But Torin was stronger than he appeared. And quicker. In the next instant, he had another knife out and this one pressed against Kiernan’s chest, the tip right near his heart.
Should he get out his gun? Even if he did, he’d never use it on Torin. So what was the point in drawing it?
“Calm down.” Kiernan latched on to Torin’s other arm, so that now he was straining to hold both of the young man’s hands. “I have the matchmaker working for me now too. I’ll be wed before summer’s end.”
Torin didn’t relent with his knives. “Having a woman, even having a wife, doesn’t stop men from taking advantage of innocents like Alannah.”
“Once I’m wed, I’ll never look at another woman again.” He intended to be as faithful as his da had been to his mam. As far as Kiernan was concerned, there was no other way.
Torin’s gaze bore into him.
“I vow it.” He was not only vowing it to Torin, he was vowing it to himself.
“That’s all well and good, Mr. Shanahan. But what’s to stop you now from using my sister before you get married?”
“My respect for her.”
“I’ve heard about your reputation with women.”
“You don’t know anything.” Kiernan spat the words.
After another long few seconds, Torin dropped both hands and slipped his knives back into their sheaths, one in his boot and one at his hip. He glanced around, and seeing that they were still alone, he pressed in close again. “If you lay a finger on Alannah, I’ll cut it off first, then I’ll kill you.”
Kiernan shoved Torin, but didn’t respond. What could he say? Of course he wasn’t planning to touch Alannah. But he wasn’t perfect.
Torin took several more steps away. “Don’t think I won’t do it, because I will.”
“I realize that.”
“Good.” Torin shook his shoulders as if shaking off the incident.
Kiernan shook it off too. He wouldn’t hold the knife threat against Torin. How could he, when he was actually relieved to know that Torin wouldn’t allow anyone to take advantage of Alannah, at least not without paying for it?
Even so, Kiernan had put up with enough threats for one morning. He spun on his heel and began to walk away.
“She’ll be safest married,” Torin called after him. “And you know it.”
Kiernan didn’t respond. Torin was probably right. Alannah would be safe from Shaw ... and from any other man who tried to use her, including him.
Aye, he’d deserved Torin’s warning not to lay a finger on Alannah, and he’d do well to heed it.
9
She wasn’t watching for Kiernan’s return. She really wasn’t.
Even so, at the thudding of a horse’s hooves on the lane in front of the house, Alannah halted in the backyard and set down the bucket of water she’d been hefting from the well to the kitchen.
She wiped a sleeve across her forehead, the early evening still warm. Then she tucked several loose strands of hair into her braid before brushing at the stains upon her apron and straightening it as best she could.
After Kiernan’s visit with her in the kitchen that morning, she hadn’t been able to put him out of her mind. She’d been a wee bit giddy that he’d sought her out, had talked to her, and had even seemed interested in her—if his lingering behind her while straightening the bottles was any indication. He’d even asked her to call him by his given name. He wouldn’t have done so if he saw her only as a hired worker.
The more she was around Kiernan Shanahan, the more she wanted to get to know him better. She still wasn’t sureshe had any right to speak with him, spend time with him, or even think about him. But her wager with Bellamy kept forcing its way into her head.
As the clopping drew nearer, Alannah shielded her eyes against the sun’s rays in the west, her stomach fluttering at the prospect of seeing Kiernan again.
When the rider came into view, Alannah expelled a breath of disappointment. Zaira. The young woman had left earlier in the afternoon for a ride through the countryside—at least that’s what Alannah had overheard her tell Mrs. Shanahan. But Alannah suspected that the ride had been to someplace specific for something important, especially because the young woman had carried a leather satchel strapped diagonally across her shoulder and body.
Normally, Zaira was full of energy and a zest for life that spilled over onto everyone around her. But now with her shoulders slumped and the tears streaking her face, ’twas easy to see the woman’s ride hadn’t been a happy one.
