it meant he knew.

“Gillian is not as far along as—”

“No,” Aidan said again, this time as firmly as if his brother were not his chief. “I met with him before and will do so again. Gillian needs you here.”

Graeme watched him as he continued to pace back and forth. “If Theffield suspects . . . you will not admit to having her.”

“Nay, I will not. Clarissa is convinced he will never accept me. But if Douglas hears the merest suggestion of it, he’ll ask questions.”

“We will not lie to the warden.”

“Neither will I give her back.”

He stopped, waiting for his brother’s reaction. But Graeme simply frowned. “Of course you will not. Your stance is mine, though do not expect Douglas to acquiesce if it comes to that.”

“Thank you, brother.”

The words hardly seemed adequate, but he could think of no others. Graeme had no allegiance to her, but his support had been unwavering.

“Do not thank me until the meeting ends in success. If all goes well and Theffield delivers on his promise to remove Caxton, we will devise a plan then.”

“A few more days . . .”

“A few more days, and the fate of the borderlands will be decided.”

He should let her go—and well he knew it. If he simply let her go, she would be safe. Their clan would be safe. But as he walked from Graeme’s chamber, he remembered the empty feeling of sitting outside the gates of Dunburg Abbey, thinking Clarissa had but moments left with him.

He could never do it.

He could not let her go.

Aidan found Malcolm in the hall playing dice. Graeme had insisted he take an escort from Highgate End to Bowden Castle, even though the ride was short. He smiled in anticipation of how Lawrence would react to being awoken for yet another journey across the border, his presence having been specifically requested by Douglas.

“We leave for Theffield Castle,” he said to Malcolm as he and his dice partners stood to greet him.

“Theffield?” Malcolm nodded toward the others in parting and followed him out of the hall. “At this hour?”

“Aye,” he said, making his way toward the kitchens. “Douglas himself requested my presence.”

Malcolm stopped and it took Aidan a moment to realize his man was no longer following him.

“Is it wise to go there, given the circumstances?” Malcolm asked when Aidan turned back to him.

“The circumstances?”

The hair on his arms stood straight as he waited for Malcolm’s explanation. He knew, of course, what he meant, but there was no way he could—

“His daughter,” he confirmed with a glance toward the Prison Tower. “Does the earl know Lady Clarissa—”

Aidan advanced on Malcolm so quickly that he actually took a step back.

“How,” he ground out, “do you know about that?”

Malcom had not known why he’d been sent to fetch Father Simon.

Fear, the kind he’d only experienced a few times in his life, crept up his back and laid claim to every bone in his body. They’d told no one of her presence save Gillian, Fiona, Morgan, and Lewis. Not one of them would have uttered a word of Clarissa’s presence here. And if someone had chanced to see them the night they’d gone to the river, none would have known her identity.

“Malcolm?”

“A rumor, ’tis all. One Donnon heard from a servant he met on the road who’d come from Sutworth. But none would dare—”

“Goddammit.”

Theffield knew.

Cursing, he looked toward the tower where Clarissa waited for him to return as he’d promised to do after speaking to Graeme.

She couldn’t stay here. Theffield likely planned to send men here to search for her after he lured Aidan across the border. He could ask Allie and Reid to hide her, but there was no time to go to Brockburg, the opposite direction of Theffield Castle.

He didn’t need to think on it any longer. There was one place she would be safe. One family that would take her in, without question, and luckily, he’d been heading there already, though he was unsure why Douglas specifically requested Lawrence’s presence.

The poor steward had appeared confused, but he’d gone to fetch Lawrence nonetheless. Aidan had known the steward since he was old enough to ride to Bowden Castle, and he and Lawrence had gotten themselves into plenty of questionable situations before.

This would certainly qualify as the most questionable of them all.

“Let me guess,” Lawrence said as he stepped out into the night, stretching his mouth wide in a yawn. “My good friend Aidan de Sowlis and his lovely Lady Clarissa.”

With her hood pulled down over her brow, it was impossible to see her face. Even when she looked up at Lawrence, only her chin and cheeks were visible.

And her lips.

Aidan should be thinking of many things, but he certainly should not be thinking of Clarissa’s lips.

“’Tis good to see you again,” she said to his friend, her words barely loud enough for them to hear.

“And you, my lady.” Lawrence lifted his brows, waiting.

“Not here,” Aidan whispered, pulling them into an alcove not far from where they stood.

“We need your help,” he said.

“Then it is yours.”

Aidan looked down at his thumb before even realizing he’d done so. Lawrence must have seen him, because he lifted his own thumb.

Lawrence laughed and glanced at Clarissa. “How old were we, ten and one?”

“Ten and two.”

“And convinced our older brothers both thought us children.”

“Aye, because we were children,” Aidan said.

“And younger brothers both.” Lawrence smiled at Clarissa. “And so we decided to become blood brothers, and promised never to treat each other as mere ‘youngins,’ the word my own brother used to describe us. I despised the word and all of the trappings that came along with being second—”

“Blood brothers?” Clarissa interrupted. But then she seemed to notice Lawrence’s thumb still hovering in the air. “Do not tell me you—”

“We did,” Aidan assured her. “Which is why I ask now,” his voice turned serious, “for your family to take her in. We have reason to believe—”

“’Tis done.”

When Lawrence held out his hand to Clarissa, Aidan’s chest swelled with pride. He could not have chosen a better brother, with the exception of the one he’d been born with.

“I will explain on the way to Theffield.”

About to lead Clarissa into the keep, Lawrence laughed aloud. Luckily, none but the three of them were there to hear it.

“It seems my friend does not want me to get much sleep,” he said. “His nighttime jaunts have become more and more common of late.”

Aidan found himself grinning as he followed the pair back toward the keep’s entrance.

“I fear it is my fault,” she said.

“If I faulted you for anything,” Lawrence said, “it would be for choosing him”—he nodded his head back toward Aidan—“rather than a real chief’s second son. A man worthy of such a woman—”

“That’s enough,” Aidan said, knowing his friend did indeed have a reputation with women to uphold. Or at least, Lawrence thought he did.

Though he couldn’t see Clarissa’s face, Aidan could imagine her sad smile when she said, “A woman whose very presence has become more of a burden than she would like.”

He was about to respond when his friend did so for him. “Your father is a burden on you—and so are his cruel interventions to a matter that should have been put to rest long ago.”

Lawrence turned back toward him, his sly smile making Aidan groan in anticipation of the words he was about to utter.

“I knew you would not let her go,” he said. “And now we will show Lord Theffield exactly what it means to be the second son of a Scots chief.”

Despite the dire situation they’d found themselves in this night, Aidan could not help but smile at his friend’s words. He’d always said a second son was the fiercest of them all, for he was freed of the expectations that weighed down the firstborn. And though he did not quite believe it to be true, the knowledge that Clarissa was safe, for a time, and that Lawrence would be by his side, come what may, Aidan breathed a bit easier.

If they walked into a trap of Theffield’s making, then it would be up to them to find a way out.