Page 11 of Wedded to the Devilish Highlander
“I willnae go without Reid,” she said decidedly.
Piper’s expression softened. “Eileen, ye tried. And if yer braither is out there, he will find his way back to ye.”
“But what if he cannae? What if he’s trapped? Laird MacLennan said that I could search the dungeons here, but what if that was a ruse to placate me and he believes that I’ll leave it at that? What if O’Gunn got to Reid afore he reached this castle?” Eileen sprang up and started pacing the room. “Maybe… maybe there’s another way. If O’Gunn took Reid, then I could go to him and accept the proposal in return for?—”
“What!” Piper nearly shouted, standing up too.
Eileen turned to her, desperate. “Just listen. If I accept, mayhap he will release Reid, and I can figure out how to get away from him without causin’ a war.”
“Ye dinnae even ken if he has him! Please, just think for a moment—ye cannae offer yerself to him either way. If ye go toO’Gunn, ye might nae come back, and ye ken I willnae let ye go there alone, and I dinnae want to be trapped there for the rest of me life. Please, ye cannae do that to both of us. Ye ken the stories about him.”
“Aye, I ken the stories,” Eileen conceded. “I also ken the stories about Laird MacLennan, and he’s nae been beastly to me, has he?”
“Nae been beastly?” Piper sputtered, her eyes wide. “He pinned ye to the ground, and who kens what he was thinkin’ when he did that? And it’s nae the same thing. Laird O’Gunn’s reputation is far worse than Laird MacLennan’s, and ye’ve done nothin’ to antagonize Laird MacLennan yet. If he becomes yer enemy, ye might see his darker side.”
I might have annoyed him enough for him to show that side, but he deserved it.
“Forget about Laird MacLennan. This might be what O’Gunn wants, though. And if hedoeshave Reid, maybe he’ll have nay more use for him—when he’ll finally have some claim over some of our land.”
“But ye have nay claim to the land. That’s yer braither’s land now.”
Eileen groaned loudly, frustration bubbling up her throat. “He’s a monster!” Her voice cracked then. “I willnae let Reid suffer!”
Piper sighed and, after a moment, pulled her into a tight embrace. “There is another way; we just cannae see it. We shouldnae put the cart in front of the horse, though. We have nay way of kennin’ whether Reid is even with Laird O’Gunn.”
The two sat in silence for a while, until the keep settled and dusk crept through the shutters.
“Ye should bathe, Me Lady,” Piper urged, her expression strained.
Eileen nodded shyly, and Piper smiled in apparent relief. But Eileen had other plans.
As Piper left through the servants’ door at the back wall of the room with quiet resolve, Eileen stood up and pulled on her cloak.
Reid was still out there somewhere, and she wouldn’t sit still for a moment longer until she found him. No one had helped her, and she was no closer to knowing what had happened to her brother.
She opened the door and tiptoed out back first, her eyes fixed on the servants’ door in case Piper was waiting. As she crossed the threshold, she sensed someone before she saw them.
Eileen turned and opened her mouth to scream as the dark figure came for her.
4
Ahand clamped over her mouth, and she screamed into the warm flesh, slamming her fists against the rock-solid chest of the mountain of a man.
The warm breath in her ear terrified her as he pulled her close to whisper, “I’ll let ye go if ye stop screamin’.”
Eileen calmed down for a second before her anger flared. She huffed out a breath and wriggled out of his grasp, glaring at him in the dim hallway.
Laird MacLennan stood before her with a smirk.
He stepped back and leaned against the opposite wall, arms folded, one boot propped against the stone. He looked amused, but his eyes glinted with a warning.
“What do ye think ye’re doin’?” Eileen hissed.
“Do ye really want to scream at the top of yer lungs when ye’re tryin’ to sneak out behind yer maid’s back? What was it? A lover’s tiff?”
“Ye dinnae have one ounce of sense, do ye?” Eileen scoffed.
She wanted to shout at him, but he was right about her sneaking out, and it only made him more frustrating—something she didn’t think possible only an hour ago.
