'And? What have you decided to do?' My mother asks, narrowing her eyes.
'Well, I will try to find him and ask him about the wedding date when we are alone,' I shrug. What else am I supposed to do?
'Kaithria, listen to me, tonight is going to be the night,' she replies in a whisper.
'What night?' I ask, taken aback by the malicious tone in her voice.
'You must get into the Laird's bed tonight, Kaithria,' she says, walking back and forth, and then stopping suddenly in front of me. 'The Laird is not in a hurry to set a wedding date, and if we wait a couple of more weeks, your pregnancy will start to show. Everyone will know that you are not a virgin. Moreover, they will know that you have gotten pregnant from someone else. It is needless to say that the Laird will refuse to marry you, and we will be thrown out of the castle, do you understand me?'
I nod.
'Not only will we be thrown out of the castle, but also from everywhere else, because your father will banish us, too,' she adds angrily. 'And all of these troubles are because of you!'
'I will make him set a date for the wedding, mother,' I say, not even having the slightest idea how I was going to do that.
'Do not be so dumb, Kaithria, be a bit like your mother!' She keeps on talking, getting angrier.
'I will not be dumb. I know what to do,' I say. 'I will make him desire me.'
'Knowing what to do and doing it are very different things, Kaithria,' she says. 'You must have a plan of your actions. You must calculate everything beforehand – the timing, your clothes, his mood, everything.'
I nod again. Having sex with the Laird is something that I want, so the rest will be easy. The most important thing here is that I want to have sex with him.
'You will sneak into his bedroom after midnight, when he is asleep in his room,' my mother starts telling me her plans. 'You will be wearing your most beautiful nightdress.'
'All right,' I say.
'You will smell nicely. And you will get into his bed without saying a word,' she says. 'He will immediately wake up to a half-naked beautiful Kaithria. He will not be able to resist, of course, as you will start kissing his neck.'
'All right, mother, I know the rest,' I say, and she smiles, nodding.
Chapter 11
Megan
I look into the mirror for the last time, feeling nervous. Am I beautiful enough? Am I charming enough? Is my hair nice enough? Is my yellow earasaid good enough? I take a deep breath. I know, I am only going to have a short talk with him, but being alone in his bedroom with Sloan is a bit more important for me than it should be, so I try to make sure that I look my best.
'Meg, you are very beautiful,' Elsie reassures me. 'It is already late, go, Meg. We do not want him to fall asleep before you go.'
I take another deep breath and leave Elsie's bedroom. I keep taking deep breaths as I walk through the semi-dark corridors of the nighttime castle. Sloan's bedroom is a bit far from ours, and I have to climb up two swirling staircases. The small lanterns on the walls cast dim lights in the corridors and make mysterious shadows dance on the walls. I walk, constantly looking behind me, hoping that no one sees me sneaking around the castle at night.
I know where Sloan's bedroom is because I have always tried to walk past his room while I am living in his castle. I have always found reasons to go this way, so that I would accidentally bump into him, though it never happened. A few more steps are left, and I will be there.
I stand in front of the big wooden door of his bedroom and try to make my racing heart stop. It certainly is not racing because I have been running. I have not been running. It is racing because I am about to meet the man whom I like.
I straighten the perfectly unwrinkled earasaid that I am wearing, touch my hair, take another deep calming breath and close my eyes. I gather all my strength and knock on the door.
The door opens, and Sloan is standing in front of me. I gasp a little, as I was not expecting him to open the door so fast, or without asking who it was. Why didn't he ask? Was it because he knew that I was going to visit him at night? I do not know, but right now, when he is looking into my eyes, I need to move or say something; otherwise he will think that I am a statue.