“Greer, nay matter what, I will always protect ye. I’ve told ye that before. Ye deserve a champion, someone who willna allow anyone to mistreat ye ever again. For now, I will be that person.”
“Because ye’re a Sinclair? Because ye’re ma friend’s brother?”
“For those reasons and because ye are ye. I would even if I wasna a Sinclair, and ye werenae ma sister’s friend. We dinna get along, and we dinna trust each other. But that doesnae mean I think ye are worthless.”
Greer stepped back. “That’s exactly what ye’ve thought for years. I dinna need yer chivalry. Let people talk. It’s better than drawing more attention to me than I already have.”
“If they said they didna like yer gown, then I would let it go. I willna ignore aught that puts ye at danger.”
“Danger? Did they name me a spy?”
“Nay.” Thor really didn’t want to tell her, but he knew her next statement before she opened her mouth.
“They called me a whore.”
“Aye.”
“So ye really did defend me because of yer name and Rose.”
“Greer,” Thor snapped. He looked around to be sure no one overheard them. “I have never believed that.”
“Dinna lie.”
“I have plenty of faults, but I dinna lie. I dinna care what anyone says or what I think may have happened. Ye are nae that filthy word. I dinna want to hear anyone—certainly nae ye—say that aboot ye.”
“I dinna need ye defending whatever honor I might have left after being a Gunn ma entire life. Yer attention only causes me naught but trouble. Leave me alone, Thor.”
“Gladly. But that doesnae mean I’ll leave anyone alone who slights ye.”
“What part ofIdinna need ye dinna ye understand?”
“Ye shall prove yerself a fool to be so stubborn and refuse help.”
“Ye’ve already done a fine job of proving me a fool. Ye dinna need to do it again.”
“Greer.”
“Thormud.”
They glared at one another until they both remembered they didn’t argue in private. They turned away from one another, nothing resolved any more than it had been since the day Greer turned up at Dunbeath. The wounds on her body weren’t the only ones that had opened.
* * *
Greer spent her night just as she always did: restless and frustrated. Nightmares plagued the few moments when she would drift off. But it was the waking moments that were the worst. She was accustomed to the nightmares. They no longer terrified her to the same degree as they had for years. It was the recurring thoughts about a certain strawberry-blond haired man who seemed to exist only to be the bane of hers. She woke as exhausted as she always did, but as she dressed, she forced herself into the role she played daily. Someone who had no visible or invisible scars. Someone who functioned like everyone else around her. Someone normal.
She’d spent the morning with Rose in the gardens, picking the last of the late summer vegetables and readying the storerooms for the major autumn harvest that would arrive in only a few weeks. If they waited, the food would be ready, and they wouldn’t. Now she accompanied Rose, Blaine, and Thor to the loch for a picnic. The newlyweds remained in their blissful bubble, but she knew they hoped that removing Thor and her from the rest of the clan’s prying eyes might give them a chance to resolve their hostilities. She also knew they would divide and conquer and attempt to learn from Thor and her why they were the way they were. Blessedly, she knew Thor was as unlikely to share as she was.
“Shall we swim?” Rose grinned at Greer as she picked up her pace the last yard of the path to the loch’s edge.
“Aye. Dinna cheat this time!” Greer picked up her skirts and hurried after her friend. The men carried the baskets and plaids, so neither had anything to slow them. Greer came alongside Rose and bumped her with her hip before disappearing behind a massive willow tree. Its overhanging branches would protect the women from anyone seeing them as they stripped to their skin. They both hopped from one foot to the other as they kicked off their slippers and tugged down their stockings. They flung their clothes in a pile and raced one another into the water. While Rose was a far stronger swimmer in the North Sea’s open water, withstanding the cold and currents better than anyone in her family except her aunt Mairghread, Greer was stronger in the still water, able to hold her breath close to three minutes.
She emerged halfway across the loch and laughed as Rose swam to catch her. They splashed each other as they had since they were girls, rendezvousing at the loch that separated Sinclair and Gunn land. They’d met at a Highland Gathering when they were young girls, neither bothered by the other’s clan name. They’d become fast friends, but for many years, they’d only shared one another’s company at the Gatherings. But a few years ago, they risked meeting in person at that loch. After that, they met covertly once a month. It wasn’t long before Greer become an informant for the Sinclairs. No one asked her. She did it to protect her people. She did it so the Sinclairs knew when her father would strike and to prevent a violent retaliation.
It came to head when her father attacked the Keiths while Blaine visited Rose’s Sutherland family. Blaine had ridden to seek help from Laird Sutherland’s son-by-marriage Laird Hardwin Cameron about another clan. Love drew Blaine and Rose to one another immediately, and their romance soon flourished. But during a battle, Greer’s father, Laird Edgar Gunn, took Blaine captive. He died for that decision, and she held not a moment’s regret. But her clan’s council refused to consider making her their laird outright, even though she’d silently run the clan while her father spent his time as a warmonger. She’d traveled to Ackergill when Blaine brought Rose to her new home. She and Thor had been guests ever since.
“I swear ye are more fish than woman,” Rose teased.
“And ye’re a bluidy selkie the way ye swim in the sea. It’s nae natural.”
