The Edinburgh Heir by Alisha Klapheke

Author:Alisha Klapheke
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780998737980
Publisher: Alisha Klapheke

Chapter 11

Lady Greensleeves

With a wink, Vera sauntered away from Aini and toward the first bed in the low-ceilinged room. She flung herself down, not bothering to even take off her boots before sleep grabbed her eyelids and tugged them shut.

“Guess we should do the same.” Neve took her shoes off and set them by the second bed, a narrow cot covered in a thick duvet. “You take the good one, Seer,” she whispered, smiling.

Aini didn’t have the focus to argue. The four poster bed squeaked a little under her weight and she tugged her clothes and shoes off, planning to sleep in her bra and underwear. The sheets smelled nice, like soap and lavender, and she hauled the heavy duvet up to her chin. Vera was already snoring. Neve waved and turned over, but Aini could tell she’d have the same trouble sleeping as Aini.

As Neve plucked at her duvet and scowled at the yellow color of her hair dye, Aini’s mind churned like the taffy puller, stretching out tonight’s conversation and combining it with the one she had with Thane in the back of the truck. Why would Callum be any different in the morning? He’d just say no to helping them again. He wouldn’t listen. How could they stir his passion?

Eight large paintings covered the guest room’s whitewashed stone walls. One was of a double bridge keeping company with a plethora of ferns, sunlit saplings, and thick moss. Another showed an old manor house with too many chimneys and lighter stone marking the edges of each corner. Several boasted a crowd of smiling people, all lined up for the photo. Children grinned and showed missing teeth. Women in fine, striped silk dresses or plain work trousers turned to look thinner or hugged friends to pose. Men sucked in stomachs and smiled over bow ties or work shirts.

This was what Callum loved. His town. His people. Somehow Thane had to relate this problem directly to them. It already was, really, but how could they argue the cause to tie it more immediately to Callum’s beloved home?

Somewhere a clock chimed out the time. She’d been in bed for over an hour. Sleep wasn’t happening. She swung out of bed and grabbed a guest robe hanging from a wooden post in the wall. There weren’t any slippers and she had zero desire to put those ratty boots back on anytime soon, so she slipped out of the room on chilly, bare feet.

“Tav?” Vera hissed Aini’s fake ID name from her bed, but Aini just closed the door, pretending she hadn’t heard. She needed to walk alone to think.

Moonlight flowed over the outer room and along the stairs leading up to Thane, Bran, and Myles’s room. Surprisingly, Myles snores were absent. Normally, his snoring would be shaking the floor.

“Hey,” a quiet voice said, making Aini jump. Myles sat cross-legged at the far end of the covered walkway that spanned the space between the two parts of Huntingtower Castle. He waved, something small and light-colored in his hand.

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