“Who are you?” the angel demanded. “And what do you want, barging into our house?”
Conall was stunned into silence for a moment.Ourhouse?Our?
Then he realized the angel had spoken English.
“Are you mute?” the English woman asked with a frown. She scrunched her mouth to form Gaelic words with halting difficulty. “What is your name?”
Conall gritted his teeth and answered her in her own tongue. “Call yer hell-beast off me and mayhap I’ll tell you.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed for a moment and then she reached out a slim, pale hand and actuallytouchedthe monster. “Come, Alinor—let the rude man up.”
The wolf—Alinor?—growled a final, menacing warning before backing slowly down Conall’s length, the woman’s hand still on the beast’s thick neck. The pair retreated to the hut’s rear wall.
Conall gained his feet slowly, his eyes never leaving the wolf. He spoke to the woman, his sword once more at the ready. “Stand aside, woman—I’ll nae share my home with a bloodthirsty killer.”
“I beg your pardon,” the woman said, stepping neatly in front of the wolf. “You’ll put that weapon away immediately, is what youwilldo, sir. Alinor could have already supped upon your scrawny frame had she the desire, and should you come one step closer to either of us, I will most certainly let her have you!”
Conall blinked, shook his head to clear it. The woman continued.
“Furthermore, this isourhome, and I’ll thank you to adopt a more respectful demeanor while you are our guest.” She sniffed, looked Conall up and down. “Now, tell us your name.”
Conall frowned and then looked to his right hand—aye, his sword, glinting and deadly, was still in his grip, and still pointed at the odd pair before him.
And yet the daft woman—English, at that—dared to order him about? On his own lands?
“You’re a long ways from London, English,” Conall growled. “Trespassing on MacKerrick lands—myhouse. With one swing I could end your life.”
The woman arched a slender brow. “A poor housekeeper you are then, sir. This cottage was quite abandoned when I found it, I assure you. Had I not come along, ’twould most likely lay completely in ruin by now.” She cocked her head, sending her long, auburn hair swishing about her waist. “You should thank me instead of threaten me. But if you insist on this villainy”—she withdrew her hand from behind her back and Conall saw the small, damaged dagger in her fist—“come on with you, then. We are not afraid, are we, Alinor?”
The wolf growled and stepped from behind the woman, and ’twas then that Conall noticed the wide, pink belt about the animal, complete with a jaunty bow.
Before he could stop himself, he laughed and blurted, “Is that beast wearing asash?”
The woman flushed scarlet beneath the dusting of freckles on her cheeks, and the wolf’s growl deepened.
“Get out,” she said, flicking her blade toward the doorway behind Conall. “Get out, and do not come back or I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Conall challenged, a chuckle still in his voice. “Tie me hair up in ribbons?”
The woman’s chest heaved and Conall could not help but notice its fullness beneath the gray kirtle that practically hung on her otherwise slender frame.
“Get out,” she sputtered again. “And stop staring at my breasts.”
Conall felt his face heat at being caught in his appraisal of her body. Any matter, the time for sport had come to an end. Conall’s patience was run out.
“The only one of us who’ll be leaving this cottage is you,” he said, stepping forward. The wolf’s hackles raised. “Now, gather your beast and—”
A chorus of howls echoed from beyond the hut, cutting short Conall’s directive. He heard his sheep—forgotten until now—bleat pitifully from the dooryard.
The woman’s demeanor—and that of the wolf as well—instantly changed.
“Is that your animal calling, sir?” she demanded. The wolf whined and circled behind the woman once more, obviously distressed by its brethren’s howls.
“Aye—my sheep,” Conall said. “Why? Is that the rest of your well-dressed pack calling to sup?”
“’Tis the grays, you fool,” she said. “And if you value the animal’s life, you’ll bring her inside before they descend upon her and rip her to pieces, as they nearly did Alinor.”
The black wolf whined again.
