Davide had wandered to the darker, less populated and thus, far less warm part of the castle in search of the Sea Witch. He'd even put his hat on, a bright green woolen thing that clashed awfully with the red of his heavy winter uniform jacket. He swung through the doorway. "Has anyone ever told you about trying to get a room near the Great Hall? With a fire?" He asked. "Instead of sitting in the cold...Please tell me that you are not drinking already."

"I did not know there were a mandated time to start drinking. Technically, there is still a wedding on." Judith propped her bottle on a bench, then stood up, stretching. "I'm not cold. You cold?"

"You're not cold because you've been drinking." He reached out a hand to feel her's, frowning. "And yes, I'm cold. And you're not drinking for the wedding, you're drinking because of the wedding."

"Good, you noticed." Due to her very nature, her hand was not appreciably warmer than his own. "Do you know why I give a shit about this, Bonet? Do you know why I even care this much about the one girl, to the exclusion of the entirely capable daughter? Because Meg is capable. I always knew she was going to do fine for herself. Brammie too. Bram will always land on his feet. But Nialla is an idiot. A soft-hearted idiot. I always figgered she would be the one I had to plan every wee step of her life for her. Otherwise she'd chase a bunny off a cliff, or something."

He rubbed her hand with his thumb. "Then we might want to start with getting Duncan Oisin to stop blackmailing her." He suggested.

Judith frowned and held onto his thumb to stop him rubbing. Her eyes narrowed. Somehow, magically, she became undrunk, or else she never had been drunk. "Ah gods. What's he want? He's not fuckin' her, is he?"

"She kept saying 'house business' and that she had to protect Dierdre." He took his hand back. "She came to tell me to pretend as if I were under house arrest, to appease him, and I sussed it out. The control bit. But not the what he has on her, or why he's doing it." He tilted his head. "I don't think they've been fucking."

"If he was fuckin' her against her will, we'd all know: she'd be huddled in a corner shaking." She sighed. "House business would be Cnoch-na-Niall. So she wants you to play along with appeasing her blackmailer without even telling you why you're doing it?"

He sighed. "Play along as in, avoid them both and have a guard follow me everywhere. discreetly, while she makes them think I'm under house arrest before I go back with you, to the ship." He rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me how that's going to work. It makes sense now, why he screamed for her, to bring the charges to her, that she'd deal with everything when I tried to arrest him."

"Because he knew she'd take his side even if he didn't have one," she agreed, nodding. "Hm." She picked her fingers through her hair. "Goddammit. Did you know about the blackmail bit when you went after him?"