“To bide time. I refused to give up the castle. Once someone else takes possession, especially the Menzies, it’s much harder to get it back. I thought once Grant got my letters, he would return and take care of the Menzies. They’ve stormed the walls more than once and I cannot risk losing any more of my kin. I’m their chief. ’Tis my duty to protect them.”
Darach believed him. The man looked like he’d just sold his mother into slavery. He wanted to ask William why he stayed and fought for Ravenglade so tenaciously, but the chief ran his hand over his pale face and reached for a chair.
“I’d hoped Malcolm would come and help us. Now I’ll have to kill him.”
“Who?”
“Roddie Menzie.”
“Well,” Darach said as he sat in the chair behind the table, “one must do what he can to save his sister. ’Tis why I’m happy to be an only bairn.”
“Ye don’t understand,” the Buchanan chief said in a low voice. “If I kill him war will go beyond this castle and will follow my kin wherever we go.”
Darach stared at him, trying to figure him out. “Why did ye no’ take them oot of here already?”
“And leave Ravenglade to Menzies?”
A slight smile curled Darach’s lips. William Buchanan spoke like a man who loved this castle. Darach guessed all the Buchanans felt the same way. Their late patriarch James had brought many of his kin here to live and train with his childhood friend Connor Stuart. When they were driven out after James tried, and failed, to have Connor killed, they never gave up their misguided notion that Ravenglade was partially theirs. But how much did Will Buchanan love Ravenglade? How far would he go to save it?
Whatever William’s motives were, Darach liked his answer. He would do his best to save them all. To do that though, he needed to know how many Menzies they might be up against in a fight, and whether he needed to begin recruiting help. It didn’t matter how many men William had at the ready, the chief didn’t want to lose any more of his kin. Darach would see that he didn’t. He would devise his plan tonight and hopefully begin carrying it out by morning.
Hopefully, there would be fighting.
“Well,” he promised the Buchanan, “ye need no’ fret over it any longer. I’m here now, just as good, mayhap even better, than Malcolm.”
“Oh Lord, nae,” said a voice in tune with the wind scraping along the castle walls outside. “Not ye!”
There it was; that thing that made his teeth clench and made him want to smile in equal measure. He never could decide if he wanted to throttle her or smile like a lost waif with his damned insides held in his hands as an offering to her.
He turned and chose to smile at her.
She looked almost exactly as he remembered, fair skinned, with a small, pert nose and full mouth… all those tight golden curls framing her face, and eyes like glaciers belying her angelic features.
Stunning.
And just as fiery as when he left her.
He shouldn’t have come back.
“Aye, Miss Buchanan, ’tis I come to save ye, whether ye like it or no’.” His sharp eyes didn’t miss when she balled her fists at her sides. “Or in this case, ’tis more likely I’ll be savin’ Roddie Menzie.”
Chapter Four
Could her day get any worse? First Roddie, nowhim! Oh, not him! Where the hell was Malcolm Grant? Did she hear Darach’s declaration right? Was he here in his cousin’s stead… to “save” her? She wanted to laugh, and then scream and wail at her brother. William had put her in the position where she needed saving. Though she couldn’t forget that she had a part in her demise, too. She had agreed to marry the Menzie chief, on parchment only, to save Ravenglade. She didn’t want to leave the castle… or Darach Grant’s bed. She’d trusted Will when he promised her that Malcolm Grant would return and take back his castle himself, saving them. But Malcolm wasn’t coming and she and Will had to depend on Darach to help them. She’d always hoped Darach would return. Finally, he had, but not for her. For Ravenglade. Everything was always for Ravenglade. But this castle wasn’t theirs. She knew it, she always had. Darach being here in Malcolm’s stead was part of her punishment for trying to hold on to what didn’t belong to her. The other part was having to agree to marry Roddie.
It wasn’t going to happen. She didn’t care if the Menzies took Ravenglade and burned it to the ground. She wasn’t some high-born noble’s daughter, promised to wed for peace between countries, or for a home that wasn’t hers. Her father had drowned. She was free to wed whom she wanted. And she didn’t want Roddie Menzie. She didn’t want to think about Darach Grant being here, looking better than she remembered, if that was possible.
“I don’t care what we must do, Will,” she said, turning to her brother and ignoring their unwanted guest. “There’ll be no marriage.”
“We’ve already discussed what will be done,” Darach answered in Will’s place. “Ye’ll both do exactly as I say.”
She pivoted around slowly and shot him a cool glare. He was just as arrogant, too.
“Ye have nothing to do with this, Mr. Grant. Kindly mind yer own affairs.”
One corner of his mouth hooked into a smile that convinced her that he minded them well.
“Ye and yer clan will come oot of this unscathed,” he promised. “If ye put this matter into m’ care. If ye refuse, then ye’ll be fat with Roddie Menzie’s brat by next summer.”
