“Whatever was in the tincture worked. By the time ye returned, I felt better. I wasna scared I was going to die, and I didna feel so poorly as I did when we first came up here. It’s just sore,mo ghràidh.” My darling.
“Shall we go belowstairs and meet the world as a couple?”
“Aye.”
Thor lowered her feet to the floor before she donned her stockings. He helped her lace her gown, bringing back another flood of memories. She slipped her shoes on, wincing once more. She abandoned them, knowing there would be other clanswomen who would be in stockings or barefoot. They exchanged a brief kiss at the top of the stairs before they descended hand-in-hand. They expected stares. They didn’t expect a retinue of Gunns standing in front of Blaine.
CHAPTER7
Thor instinctively pushed Greer behind him, wishing he had his sword. But he’d trusted Blaine to pick it up from where he left his beside his friend’s when they entered the loch. He rested his hands on his belt next to the hilt of two dirks. He pressed his shoulders back, expanding his chest to its full breadth, knowing it hid Greer entirely. It didn’t change that the Gunn men already saw her, but they couldn’t spy her now.
“Go abovestairs, Greer.” Thor spoke from the side of his mouth, keeping his lips from moving, and his voice low.
“Nay. I need to ken what they want.”
“Naught good. Please let me find out what this is aboot before they speak to ye. I dinna trust them.”
“Neither do I, but I’ve kenned them ma whole life.”
“That makes it all worse. Greer, if ye are where I can see ye, I will kill them before they say a word. They might live if I dinna have a reminder right in front of me of what I learned today.”
“Ye canna slay every mon who ever—”
“Aye, I can.”
“Lady Greer.” Matthew, the newly appointed leader of the Clan Gunn council, stepped forward, cutting off their conversation. Thor felt Greer shift to step around him. His arm wrapped around his back, snaring her against it. It held her in place.
“Dinna speak to her,” Thor snarled.
“And ye dinna speak for her.”
“Aye, he does. He’s ma betrothed.” Greer felt Thor go rigid before his body relaxed more than he’d been since he held her against him in the water. She felt his relief, and speaking the words aloud eased all the tension she’d felt since seeing him again after eight years. However, it didn’t do away with the fear these men’s arrival caused.
“Impossible, Lady Greer. We’ve chosen yer husband, and he sure as hell isnae a Sinclair. Now come away from him and stop hiding like a naughty wean. It’s time ye acted like a woman.”
Greer’s hands fisted the back of Thor’s leine to keep from flying at the man like a woman possessed. She’d told Thor the truth just not the entire truth.
“Make him leave, Thor.” They both heard the tremble in her voice, and Thor’s body tensed again, ready to launch an attack. He took a step forward, but Greer still clung to his leine. “Dinna leave me.”
“Go abovestairs right now. None of them will make it to the laird’s family chambers alive. None of the guards will allow it. I will come to ye as soon as they are gone. Go.”
“I’m too scared, Thor.”
“Wee one, I ken. But ye’re braver than anyone I ken. Go up there, and I will come as soon as I can. Then I willna leave until ye tell me to.”
“I canna.”
Thor realized fear paralyzed her. His fury nearly boiled over. He could guess the one reason to make Greer so terrified.
“I dinna want ye to see me kill another mon. Ye did that day on the battlefield, but I ken ye were far enough away to nae see the true gore. Go, wee one. They canna harm ye again.”
Greer didn’t respond. She couldn’t. The thought of letting go of Thor was more terrifying than seeing Matthew and the others in the Ackergill Great Hall. From the way Thor’s arm rested akimbo, his hand still next to the dirk handle, she could spy the men. His other arm remained wrapped around her, and it was all that kept her from collapsing. When Matthew took a step forward, and the other men followed him, she pressed her face against Thor’s back and trembled. She feared she might wet herself. How could she have imagined ever going back to Gunn Castle? She couldn’t manage these men away from her former home. How would she have dealt with them there alone?
Thor’s gaze met Blaine’s before it darted to Rose’s terrified one where she stood beside her husband. Their eyes met, and Rose released Blaine’s arm, that she held onto with both hands. She hurried to Thor’s side and tried to ease Greer from her position behind Thor. Greer whimpered and pressed herself tighter against Thor.
“Greer, come with me,” Rose whispered. “We’ll go to ma chamber and lock ourselves in. Blaine and Thor willna let them come near ye.”
Greer couldn’t hear Rose or anyone else. She’d slipped back into her memories. Matthew had been the one to follow her that fateful day. He’d told Mitchell what he’d seen, and Mitchell told Edgar what he knew, plus what Matthew shared. They’d been the reason Edgar beat her so badly that she lost her bairn. She truly didn’t know if she could carry a bairn even if she could bring herself to be intimate with Thor.
