by Maya Banks
For a long moment, Ewan stared down at his son’s head, resisting the urge to run his fingers through the unruly tresses. Ewan couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride at the way Crispen had fought for the woman who’d saved him. According to Alaric, Crispen had bullied Alaric and his men the entire way back to the McCabe keep. And now he was bullying Ewan into keeping a promise Crispen had made in the McCabe name.
“He’s asleep,” Alaric murmured.
Ewan carefully ran his hand over his son’s head and held him solidly against his side.
“Who is this woman, Alaric? What is she to Cameron?”
Alaric made a sound of frustration. “I wish I could tell you. The lass wouldn’t say a word to me the entire time she was with me. She and Crispen were as tight-lipped as two monks with vows of silence. All I know is that when I found her, she was severely beaten. I’ve never seen a lass abused as she was. It turned my stomach, Ewan. There’s no excuse for a man to ever treat a woman such as he did. And yet, as badly injured as she was, she took on me and my men when she thought we were a threat to Crispen.”
“She said nothing the entire time she was with you? Let nothing slip? Think, Alaric. She had to have said something. It simply isn’t a woman’s nature to be silent for prolonged periods of time.”
Alaric grunted. “Someone should tell her that. I’m telling you, Ewan, she said nothing. She stared at me like I was some kind of toad. Worse, she had Crispen acting like I was the enemy. The two whispered like conspirators and glared at me when I dared intervene.”
Ewan frowned and drummed his fingers on the solid wood of the table. “What could Cameron want with her? Furthermore, what was a highland lass doing in a lowland abbey? Highlanders guard their daughters as jealously as gold. I can’t see a daughter being packed off to an abbey days away.”
“Unless the lass was being punished,” Alaric pointed out. “Maybe she was caught out in an indiscretion. More than one lass has been wooed between the sheets outside the sanctity of marriage.”
“Or maybe she was a difficult harridan her father despaired of,” Ewan murmured, as he remembered how difficult and recalcitrant she’d been just moments ago. That scenario he could believe. But again, she would have had to have committed an egregious sin for a father to send her so far away.
Alaric chuckled. “She’s spirited all right.” Then he sobered. “But she protected Crispen well. She put her body between him and others more than once, and she suffered greatly for it.”
Ewan mulled on that truth for a long moment. Then he looked up at Alaric again. “You saw these injuries?”
Alaric nodded. “I did. Ewan, the bastard kicked her. There were imprints of a boot on her back.”
Ewan cursed, the sound echoing across the hall. “I wish I knew what her connection to Cameron was. And why he wants her badly enough to abduct her from an abbey and beat her senseless when she refused to marry him. Why he’d then think to use my son to sway her.”
“It would have worked, too,” Alaric said in a grim voice. “The lass is very protective of Crispen. If Cameron had threatened him, she would have consented. I’m positive of that.”
“This presents a problem for me,” Ewan said quietly. “Cameron wants her. My son wants me to protect her. The lass only wants to be gone. And then there is the mystery of who she is.”
“If Cameron discovers her whereabouts, he’ll come for her,” Alaric warned.
Ewan nodded. “So he will.”
The brothers’ gazes met and held. Alaric nodded his acceptance of Ewan’s silent declaration. If Cameron wanted a fight, the McCabes would be more than willing to give him one.
“What about the lass?” Alaric finally asked.
“I’ll make that determination once I’ve heard the whole story from her,” Ewan said.
He was confident that he could be a reasonable man, and once she saw how reasonable, she’d cooperate fully.
CHAPTER 5
Mairin awoke with the knowledge that she wasn’t alone in the tiny chamber she’d been sleeping in. Her nape prickled and she carefully opened one eye to see Ewan McCabe standing in the doorway.
Sunlight peeked through the window, penetrating the gap in the furs. The light somehow made him more ominous than if he stood cloaked in darkness. In the light, she could see how big he was. He made a menacing portrait, framed by the doorway he barely fit through.
“Pardon the intrusion,” Ewan said in a gruff voice. “I was trying to locate my son.”
It was then, as she followed his gaze to the bundle beside her, that she realized Crispen had crawled into her bed during the night. He was snuggled firmly into her side, the covers pulled tight to his neck.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize …,” she began.
“Since I tucked him into my bed last night, I’m sure you didn’t realize,” he said dryly. “ ’Tis apparent he made the move during the night.”
She started to move, but Ewan held up a hand. “Nay, don’t wake him. I’m sure you both need your rest. I’ll have Gertie hold the morning meal for you.”
“T—Thank you.”
She stared helplessly up at him, unsure of what to do with his sudden kindness. Yesterday he’d been so fierce, his scowl had been enough to frighten a man out of his boots. After a short nod, he backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.
She frowned. She didn’t trust such an about-face. Then she glanced down at the sleeping boy next to her, and her frown eased. Gently, she touched his hair, marveling at how the limp curls framed his face. In time, it would be as long as his father’s.
Perhaps the laird had calmed in the face of his son’s safe return. Maybe he was even feeling grateful and was sorry for his gruffness.
Hope tightened her chest. He might be more amenable to giving her a mount and supplies. She had no good idea where to flee, but given that Duncan Cameron appeared to be Ewan McCabe’s sworn enemy, it wasn’t a good idea for her to remain there.
Sadness tugged at her heart and she squeezed Crispen closer to her. The abbey that had been her home for so long, and the comforting presence of the sisters, was no longer available to her. She was without a home and safe harbor.
Closing her eyes, she whispered a fervent prayer for God’s mercy and protection. Surely He would provide for her in her hour of need.
When she next awoke, Crispen was gone from her bed. She stretched and flexed her toes then immediately winced as pain snaked through her body. Even a hot bath and a comfortable bed hadn’t completely rid her of her discomfort. Still, she could move considerably better than she had the day before, and she was certainly well enough to sit a horse on her own.
Throwing aside the furs, she braced her feet on the stone floor and flinched at the chill. She rose and went to the window to throw back the covering to allow the sunlight to stream in.
The rays slid over her like liquid amber. She closed her eyes and turned her face into the sun, eagerly soaking up the warmth.
It was a beautiful day as only a spring day in the highlands could be. She stared over the hillsides, basking in the comfort of seeing home for the first time in many long years. In truth, there’d been many days when she’d despaired of ever seeing heaven again. Neamh Álainn. Beautiful heaven. One day she’d gaze upon her legacy—her child’s legacy. The only part of her father she’d ever have.
She curled her fingers into tight fists. “I will not fail,” she whispered.
Not wanting to waste any more time above stairs, she donned the simple gown one of the serving women had left for her. The neckline was embroidered with a feminine chain of flowers, and in the middle, in green and gold, was what she assumed was the McCabe coat of arms. Glad to be wearing something other than Duncan Cameron’s colors, she hurried toward the door.
When she neared the bottom of the stairs, she hesitated, feeling suddenly unsure of herself. She was saved from making an awkward entrance into the hall when one of the McCabe women saw her. The woman smiled and hurried over t
o greet her.
“Good afternoon. Are you feeling better today?”
Mairin winced. “Is it afternoon already? I didn’t mean to sleep the day away.”
“You needed the rest. You looked fair to dropping yesterday. My name is Christina, by the way. By what name do you call yourself?”
Mairin colored, feeling suddenly foolish. She wondered if she should make up a name, but she hated the idea of lying.
“I can’t tell you,” she murmured.
Christina’s eyebrows shot up, but to her credit she didn’t react further. Then she reached for Mairin’s arm and tucked it into hers.
“Well then, lady, let’s take you into the kitchens before Gertie feeds your meal to the hounds.”
Feeling relieved that Christina hadn’t pressed her, she allowed the girl to drag her into the kitchen where an older woman stood tending a fire in the pit. Mairin had expected a matronly woman, and why, she wasn’t sure. Shouldn’t women charged with the cooking be motherly?
Gertie was bone thin, and her gray hair was pulled into a tight knot at her nape. Strands escaped on all sides until they flew about her face, giving her a look of wildness. She pinned Mairin with a sharp glance that peeled back several layers of Mairin’s skin.
“About time you got up and around, lass. No one stays abed here for that long unless they’re dying. I don’t expect you’re dying since you’re standing before me looking hale and hearty. Don’t make a habit of it, or I won’t hold the morning meal for you again.”
Taken aback, Mairin’s first instinct was to laugh, but she wasn’t sure whether the other woman would take offense. Instead she folded her hands solemnly in front of her and promised never to do so again. A vow she felt comfortable making since she didn’t plan to spend another night in the McCabe keep.
“Have a seat then. There’s a stool in the corner. You can take your meal there. No sense messing up the table in the hall again for one person.”
Mairin meekly obeyed and made quick work of the trencher of food. Gertie and Christina watched as she ate, and Mairin could hear them whispering when they thought Mairin wasn’t looking.
“Wouldn’t tell you her name?” Gertie exclaimed loudly.
She turned in Mairin’s direction and uttered a hmmph. “When people won’t give their name, ’tis because they have something to hide. What are you hiding, lass? Don’t be thinking our laird won’t find out. He’s too precise to take such nonsense from a slip of a lass like yourself.”
“Then I’ll discuss the matter with your laird and only your laird,” Mairin said firmly. She hoped that by injecting enough strength into her voice she’d make the other woman back down. Gertie just rolled her eyes and resumed tending her fire.
“Can you take me to him?” Mairin asked Christina as she rose from the stool. “I really must speak to him right away.”
“Of course, Lady,” Christina said in her sweet voice. “I was instructed to take you to him the moment you finished eating.”
The food Mairin had just consumed swirled in her gut like sour ale.
“Are you nervous?” Christina asked as they descended the steps from the keep. “You have no reason to be. The laird seems gruff, and he can be stern when crossed, but he’s fair and very evenhanded with our clan.”
The part that Christina left out was that Mairin wasn’t part of the McCabe clan, which meant that any policies about fair and evenhanded didn’t apply. But she had saved Crispen, and it was obvious that the laird loved his son. She held on to that thought as they rounded the corner into the courtyard.
Mairin’s eyes widened at the site of so many men training. The clash of swords and shields nearly deafened her, and the afternoon sun striking the metal made her squint and wince. She blinked and focused her gaze away from the reflections dancing through the air. When she realized what she was seeing instead, she gasped.
Her hand fluttered to her chest, and her vision went a bit blurry. It wasn’t until her tortured lungs begged for mercy that she realized she was holding her breath. She sucked in a mouthful of air, but that didn’t help her light-headedness.
The laird was sparring with another soldier in only his boots and trews. His bare chest gleamed with a sheen of sweat, and a trickle of blood slid down his side.
Oh merciful heavens.
She watched in fascination, unable to make herself tear her gaze away, no matter that it was surely a sin to ogle in this fashion.
The laird was broad shouldered. His massive chest sported several scars. A man didn’t get to be his age without acquiring battle scars. Badges of honor to highlanders. A man without them was considered weak and without courage.
His hair clung damply to his back and his braids swung about him as he pivoted in the dirt to parry another thrust by his opponent. His muscles strained and bulged as he swung the heavy sword about his head and slashed downward. At the last moment, his opponent threw up his shield, but he still buckled under the blow.
The younger man went sprawling, his own sword clattering to the ground. He did have the presence of mind to cover himself with the shield as he lay there panting softly.
The laird frowned but extended his hand down to the younger soldier. “You lasted longer this time, Heath, but you’re still allowing emotion to rule your actions. Until you learn to control that temper of yours, you’ll prove an easy mark in battle.”
Heath scowled and didn’t look appreciative of his laird’s criticism. He ignored Ewan’s outstretched hand and scrambled to his feet, his face red with anger.
It was then that the laird looked up and saw Mairin standing there with Christina. His eyes narrowed and she felt pinned by the force of his stare. He motioned for his tunic, which Alaric tossed to him from the side. After hastily pulling it over his bare chest, he motioned for Mairin to come forward.
Feeling strangely disappointed that he’d put the tunic back on, she edged closer, all but dragging her heels in the dirt. It was silly. She was a grown woman, but in front of this man, she felt like an errant child about to be called to task.
Guilty conscience. A good confession would clear that up.
“Come walk with me, lass. We have much to discuss.”
She swallowed and snuck a peek at Christina, who performed a curtsy in the laird’s direction before turning and heading back the way they’d come.
His teeth flashed into a grin. “Come,” he said again. “I don’t bite.”
The flash of humor caught her unawares and she smiled broadly, quite unaware of its effect on the men who saw it.
“Very well, Laird. Since you’ve offered me such reassurance, I’ll take the risk and accompany you.”
They walked from the courtyard and took a path that led up the hillside that overlooked the loch. At the top, the laird stopped and stared out over the water.
“My son says I have much to thank you for.”
She folded her hands in front of her, gathering a bit of the material of her gown in her fingers. “He’s a good lad. He helped me as much as I helped him.”
The laird nodded. “So he told me. He brought you to me.”
Mairin didn’t like the way he said the last. There was too much possession in his voice.
“Laird, I must depart today. If you cannot spare a horse, I understand. I’ll leave on foot, though I would appreciate an escort to your border.”
He turned to her with an uplifted eyebrow. “On foot? You wouldn’t make it far, lass. You’d be tossed over someone’s saddle and spirited away the moment you left my land.”
She frowned. “Not if I’m careful.”
“As careful as you were when you got yourself abducted by Duncan Cameron’s men?”
Heat rose in her cheeks. “That’s different. I wasn’t expecting …”
Faint amusement glittered in his eyes. “Does anyone ever expect to be abducted?”
“Aye,” she whispered.
“Tell me something, lass. You appear to be someone who firmly believes in a promise. I’d
wager you expect people to remain true to their word.”
“Oh aye,” she said fervently.
“And you exacted a promise from my son, is this not so?”
She looked down. “Aye, I did.”
“And you expect him to keep that promise, do you not?”
She squirmed uncomfortably but nodded even as guilt filled her.
“As it turns out, Crispen also exacted a promise from me.”
“What promise?” she asked.
“To protect you.”
“Oh.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Somehow she had just maneuvered herself into a trap. She knew it.
“I’d say ’tis hard to protect a lass if she’s out running all over the highlands on foot, wouldn’t you say?”
She scowled, unhappy with the direction this conversation was headed.
“I release you from his promise,” she declared.
He shook his head, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth. Shocked, she stared transfixed at the change such a gesture wrought on his features. My, but he was quite handsome. Really handsome. And he looked younger, not as hardened, though she’d seen the scars, so she knew he was anything but soft. Nay, he was a warrior. There was no telling how many men he’d killed in battle. Why, he could probably snap someone’s neck with his fingers. Certainly hers.
The thought had her reaching up to cover her throat.
“Only Crispen can release me from that promise, lass. As I’m sure he told you, a McCabe always keeps his word.”
Glumly, she remembered Crispen saying just that. She also remembered his vow to her that his father would protect her. She’d been too bent on self-preservation to really give thought to what that meant.
“Are you saying I can’t leave?” she whispered.
He seemed to consider her question for a moment, his gaze never straying from her. He stared until she squirmed under his scrutiny.
“If I knew you had a safe place to go, then of course I’d allow you to go. To your family perhaps?”
She wasn’t going to lie and say she had family, so she said nothing at all.