Chapter 14

Though Lilith hadn't responded to Aaden's request at first, the next time he asked her for another chance to court her that very same day, she agreed if only because she was curious to see how much better he could do this time.

She still hadn't forgiven him for taking his cousin's side, but she supposed they were family, after all, and ever since that day, she had never seen Evander near another woman, even though she had been observing him like a hawk. Perhaps Aaden had spoken to him and had managed to make him see reason. Lilith didn't trust Evander with Freya, though. It didn't matter if he pretended to have changed. If she could help it, the two of them would never wed.

She would come up with a plan. She would make her sister see that Cameron was a much better option than Evander could ever be.

Until then, she had to deal with Aaden as he took her to the lake near the castle once more, only this time he didn't invite her to race him. Instead, they rode at a leisurely pace, taking their time under the sun that had decided to show its face through the clouds for the morning.

It was a pleasant day, Lilith had to admit, and she was surprised to find that Aaden's presence near her didn't ruin it. When he wasn't trying to bed her or impress her with silly tricks, he was rather entertaining to be around.

"I'm nae lyin'," he said, not for the first time since he had begun telling her his story. "Mrs. MacCaibe wouldnae let us near the kitchens, so Gilchrist an' I had tae stay in the cupboard fer the whole afternoon an' the evenin'. Everyone was lookin' fer us an' we could hear them, but we thought we'd be punished less fer disappearin' than fer stealin' the bannocks."

Lilith laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. "That doesnae make ye or yer friend sound verya clever."

"I never claimed we are," Aaden said. "An' we were certainly fools back then. We were already almost grown… we could barely fit in the cupboard an' the bannocks kept fallin' out o' our pockets. That's how they found us in the end. One o' them rolled right out o' the cupboard and Mrs. MacCaibe saw it. We were punished fer disappearin' an' fer stealin' the bannocks in the end."

It was easy, imagining Aaden as a boy. Lilith had the impression that he hadn't changed much since then. He was still mischievous, always up to no good. Maybe he wasn't stealing bannocks from the kitchens anymore, but he was doing other foolish things.

Still, the story amused her. It showed her a side of him that was playful without being improper or rude, and Lilith could appreciate that.

"What?" Aaden asked when Lilith gave him a disbelieving look. "Did ye an' Freya never dae things ye shouldnae have? When ye were younger?"

Lilith pursed her lips, considering the question for a long while. She tried to pull up a memory of them misbehaving, but it was mostly Lilith herself who got into trouble as a girl. Freya had always been quiet, causing little trouble in the castle, and even Lilith was often only scolded for the state of her dresses and her refusal to embroider what their governess was trying to teach them.

"I cannae say that we did," she said in the end with a small shrug. "Though our faither gave us much freedom as bairns. There wasnae much that was forbidden tae us."

"Well, he does seem tae never say nay tae ye," Aaden said. "Does he give ye everythin' ye want?"

"Nae everythin'," Lilith said, a hint of bitterness creeping into her voice. The truth was that their father did give them everything they asked for and he loved them both dearly but Lilith couldn't get past his insistence that she had to marry. It was the only thing she wished she could change, this stubbornness of his on this one matter.

Then again, she had probably inherited her stubbornness from him.

Aaden fell silent, perhaps sensing it was a sensitive matter for Lilith. Soon, they reached the lake and dismounted their horses, but as Lilith made to walk towards the bank, Aaden stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Look," he said, pointing into the trees that lined the area.

At first, Lilith didn't know what it was that he was showing her. The trees were thick in that part of the land, shrubs and ferns growing around their roots in a tangle of green. In the midst of it, though, Lilith could see a distinct brown shape, moving back and forth.

"A fawn," she said, approaching the creature slowly. Aaden was right behind her, moving just as cautiously, but it didn't make a difference. The fawn spotted them and stilled entirely for a moment before it began to thrash wildly, trying to get itself free from the branches where it had tangled itself. "Dae ye think it's hurt?"

"It may be," Aaden said. As they got close, he crouched down next to the fawn, reaching out but not touching it just yet.

Lilith looked around for the mother, but she couldn't see another deer in the area. Perhaps they had been separated, she thought, or perhaps she simply couldn't see it. Deer were skittish, after all, and wouldn't approach them if they had the choice to stay away.

Slowly, Aaden reached for his knife and Lilith's heart stopped. She tried to reach for his hand, to stop him, but he moved too quickly for her and all she managed to do was stumble forward, rightening the poor creature even more.

"It's alright," Aaden said, and Lilith didn't know if he was talking to her or to the fawn. "It's hurt, but it's fine."

"Stop!" Lilith shouted, but Aaden only gave her a curious look before he began to saw at the branches to free the fawn.

It took Lilith a few moments to realize that Aaden had no intention of killing the fawn to save it from its pain. She breathed a sigh of relief and then mentally berated herself for thinking Aaden would hurt the poor creature in the first place.

He wasn't a cruel man, after all. Infuriating yes, but not cruel.

The moment the fawn sensed that it was free, it stood on its legs and ran off, and it was only then that Lilith saw its mother, waiting for it at the edge of a nearby clearing. She watched until they were reunited and then turned to Aaden, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Thank ye," she said. "Thank ye fer this."

"Ye dinnae need tae thank me," Aaden said. "I would have done it anyway. There was nae reason fer the creature tae suffer."

He, too, looked at the fawn and the mother with a smile on his face, and Lilith couldn't help but think that perhaps she had been a little too judgmental of him.

Standing up, Aaden dusted himself off and then offered Lilith a hand. She took it, his palm warm and calloused from sword training, the simple touch reminding her of the night they had shared together. The memory of his fingers pleasuring her was crystal clear in her mind, a strange tingling travelling down her spine at the mere thought of it.

Pleasure had nothing to do with love, Aaden had told her, but perhaps it had something to do with like. Lilith couldn't claim to love him—she could hardly claim to like him most of the time, but when he acted with such gentleness and kindness, it was difficult to keep her attraction at bay.

Lilith was about to take Aaden's hand and pull him to the lake when she froze, her gaze falling on three men who approached them slowly, with blades in their hands. They were dressed in tattered, almost threadbare clothes, but they seemed much cleaner than any brigands Lilith had ever seen before.

That hardly mattered, though, when in every other way, they looked the part.

"Aaden," she whispered, her hand finding his arm and curling tightly around it. With his knife already out, Aaden placed himself between her and the three men, effectively shielding her from them.

Can he fight all three o' them? He is outnumbered, even if he is strong.

"Yer time is almost over," one of the men said and Lilith didn't know what to make of it or if he was even speaking to her. Was it a threat on their lives? Was he trying to tell them they would soon be dead?

The man had hardly finished speaking when he launched himself at the two of them, his companions following close behind. Aaden didn't hesitate to push Lilith back, but she didn't think it would matter. If they managed to kill him, then they would get to her, too.

As Aaden parried a blow, one of the men slid behind him, charging straight at Lilith. Before she knew it, though, Aaden was there, putting himself in front of her once more and taking the blow that was meant for her in the shoulder with a grunt of pain. Lilith's heart threatened to jump out of her throat as she looked at Aaden, blood fountaining out of his shoulder where the blade had sunk in.

Aaden bit back a pained groan, though he was hardly successful at dampening the sound. His shirt was stained a deep red and his hand flew to his shoulder in an attempt to lessen the bleeding and the pain, even as he still clutched the knife and assumed a battle stance, planting his feet firmly on the ground.

As the other two closed in on them, Aaden passed the blade to his left hand after wiping some of the blood off his palm. Lilith couldn't help but wonder if he could fight with his left hand, but there was little time for her to ponder when the others were still approaching. Looking around frantically, she searched for anything she could use as a weapon to protect herself and make the fight a little more even. Her eyes landed on a large rock and she swiftly picked it up, swinging it in the air as she stood and catching the man who had come near her on the side of the head.

The man stumbled back, eyes wide in horror and confusion as his hand came up to touch the wound on his temple. Lilith's chest heaved wildly as she watched him, hand curling around the stone to deliver another blow if he decided to attack again.

"Go!" he shouted instead, and the three of them fled, dispersing in different directions in the woods. For brigands, they weren't particularly insistent, it seemed to Lilith, but then again, she had managed to injure one of them. Perhaps they feared for their lives more than they wanted gold.

The moment they were gone, Aaden turned to her, his shaking hands pulling her into a tight embrace. Lilith collapsed against him, burying her face in his shoulder, and let him hold her in silence for a long while.

"Are ye hurt?" Aaden asked once he pulled back, just enough to look at her carefully, searching for injuries.

"Nay," Lilith assured him. "But ye are. We should head back tae the castle so the healer can fix yer shoulder."

"I'm fine," Aaden said, just as Lilith had expected him to. She wasn't going to let him get away with it so easily, though.

"I can see that ye are hurt, Aaden," she insisted. "Let us head back, please. I'll only worry more if ye insist."

Aaden seemed to consider his options for a few moments, before he nodded. The two of them headed back to the horses, both looking around for any sign of the brigands, though they were nowhere to be found anymore.

"What a strange attack," Lilith said as they mounted their horses. Despite his injury, Aaden jumped onto the saddle with ease, though Lilith could see the clench of his jaw as pain undoubtedly shot through him. "What did they want?"

"Well, they seemed like brigands," he said, though there was something about his tone that made Lilith think he doubted that as much as she did. "I suppose they wanted gold."

What if it was a targeted attack? But what could they want?

"I'll tell me faither tae increase patrols," Lilith said. Even from this distance, she could see the castle as they rode back up the path, rising from the top of the hill. It seemed like an impenetrable structure, a constant in all her years of life, and she couldn't imagine that the building or the people inside it could ever be in danger.

"Nay," Aaden was quick to say, much to Lilith's surprise. At her questioning look, he added, "I'll tell him. Dinnae fash."

"I think I'm perfectly capable o' explainin' what happened tae me faither," Lilith said irritably, hands tightening around the reins. Many men thought that she had no place advising her father even on the simplest things and expected her to limit herself to embroidery and painting and playing the harpsichord. She just didn't think Aaden would be one of those men.

"I ken that," Aaden assured her then. "I'm nae doubtin' that, Lilith."

"Ye're nae?"

"I'm nae. I only wish tae speak with him about them an' see if he needs me assistance. I've dealt with such brigands ‘afore."

Lilith gazed at him in silence for a long while, though Aaden only gave her a thin, tight-lipped smile before he stared straight ahead once more. Lilith had suspected him of hiding something several times before only to be proven wrong. It was only now that she knew what he looked like when he was guarded—when he was trying to keep something from her. It was as though a veil had been drawn over him, obscuring his thoughts to her.

But what is it that he's hidin'?

Perhaps once again, she was being too distrustful. Aaden had put himself in harm's way for her. He had shielded her from the brigand's blow, using his own body to keep her safe, and Lilith couldn't help but be touched by the gesture. Many men had sworn to protect her as the laird's daughter, but none of them had fought for her like this, in front of her very eyes.

Aaden never once hesitated. He had saved her life.