“Och, aye, they were.If I ever see ye again, I’ll put a bullet through your heart.It was perfectly articulated and impressively melodramatic.” Tavish rocked back on his heels.
Color climbed Grayburn’s throat. “Then why . . . thehell. . . are you here?!”
“I’m on my family’s land, Grayburn. How was I to know ye would be trespassing upon it today?” Tavish spread his arms wide. “I’m permitted to visit my family, particularly after an absence of seven years.”
“You promised to stay away from my sister.”
“And I have kept to that promise up to now. Ye lot be the ones to find me here today, not the other way around.”
The duke’s nostrils flared, red spreading from his neck to his cheeks. Soon the tips of his ears would be glowing like a blacksmith’s forge.
“Lady Isla has never been for the likes of you. Maintain your distance, or I will hold to my part of the bargain.”
“And put a bullet through my heart?”
“Precisely. I beg for you to give me an excuse.”
Grayburn pivoted and followed his sister down the path, anger evident in how his gait slipped from a smooth glide into a subtle limp.
Tavish took petty comfort in it.
Sighing, he turned for Goliath.
Swinging into the saddle, he caught a glimpse of Lady Isla through the trees, looping her hand through Grayburn’s elbow as they continued down the trail. The duke shot a murderous glance over his shoulder.
Tavish tipped his hat in farewell, knowing Grayburn would find it irritating.
The duke’s returning glare did not disappoint.
Chuckling, Tavish nudged his own horse for the trail that led north toward Castle Balfour and home.
Thankfully, he hadn’t actually agreed to steer clear of Lady Isla.
Thatwould prove impossible.
Because one secret truth remained—
Lady Isla Kinsey was already Tavish’s wife.
2
Isla could scarcely think, much less string sentences together, as she followed Gray down Cairnfell. Her thoughts had taken on the shape and density of wool batting.
Tavish has returned.
Returned, returned, returned . . .
The word looped through her mind, tangling her powers of speech.
Fortunately, Gray was speaking enough for them both.
“A captain! Hah! The nerve of that—” Her brother broke off, censoring his tongue.
He needn’t have bothered.
Isla had no difficulty filling in the rest—arse, bastard, blackguard. And that was just the beginning of the alphabet. She supposed Gray would happily work his way through towastrelbefore he finished.
He was limping. Badly. As ever an excellent barometer of his foul mood.
