“My name is not Reid Campbell. It’s Reid Muir.”
Abi stared at him as the import of that sank in. “But that means you’re—”
“Fighting my own clan, aye.”
“Why would you do that? Why would you fight your own brother?”
“My stepbrother to be exact. His father married my mother when we were both youngsters. We grew up together in Dun Calas, the seat of Clan Muir.”
Abi had assumed that this Cinead figure was an enemy, some villain who had wronged Reid deeply in the past, not his brother, the man he’d grown up with.
“I don’t understand. What happened between you?”
He surged to his feet. “We’ll talk later. There are things I must attend to.”
He strode to the door but Abi was quicker. She darted in front of him, put her back against the door, blocking his escape.
“Oh no, you don’t. I’m not letting you run away again.”
His eyes flashed with fury. “I amnotrunning away.”
“Aren’t you? That’s what it looks like to me.”
His shoulders hunched. “Get out of my way.”
“Or what? You’ll make me move? How will you do that, Reid Campbell? Treat me the same way you did those villagers?”
His face paled. “I would never hurt you.”
“Really? Then what did you do today?”
“That was an accident!” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I didnae mean... I never meant...Ah, curse it, woman! Stop trying to trap me!”
“I’m not trying to trap you, I’m trying to get you to open up. To tell me the truth! Is that so hard?”
He glared at her, his eyes flashing. After a moment the fire in his gaze faded. “Yes,” he whispered. “It’s harder than ye can imagine.”
All the fight seemed to go out of him and his shoulders slumped.
Abi wanted to reach out and touch him but she didn’t move. Softly, she said, “Tell me.”
He stared at the floor for a long time. Abi waited, not moving. Finally, he raised his head. “All right. What do ye want to know?”
“You, Reid. I want to know you. The real you, not the mask you put on in front of your men.”
He laughed bitterly. “The real me? Lass, ye may not like what ye find.”
“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
He whirled away from her and stalked to the window where he leaned on the sill. Abi remained leaning on the door, waiting.
Finally, Reid began to speak. “I wasnae born into Clan Muir but adopted into it when my mother married Cinead’s father. He was the laird of Clan Muir but he didnae have an heir so he adopted me. If things had gone as they were meant to, I would have become Laird of Clan Muir on his death. Cinead, ye see, was a bastard. Illegitimate. Couldnae inherit. Or that’s what we were both brought up to believe.”
Abi wanted to ask what he meant by that but remained silent, not wanting to break his line of thought.
“Ye definitely wouldnae have liked me back then, Abigail. I was young and arrogant and the kind of man I now despise. Things didnae turn out the way I’d planned.” He turned and there was an expression of ruin on his face. “Cinead was no bastard. We discovered that his parents had married in secret and that my mother and her allies had hidden this fact so that I would inherit the title—a title I had no right to. My mother was arrested and I left Dun Calas.”
“He threw you out? Your own brother?”
