“Well, ye’re more than welcome to stay for dinner, and to get cleaned up. Ye look as if ye hadnae bathed in a while. I’ll send one of me servants to MacCabe Castle and let Ava ken ye’re here?—”
“Nay!” she cried, her eyes wide.
The outburst took him aback. There was most definitely something strange going on here.
He raised his eyebrows in suspicion. “Ye daenae want Ava to ken ye’re here?”
“It’s just…” She flushed, and he could clearly see the panic on her face as she tried to find an excuse for her outburst. “Weshouldnae bother Ava. She’s got that new bairn and all, and it’ll interrupt her dinner.”
“Right,” Finlay drawled, not buying the excuse at all. “What did ye do?”
Her cheeks reddened further. “Nothing ye wouldnae have done in me place!”
He crossed his arms, waiting for further explanation.
She sighed. “There was… an incident. I got tricked into attendin’ a wedding. Well, it was me own wedding. And I ran.”
Something tightened in Finlay’s chest. She had almost been tricked into marriage? His fingers dug into his arms to quell his irritation.
“All right, so ye ran. Ye daenae think yer sister would protect ye?” he asked.
She shuffled her feet, looking down as if she suddenly found the ground very interesting. “I’ve also…” She hesitated. “I’ve also risked a war after kicking me groom in the crotch.”
CHAPTER 4
“He didwhat?”
Thalia blanched under Finlay’s glare. In all the years they had known each other, she had never known him to be an angry person. Annoyed, frustrated, irritated—these were all emotions she could picture on his face. This murderous rage was new, and it had appeared not long after she had finished her story.
His hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white, and he stared off into the distance as if he were waiting for Laird MacGibbon himself to appear so that he could throttle him.
“I will have his head for the way he’s treated ye, Thalia,” he said through gritted teeth.
Despite the violence in that threat, Thalia found it did not scare her at all. It warmed her, in fact, to see him show such care and compassion for her. They had never been what she would call friends, but he was now threatening to go to war for her.
It seemed he had changed from the man she used to know.
“Ye daenae need to do that,” she said. “But I was wonderin’ if I would be able to stay here for a few days?”
“Aye, of course.” Finlay’s gaze softened as his attention turned back to her.
“It shouldnae be too long. Just until I can figure out what to tell me uncle to prevent a war.” A near hysterical laughter bubbled up her throat as she finished the thought.
She really had been reckless. It was one thing to run; it was another to attack a laird. No matter what, there would be consequences for her actions.
Finlay eyed her carefully.
“Ye can stay as long as ye need, and ye’ll be safe here,” he told her.
The reassurance calmed her, and she nodded. “Thank ye.”
He jerked his head back towards the castle. “Come on, I’ll have one of the servants draw a bath for ye, and then ye can join me for dinner when ye’re ready.”
“A bath sounds heavenly,” she sighed as she followed him up the steps.
She had been right. The warm water eased the aches in her body and thawed the last of the lingering chill. She scrubbed and scraped at her skin until it was bright red and stinging. She felt raw, but she was finally, blissfully, clean.
The door creaked, and she turned towards the sound. A young maid, maybe a little younger than her, stood in the doorway holding a roll of fabric.
