“Uhm.” Mairi raced the tip of her tongue across her lips. Merciful heavens, her mouth had gone dry and her nether regions had gone so wet they ached. “Uhm.” She took another deep breath. He was going to think she was an idiot incapable of stringing together a multisyllabic set of words. She mentally shook herself. “I’m very sorry. It really is nice to meet you, but like I said . . .”
She glanced over at Eliza’s smug expression. The woman looked as though she had just gotten away with stealing the crown jewels. The victorious gleam in Eliza’s eyes worked wonders toward calming the confusion currently holding Mairi’s ability to speak for ransom. Eliza’s self-satisfied expression was just the libido dousing of ice water she needed. Mairi took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and turned her full attention back to Chieftain Sutherland. “As I said earlier, it has been a very eventful day.”
Ronan nodded politely. “Rest easy, m’lady. There is nothing to forgive.”
What an odd way with words. Very proper. Very . . . different. This was not one of Eliza’s perspective benefactors. This man was something else.
The chieftain’s eyes seemed so familiar. But how could they? Mairi was certain she had never met this man. No way would she forget meeting him.So why did she feel so certain she’d looked into those eyes before? She shook herself free of the inner turmoil and backed another step toward the door. That could be figured out later
She forced her attention away from the enigmatic man and turned to Eliza. “I’m sorry I interrupted your visit. Could you step out in the hall for just a minute? I need to ask you a question.”
Eliza made the irritating clucking noise she always emitted whenever she had been pushed too far. “Absolutely not.” Latching onto Mairi’s arm, she turned Mairi back toward the chieftain and held her firmly in place. “Chieftain Sutherland is not just my visitor.” Eliza tightened her grip on Mairi’s upper arm. “He is my distant relative.” Eliza bobbed her head up and down. “Yes. He’s one of my verra few relatives and has traveled quite far to have a fine visit with us both.”
“How distant?” Mairi’s rooted seed of suspicion fully matured, sprouted accusing leaves, and threatened to bloom with full-blown distrust. What was up? Why was Eliza trying so hard? And what did she mean by distant relative? Did she mean distant as in adistant time?
“A nephew.” Eliza fluffed the hot pink layers of taffeta zigzagging diagonally down the front of her tunic. “Of sorts.” She smoothed her hands down her ample hips and drummed her sparkling nail tips against her black sateen leggings. “The two of ye sit and chat while I prepare a fine tea for us to enjoy while we have our lovely visit.” Without waiting for Mairi to agree, Eliza’s four-inch wedge heels thumped out happy quick steps as she turned and hummed her way down the hall to the kitchen.
Mairi felt like wringing the sly old guardian’s neck. Instead, she turned back to discover Chieftain Sutherland shaking with silent laughter. So, he thought this situation was funny? Fine. Time to interrogate him and unravel Eliza’s obvious plot. Mairi waved him toward the monstrous wingback leather chair angled beside the bookcase while she settled on the armrest of the loveseat. “So, Eliza’s your aunt?”
Ronan sank down into the chair as though he owned it, letting his large hands drape comfortably over the ends of the rolled arms as he settled back and crossed his boots at the ankle. The man looked every bit the chieftain of a powerful clan. “I believe Mistress Eliza might have stretched the truth a wee bit when she called us distant relatives. We have no shared bloodline, but she was quite correct when she said I had traveled quite a ways to meet with ye.”
“Why?” Mairi wasn’t in the mood for polite conversation no matter how deliciously lickable the man looked. She needed to be out in the streets of Edinburgh finding her lost dog. She felt sure Eliza had ousted the poor stray. It didn’t matter if she confessed it or not.
“Why?” Ronan repeated. He uncrossed his boots and leaned forward as though ready to spring from the chair. Did the man sense she was about to make a quick getaway?
“Yes. Why did you want to meet with us?” Damn, the man was sexy as hell, but she didn’t have time for sexy as hell—especially without any pertinent details like who he really was. She struggled against the strange pull of the chieftain. She had to find her dog before the authorities picked him up and sealed his fate with an ending she would rather not think about.
“Look. I am really sorry to cut this short, but I just don’t have time for polite chit chat right now.” Mairi jumped to her feet and hurried to the door. “Enjoy your tea with Eliza. I’m sorry. But I really have to go. If you’re still here when I get back, maybe we can visit then.”
Without looking back, she bolted down the hallway, grabbed her jacket, and headed outside. Eliza was going to be pissed, but she’d just have to get over it. Mairi had to find that poor dog before he met a terrible end.
CHAPTER7
She was gone? Just like that, she was gone?
Ronan stared at the open doorway of the parlor, dazed and perplexed. What the blazes had just happened? The quiet thud as the front door shut promptly ended his paralysis of disbelief.
“By the verra gods themselves!” He launched out of the chair and stormed down the hallway. Throwing the door open wide, he bolted down the steps, stopped in the center of the smooth stone path running in front of the house, and searched up and down the busy street. How the hell could she have disappeared so quickly? The urge to shift into the wolf was strong. He could cover so much more ground in that form.
“Dinna be rash,” Eliza warned from the top step. “Ye best find her as a man and deal with her as a man would. It is the only way and ye know it. She must love ye as a man before she knows the truth of yer history. Look what trouble the curse has already laid at yer feet by having her love yer wolf first.”
Damn, but the woman was right. Ronan sucked in a deep breath and lifted his face to the icy sleet raining down from the muddy sky. The stinging chill helped cool his need to release his beast. “I will find her. I dinna ken how to make her forget the wolf. But somehow, I will bring her home.”
“Animals have always been dearer to Mairi than people ever could be. She trusts animals. She never trusts people anymore. Lies and cruelties have scarred her and she is incapable of moving past them. Bear that in mind when ye find the wee gal.” Eliza backed into the house, closing the odd bright purple canvas shielding her from the rain and propping it beneath the shelter of the eaves. “Off wi’ ye now. Find our Mairi and make it right.”
“Aye.” Ronan accepted the quest with a nod, icy rain streaming down the sides of his face and trickling down the back of his neck. He shook free the dark folded plaid tucked over one shoulder and hooded it over his head.
Once more he glanced first to the right then to the left. Men and women clutching the round cloth shields over their heads splashed about, backs bent against the weather as they went along their way. He squinted against the rising wind and rain, weaving in and out among the crowd bustling down the walkway. How the devil was he to find the woman? Was he even going in the right direction? He edged his way to the side of the path, imperceptibly lifted his chin, and huffed in several deep breaths. Damn, the blasted weather.He’d play hell picking up her scent in all this rain.
A waist-high wall made of the smoothest stone he had ever seen caught his eye. Higher ground. Aye.He stood a better chance of spotting her from higher ground. Slinging the wet plaid back over his shoulder, he hoisted himself to the top of the wall. Much better.Now he could see over the throng of busy people. Och and be damned, why the devil was there so many milling about? He nay remembered so many people being in the streets the previous night.
Ronan slowly edged along the top of the wall while scanning the area. His Mairi, for she was his, searched for her lost wolf. He shook with a bitter chuckle. Little did the woman know, her lost wolf searched for her. Shrubbery. A thicket of trees. A bit of meadow. If she kept her search focused on where an animal might hide, she would seek those places first. He stretched taller and looked for just such places.
Aye. There she was.A dark blue behind and the bottoms of a pair of muddy shoes protruded out from under a canopy of glossy dripping leaves. He squinted through the rain. Aye and for sure. He was certain of it. He would know that sweet arse from any distance.
He hopped down from the wall but uncertainty slowed him. How would he convince her to come home? He slicked the rain from his eyes and looked up and down the street again. Eliza said Mairi did not trust people nor allow them too close. What would make her trust him?
A cacophony of high-pitched yapping interrupted his plotting. The insistentyap-yap-yaphammered a simple plan of attack into place. What better way to win Mairi over and make her forget the wolf than by giving her another dog? He pushed through the ornate black metal gate to the tiny enclosed yard and strode up the path. A trio of hopping fuzz balls, ridiculous puffs of gray black fur dotted with beady eyes, glistening noses, and pink tongues, pawed and bit at the glass separating them from him.
