She might go back a time or two with some blokes, but only if she was bored and had nothing better to do that day. But staying locked in a room all this time with the same being who wasn’t Izzy, telling her the most delicious gossip about whom Dagmar was blackmailing or which cousin was fucking which royal whose father was none too happy? That simply didn’t happen to Brannie.

Even worse, Brannie couldn’t dismiss what was happening because they were mostly fucking and had no time for words. They did have time. They talked. Then they’d fuck. Then they’d talk some more.

And she was really starting to hate him for making her like him so much.

* * *

Naked, their backs against the floor, their legs on the bed; they gazed up at the ceiling.

“Why,” Aidan had to ask, “would your parents have so many offspring?”

“That’s nothing. My aunt Maelona . . . she has eighteen.”

“Offspring?”

“Aye.”

“Why would she . . . why would anyone . . . I don’t understand.”

“She’s very happy. Her mate and my cousins adore her. Of course, she did move as far away from her siblings as she could manage. But I think that had a lot to do with her mate. He didn’t really get along with me uncles.”

“I can see that. I don’t get along with your uncles.”

“Not many do.”

“Tell me . . .”

“Hmm?”

“Do you remember all your kin’s names?”

“Oh, no. I barely remember your name.”

“That’s lovely.”

“Just being honest.”

Aidan thought a moment. “They must take that sort of thing personally, though.”

“Oh, they do. But I learned from my uncle Bercelak, who pretends he remembers everyone’s name . . . but he doesn’t. You see, he just does the same thing to everyone. He points to someone and says, ‘You. Come here!’”

“That’s how he’s always talked to me. And Éibhear.”

“I said everyone. Except his daughters. Never his daughters. Never Auntie Rhiannon or Dagmar, but I think that has a lot to do with fear.”

“No one ever said your uncle was stupid.”

“True. Anyway, there’s a look to all the Cadwaladr that makes them easy to spot. So when I see someone I’m sure is a cousin and they greet me warmly, with a big hug, I reply, ‘Hey, you!’”

Aidan looked away from the ceiling so he could gaze at Brannie. “‘Hey, you’?”

She shrugged. “It works. I just make sure to do it with a smile. I’ve learned from Rhiannon that you can get away with almost anything as long as you smile while doing it.”

“That really only works for females. When a male smiles like that . . . he just looks sadistic.”

“You might have a point. No one in the universe likes it when Uncle Bercelak smiles.”

Aidan returned his gaze to the ceiling. “Do you think Keita will want to leave tomorrow?”