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demanded. “Yer a sight, lass.”
    “The way I look is of no matter, Alex. You must come with me now and be quick about it,” she urged, reaching his side and fastening her fingers on his arm before pulling.
    There was no living with her when she had her mind set in this way, so he might as well do as she asked.
    With a resigned sigh, he rose from his seat. “Where do you think yer dragging me off to, Wee Lissa?”
    The glare she returned at his use of the childhood name was exactly as he expected.
    “To Grandda’s arbor,” she responded.
    “You were outside the gates?” he demanded, abruptly stopping in his tracks, jolting her to a stop as well, since she held his arm still. “Alone?”
    Hadn’t he enough to worry over, what with the half the people who came before him claiming some infraction against them or their property by marauding Gordons? Hadn’t he made himself clear enough on the matter when he’d spoken in the great hall, instructing all the inhabitants of the castle to remain inside the protection of the walls?
    “Of course I was,” she answered, without even a remote touch of guilt in her expression. “Which reminds me, we have need of the gate key before we return. Do you carry it on yer person or must we waste more time doubling back to the laird’s solar?”
    “ My solar,” he growled, claiming it more to remind her of her place than out of any desire to actually be the laird. He also claimed her arm, wrapping his fingers tightly around her wrist. “I want an explanation, sister, before I take another single step. What were you doing outside the protection of the walls?”
    “She’s come,” Lissa said with a shrug. “As I told you she would. Exactly as the Fae predicted. And it’s Da’s solar, no' yers. While he draws breath, it still belongs to him. You may well be acting in his stead, but I’ll no' bend a knee to you as laird until Da either declares it so or breathes no more.”
    Alex sighed, not sure whether he should rebuke his sister for expressing the same doubt in him that he held himself or instead deal with the greater infraction, her endangering her own safety. Safest to deal with that which could not be disputed. Even now, as a woman grown, she still professed a ridiculous belief in Faeries, and because of that, she’d disobeyed the one and only thing he’d demanded of her. Lissa had spent far too much time in their grandda’s company growing up, digesting every half-wit Faerie story the old man had fed her.
    “I’ve had more than enough of yer Faerie blether,” he said, dropping his hold on her wrist and turning his back on her. That he’d left a perfectly good meal on the table to attend to her ridiculous fantasy annoyed him to no end. “And beyond enough of yer games. Yer forbidden to leave the walls again.”
    “And what business is it of yers that makes you think you can tell me what I can and canna do? I’ll take the keys and a bench to climb upon, if I must, and I’ll release her my own damn self. It’s no' as if I need you to get things done. Lord knows, if I’d waited for that, nothing would have happened here for the past year.”
    As if her defiance were the final stick upon a workman’s back, all Alex’s frustrations of the past few days gathered themselves and burst forth as he whirled around to face his sister.
    “You’ll do as I say because I tell you to do it,” he roared, fighting to calm himself and lower his voice as he strode back to tower over Lissa. “You’ll do as I say because I am Da’s heir and tannist. It falls to me to see to Dunellen’s safety and that of her people, and, whether you like it or no', little sister, that includes you. Until Da is up and on his feet again, you will do as I say.”
    “But—” Lissa began, her hands on her hips.
    “And I’ll thank you no' to challenge me in front of the whole of the clan, aye?” He held her gaze until her defiance began to melt. “I’ve no love of keeping you from what