by Terry Spear
“I’ll speak with them. I’d rather you stayed safely here,” Cearnach said.
Instead of disagreeing with him and insisting she accompany him, she slipped her hand around his and gave his fingers a squeeze that said, “We’re in this together.”
Bloody hell. No words could have undone his steadfast resolve faster than her touching him in such a loving way.
His brothers’ eyes widened. Not because of what she had done, but because of Cearnach’s hesitation. If he’d been his indomitable self, he would have stated emphatically that she would remain behind. His hesitation said volumes to anyone who might be watching. That the she-wolf knew just how to play him. And that he would go along.
She added, “I’ll insert my two cents worth if they give you a bunch of lip.”
He’d never understand the strange phrases Americans were fond of saying.
He shook his head but tightened his hand on hers, confirming they were unified in this.
“We’re accompanying you also,” Duncan said. “The portcullis is down so they won’t be coming in. We’ve got men posted around the wall walk, watching them.”
“Are you certain you want to go with us, Elaine?” Cearnach asked one last time, knowing what she would say even before she squeezed his hand marginally.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry to have dragged you into this, lass.”
She let out her breath. “I’m not used to pack politics.”
“A loner?” Cearnach asked as they followed his brothers through the hallway, down the stairs, and through the great hall until they were outside the keep and striding across the inner bailey.
He knew Duncan and Guthrie were listening to their conversation, as quiet as they were. They normally ate up the stone pavers with their lanky strides. Both were walking slower to maintain Elaine’s pace and sticking closer to them.
“Yes, by choice. I’m not a follower,” she said.
“Oh.” He realized then that if she’d had no remaining family in the States and she hadn’t mated with a wolf with a pack that she’d stayed with, she had indeed been a loner.
She gave him a small smile and pulled his arm around her waist as if declaring she was fine with joining his pack. “The cobblestones are slippery.”
They were, he had to admit. He knew her cuddling against him meant much more than that, though. She was declaring that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her—again.
His brothers cast them a look over their shoulders as if to see what she had done to make the comment about the slick stones, both slightly raising their brows in unison when they saw them wrapped up together.
“Path’s slippery,” Cearnach said to his brothers, grinning and giving Elaine a squeeze.
***
Cearnach saw Robert Kilpatrick first, scowling, his face as red as his hair as he watched him, Duncan, Guthrie, and two of their cousins walk Elaine to the outer gate, the iron portcullis firmly in place. More of the MacNeill clan stood atop the wall walk armed with bows and arrows as they observed the talks. Four of Cearnach’s clansmen had shifted into wolves.
Robert’s carrot-topped brother, Edmond, and Baird McKinley stood beside him. Baird’s four brothers were milling about some distance from the gate near their two vehicles as if to show they were the backup muscle but giving enough space to indicate they had come in relative peace. From their dour expressions, all of them looked ready to do battle.
Cearnach glanced at Elaine, whose head was held high, lips thinned, eyes narrow. Her whole tension-filled posture said she was angry and she wasn’t about to take crap from any of them.
As soon as they reached the portcullis, Robert opened his mouth to speak as Baird speared Cearnach with a glacial stare.
Everyone’s attention shifted abruptly to Elaine when, to Cearnach’s surprise, she spoke first. “I’m Elaine Hawthorn, daughter of Hans Hawthorn, the third; son of Hans Hawthorn, the second; son of Hans Hawthorn, the first. You are?” she directed at Robert.
“Robert Kilpatrick, my brother, Edmond, and our cousin Baird McKinley. I missed meeting with you earlier at Senton Castle, cousin.” He sounded as though he was trying to emphasize the point that she was on the wrong side of the gate, that she belonged with them and not standing with the MacNeills.
“We did meet already, Robert. At the church. Remember? There was a little matter of you stealing my rental car and personal items.”
“Send her out here now,” Baird growled at Cearnach.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Elaine said to Baird.
Baird looked at her. “I’m talking about Calla.”
Calla had gone into hiding? Cearnach had thought she was at her father’s home.
“Calla’s not here,” Cearnach said. “If she were, I wouldn’t send her to you unless she wished it.”
Robert cleared his throat and motioned to one of the vehicles they had come in. “We’ll take you to the bed and breakfast now, Elaine. I’m sorry for the… mistakes made yesterday. Had I known that you were the bonny lass sitting beside me at the church—”
Looking beautifully obstinate, Elaine folded her arms. “I want my car and all my belongings…” She looked up at Cearnach as if she needed his permission first, even though this was her home now and she didn’t need it.
He nodded, giving her a small smile, which he knew would irk her kinsmen.
She took a deep breath and continued. “I want them brought here.”
“You can’t stay here,” Robert said as if she was considering sleeping in a dungeon and as if he could dictate to her. Then he got more to the point. “We have a private matter to discuss.”
“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Cearnach said, wanting to make that perfectly clear.
Elaine didn’t take her eyes off Robert, watching for every reaction like a wolf would. Like an alpha wolf. “You owe Cearnach a replacement minivan and whatever else he lost in his vehicle, including his clothes and sword.”
“They’re not our friends.” Robert gave Cearnach and his men a cold glare, then turned his attention back to Elaine. “You don’t know the history between us.”
“That may be so, but your history has nothing to do with me. And you know what? Cearnach protected me from hunters when my own kin left me in an untenable situation. More than untenable. Potentially deadly.”
They had to have known what might happen when they stranded them without vehicles or clothes, and Cearnach and Elaine had no choice but to run in their wolf coats across territory not their own. Cearnach assumed they had figured she was a new girlfriend of his and it didn’t matter what had become of her… or him. He was more than irked that they valued her life so little.
“We didn’t know who you were,” Baird growled. “You don’t side with our enemy if you know what’s good for you.”
“Are you threatening me?” Her tone of voice had darkened, she-wolf in battle mode. “You didn’t believe I was related to Cearnach, did you?”
Robert shook his head.
“So then why would you have stolen my car?”
One of Baird’s older brothers spoke up. “We thought you were Cearnach’s new girlfriend. His bringing you to the wedding was an insult and upset Calla.”
“I see. Instead, I was part of your extended family and had every right to be at the wedding. Did my being at the church truly upset Calla?”
Baird huffed out an annoyed breath, folded his arms, tilted his head up in an arrogant way, and didn’t speak.
Elaine straightened and clarified her situation. “Cearnach had a little accident. I gave him a lift to the church. I didn’t know him before this. Then again, I didn’t know who you all were, either.”
“Okay, so we start over. You come with us, and you can have your car and belongings back,” Baird said, his voice dark w
ith annoyance.
Cearnach didn’t trust Baird. The man had to recognize that Cearnach felt protective of Elaine, and he suspected Baird would use that vulnerability to get back at him for Calla standing him up at the wedding if he could.
“Where’s that brother of yours, Baird? Vardon? I demand an apology from him,” Elaine said.
He was standing beside the second car, looking angry, his hands fisted at his sides. Cearnach imagined that Vardon wanted to punch her again, except not by accident this time. He’d kill him before the wolf ever got close to her again.
Baird glanced at Kilpatrick and the irritated looks they shared said that no way in hell was Vardon going to apologize.
“You got in the way,” Robert said. “He didn’t mean to punch you. He was aiming for Cearnach.”
Cearnach growled under his breath. Vardon was a bastard for not apologizing to the lass, and her cousin Robert just as much of one for defending Vardon’s brutal behavior. Cearnach opened his mouth to tell him so, but Elaine was running the show.
“That doesn’t excuse what happened. Accident or no accident, he missed Cearnach and struck me. I’ll have an apology. He doesn’t have to get down on bended knee, unless of course he wants to, but a sincere, heartfelt ‘I’m sorry’ will go a long way,” she said, her voice cold with fury.
Robert and Baird’s faces couldn’t have hardened any further. Cearnach and his kin were grinning. Cearnach heard a few snickers from his own people. He could just imagine everyone envisioning Vardon on his knees in front of Elaine, pleading with her to accept his apology.
No one said anything for a moment.
“You can’t stay here,” Robert reiterated. “It’s an insult to our name. Beyond that, they’ll tell you that the stolen goods came from their ships and that you have no right to keep the goods.”
So the matter was no longer private? Good.
“If they had belonged to the MacNeill clan?” Elaine asked.
Robert scowled. “Don’t tell me the scoundrel has already set you against your own kin. You can’t mean to give him the goods.”
Rapid feminine footfalls echoed on the stone pavers behind Elaine and Cearnach and the others with them. They turned to see his mother and aunt approaching. Cearnach frowned at them, not wishing their interference. What now?
“Robert Kilpatrick.” Cearnach’s mother’s voice was sharp. She sounded like she was scolding a small child as she stood on the other side of Elaine, close, protective like a mother wolf. “I thought your mother raised you better.”
His eyes narrowed. “This is between Elaine and me and no one else.”
“Seems you made it our business when you stole the lass’s car. Be off with you. She’s with us now and perfectly content to enjoy our hospitality. Whatever financial dealings you had planned to discuss with her are over. Do you understand?” She turned her sharp eyes on Elaine, who quickly closed her gaping mouth and smiled a little.
Cearnach liked it when his mother was giving someone else hell.
“What part of ‘I’m not going anywhere with you’ did you not comprehend?” Elaine asked Robert. Then she did the unexpected—slipped her arm around Cearnach’s waist and said, “I’m ready for breakfast and a walk in the gardens.”
Every one of her kin looked as though they wanted to thrash her soundly. Even though they didn’t know her, they would expect her to remain loyal to them through kinship, no matter the circumstances.
Cearnach was proud of her. “You heard the lass. When her wishes are met, she’ll grant you an audience.”
The looks on their faces said they could kill Cearnach right this very minute.
Standing beside Cearnach, Duncan gave a murmured, “Aye.”
Before anyone could say a word, Cearnach wrapped his arm around Elaine’s small waist and headed her back to the keep. His brother and cousins hung around the gate, waiting for the McKinleys and the Kilpatricks to vacate their lands.
“You know they’ll test your resolve,” Cearnach said to Elaine. “They suspect you’ll want to return home before long and need to finish your business here. They’ll try to force you to come to them on their terms.”
“Too late for that,” she said, giving him a wicked smile. “Seems I’ve made my bed and I’m staying in it.”
He chuckled low, planning an early night for both of them.
Chapter 18
Cearnach escorted Elaine back to the keep for breakfast, and she was hopeful that everyone was away working at their jobs so he and she would have some privacy.
“I do have a question for you.” He led her through the great hall.
He sounded so serious that she looked up at him expectantly.
“I never considered how my bedchamber would look to a prospective mate.”
“It’s fine,” she said dismissively. She really didn’t care as long as he was part of the scheme.
“Nay, it’s not. It’s a warrior’s haven. You decide how you want to decorate it.”
“The guest room isn’t mine any longer?” she asked, a teasing laugh in her voice.
“Nay, it is not.” He was smiling, but he had a possessively dark tone to his voice. “You belong in my bed. Our bed, now.”
“Hmm,” she said, snuggling closer to him as he walked her through the dining room. “How about purple? Lavender and thistle purple.”
He groaned.
She laughed. “So much for my input on redecorating.”
He chuckled. “Hopefully we can agree on something, but if we can’t, I’ll be man enough to deal with it. Purple sheets, purple floral paintings. As long as you’re wrapped up in the sheets with me, that’s all that matters.”
She sighed. “My room back home is like a garden.”
Brows raised enquiringly, he looked down at her.
She smiled up at him. “Not all floral. But I love plants. So it has green walls, a mural of a garden, and a large window with plants hanging from it.”
His eyes sparkled with humor. “Aye. So we’ll take over the garden room, and that will be our new bedchamber.”
She laughed. “I’m sure your clan would love that.”
“Anything for you, Elaine,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
She knew then he was the right man for her.
When they arrived in the kitchen, the smell of sausage and baked bread still permeated the air, and the room was toasty warm from all the cooking. Heather was talking with Shelley about her poodles. Both quickly turned speculative gazes their way. So much for everyone being off somewhere else, busy with their chores.
“Good morning,” Elaine said, the yummy scents making her stomach growl.
“Morning,” both the ladies said in greeting, smiling broadly.
Elaine suspected they had purposefully hung around to see her and Cearnach. She loved the way they made her feel at home with the pack.
“Anything left to eat?” he asked as he surveyed the kitchen counters.
“I made sure Cook left you both something to eat. You know how she is. If you don’t come down to the meal on time, you fix your own meals. I told her that Elaine was a guest.” Heather looked from Cearnach to Elaine as if she knew Elaine was more than just a guest. “I mentioned to her that you had to rescue her from Flynn half the night. You know how much trouble Flynn’s given Cook.” Heather pulled two plates out of the fridge. “She’s broken so much clay crockery that she’s resorted to plastic.”
“What does he do to her?” Elaine asked, frowning.
“Startles her. She used to scold him something fierce when he stole food from the cellar as a lad. So now he gets her back.”
Elaine glanced at Shelley, but she just shook her head. “He hasn’t bothered me at all. Duncan keeps saying it’s because Flynn knows he’ll do something drastic and Flynn’s
spirit will be put to rest. So he’s left me alone.”
“He pesters me,” Heather said. “He used to when we were kids. He still does. Nothing naughty. Just scares me when I’m in the kitchen. He rescued Ian’s mate, Julia. He reacts differently to people, depending on who they are and how he relates to them.”
Elaine hoped now that she was mated with Cearnach, Flynn would leave her alone.
Heather put out silverware for them and Shelley brought them a small pitcher of milk. “Coffee? Tea?” she asked.
“Tea,” Cearnach said, “the Scottish whisky one.”
“Coffee for me, thanks.” Elaine wrinkled her nose at Cearnach. “Scottish whisky tea?”
“It’s made of China tea marinated in Scottish malt whisky,” Heather said. “He can breathe in the rich aroma of the whisky from the freshly brewed tea, but the tea itself is nonalcoholic.”
Cearnach winked at Elaine. “You might try some, lass. They say it grows hair on your chest.”
Shelley and Heather laughed. Cearnach smiled and buttered his bread.
“Ian said you were planning to wash the dogs today, but if you don’t have time…” Heather said.
“I do have time. I planned to do it after Elaine and I had breakfast.” And mated. And talked with her hostile kin.
They both smiled at Elaine, then headed out the kitchen door.
Once the door snapped shut, Elaine let out her breath. “Is it just me who thinks so, or are your clansmen really that interested in what you do with your time?”
He laughed. “Let me put it this way. You’re the first woman I’ve ever brought home. The rumor about us having met before has spread, and the gossip is that we had planned this meeting all along.”
“That I would run you off the road for a clandestine meeting?”
He reached over and took her hand and squeezed. “All part of the master plan.”
She sighed. “Here I thought I was only coming to Scotland on a treasure hunt. But you know what? I don’t need the treasure any longer.”
Cearnach studied her expression. She looked so sincere that he realized she meant what she said.
