- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
There was no time, therefore, laughing Alistair took me by one hand and pulled me over his shoulder. I fell into the pool wetting my entire combination.
- Did you see what you did? - said pretending to be angry. - Now I'm all wet.
Alistair kept laughing, but it stopped as soon as I pulled the combination over my head and removed the piece.
- What are you doing? What are you doing?
- Drinking a mug of wine. - I said ironically. - What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking off my wet clothes.
- Now we make jokes? Is that it?
I let out a laugh by throwing the combination out of the pool. Taking a deep breath, I was staring at Alistair. I didn't know exactly how to act and he seemed to read my thoughts.
- Hey, come here! - he said by reaching out and sitting in front of him. - Do you trust me?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- I will wash your hair and, if only you wish, I will help with the rest. What's up?
I just nodded. Alistair began to untie my braid and then began to wash my hair.
- You have beautiful hair. - he said. - My sister made us braid her hair when we were bored or fought each other. It was a punishment that he imputed, since his hair was very fulfilled and that was a task for a woman. Over time, I realized that she just wanted us to focus on what we did and then forget what had made us nervous.
- Cora must have been an amazing sister.
- Yes, she was. - said Alistair with a whisper. - It wasn't fair what I did to you and Annabel. As soon as possible, I'll send for you for a visit. I don't want you to go to Inverness. I still have my doubts about what happened to you.
- What do you mean by that?
- What you told me makes me wonder why Roy raped her. He had no quarrel with his mother; on the contrary, they were always very united.
- You're right about that. - said sighing. - They've always been very close. So close that my father sometimes drew her attention to his behavior.
- What do you mean?
- The affection they exchanged sometimes did not match that of brothers, he said. - I paused to sigh when Alistair massaged my scalp. - I've never seen too much, but I've always heard him fight with her.
- What did they say?
- I don't know. I didn't like their fights or arguments, so I'd get out of the way.
Alistair sighed.
- That's very strange. - he continued. - If Roy wanted to hit Ravenna, he would have raped Annabel.
I closed my eyes. Annabel was always our mother's favourite, but she didn't like the exaggerated attention she had always received. She didn't think it was fair and ran away whenever she could. I was afraid we'd end up jealous and isolate her somehow.
- Don't you worry about that? - said Alistair. - You're safe here. Roy won't come near you again. Nor Ravenna.
- Thank you! - said sighing. I felt really safe next to him. - When I was in isolation, I heard a lot about his exploits. I always thought of you as a rude, ruthless man, a heartless warrior.
- You shouldn't believe everything you hear. - Alistair had a laugh. - You're not exactly how I remembered you, either. She was a smiling, very spirited girl. The last time I saw her, she was running from side to side without stopping. Ravenna almost had an outbreak. Your oldest copy is the one who mitigated everything.
- Aila. I remember this banquet. - said thoughtful. - If I'm not mistaken, I ran into you at one of my races.
- To be exact, I took a bump into my legs and you fell on the floor. - he sighed. - Instead of crying, you started laughing, which made me laugh too. Ravenna screwed up on you and it scared her. I remember trying to intervene, but her sister came first and took her out of the hall.
Alistair took a break.
- I never imagined that one day I'd marry that little girl.
- You didn't marry that little girl. - said disagreeing. - She disappeared a long time ago.
- Believe me. - he said. - She's still there somewhere. I never make a mistake about a person.
- But you were wrong about me when you thought I had a lover.
- I didn't make a mistake about you. I confess that I was jealous and very angry and I let myself be carried away by my impulses, but that girl... - he said pausing and staring at me. - It's still in there and I promise to bring it back.
