With so much going through my mind, I did not expect a good night’s rest, but I slept soundly for an hour or two. I awoke with a start, in pitch darkness, to the knowledge that someone was in the room with me, standing in silence right beside my bed. I opened my mouth to call out – Donagan was not far away – and a soft, small hand came out to cover my lips. A moment later someone was lifting the covers, slipping into the bed beside me, whispering ‘Hush, Oran. It’s me, Flidais.’

I struggled to sit up, my heart pounding, my mind reeling with shock. Still half-asleep, I was slow to understand, though my senses were wide awake – beneath an enveloping cloak she had cast aside as she crept in, Flidais was wearing only a flimsy shift-like garment.

‘Lie down,’ she murmured. ‘I’m sorry if I startled you.’

She must have come through the connecting door. ‘No, Flidais,’ I hissed, praying that Donagan had not woken up. ‘We can’t do this!’

‘Shh,’ she whispered. ‘We’ll be wed soon, surely it’s all right. And nobody needs to know.’

It was wrong, all wrong. The prince of Dalriada did not anticipate his wedding night.

‘Flidais, you must go back. Right now. This is –’

She tensed, drawing away from me. ‘I thought – When you held me close, before, I was sure – don’t you want me, Oran?’ Her voice was shaky now.

‘Of course I want you.’ I wrapped my arms around her and drew her close. ‘I want you so badly it hurts. But . . .’ Oh gods! The silken touch of her skin, the delicious shiver her hands sent through me as she stroked my back, the warmth of her body pressed against mine, all combined to kill my further protests. I forced a few words out. ‘Flidais, who knows you are here?’

‘Only Mhairi. I will be gone before dawn.’

Then I really did sit up, dislodging her. ‘This cannot happen,’ I said, and my voice came out as a strangled croak, for my manhood was making itself painfully evident, and I feared I would soon have no control of the situation at all. ‘Not before we are hand-fasted. It’s – it’s – unseemly.’ Gods, what would she think of me? Unseemly? But my mother’s image was foremost in my mind, her eyes chilly with disapproval. Not of Flidais, who was young and inexperienced, and perhaps had little idea of the constraints faced by the only son of a king, but of me for not exercising princely self-control.

‘Hush,’ my sweetheart said, and stopped my words with a kiss. It was a kiss that continued for a long time, and ended with the two of us lying down once more, she atop me in a position that must have left her in no doubt at all of my immediate physical dilemma. ‘Nobody need know,’ she said. ‘Mhairi won’t tell.’