Her frustration was obviously getting to her, as he thought she might have stomped her foot. “You are an outlaw, for one. What if someone discovers you are here?”
His mouth curved in a half smile. “The custom of Highland hospitality goes both ways. And the Campbell guardsmen think I’m a Murray.”
“So you manipulated my brother into letting you stay here with guilt for what happened with your father?”
He would have if he’d had to. “I merely asked for temporary refuge, and he granted it.”
“Because you knew he could not refuse!”
He shrugged as if the distinction made no difference to him—it didn’t. “If your only problem is concern for me, then why not agree? You can prove to me that it’s over and have one of the best instructors in the Highlands at your disposal for the next four weeks.”
He thought he detected the tiniest glimmer of possibility in her eye. But his Annie was a stubborn lass.
Her eyes were blazing hot enough to start a fire. “I’m not concerned for you, and I don’t need to prove anything.”
“Maybe not, but do you have so many men lining up to teach you skill with a blade that you can afford to refuse one who is right here and willing to help?”
He could see from the wavering in her eyes that he’d struck gold on that one. But he didn’t press his advantage. He didn’t need to. She would come around on her own.
Patience.
* * *
Annie held out for three days. She didn’t realize how much she’d come to look forward to the training sessions with Robbie, but now that they were gone, she felt restless. The mornings of outdoor activity and exercise made the days without that which followed in the castle seem stifling and restricting. She felt as if she’d been locked in a closet.
Of course, she could have gone outside the castle, buthewas there. Taunting her, the wretch. She knew it wasn’t a mistake that Niall happened to train with her brother and his guardsmen in perfect view of wherever she happened to be. She could no longer knit or embroider anywhere near a window without hearing the ruckus of steel on steel as the men sparred in various areas of thebarmkin. The boom of his laugh or the deep resonance of his voice followed her everywhere.
Even her nephew conspired against her. Iain had been crying a lot of late, and Lizzie discovered that he quieted when she brought him by the door or window of the great hall to watch his father practice. She thought it was the noise or the flash of swords and men that distracted him.
It was distracting all right. And infuriating. Annie knew Niall was manipulating her by offering her something that would prove too tempting to refuse. She tried to go around him by finding someone else, but she might as well have been asking for help cleaning a cesspit. That was the reaction she got from her brother’s men who were all “too busy.” Her brother just told her to stop being so stubborn and take Niall up on his offer—didn’t she realize what an honor it was?—or just wait for Robbie to return.
But Niall had been right about that as well—blast him again. She’d known even before he made his Trojan gift offer that she couldn’t keep training with Robbie. It wasn’t fair to use him like that when she knew his feelings for her hadn’t changed.
Niall, however, she had no qualms about using. She’d meant it when she’d told him a month wouldn’t make a difference. If he was hurt in the end, it would be his own fault.
She was angry enough at his manipulation to admit that she might even be looking forward to that moment.
On Wednesday morning, she stomped across the courtyard to where her tormentor was lazily tossing knives into the target from an obscene distance with an appalling degree of accuracy. It was almost as if he knew she was coming and was waiting for her. One knowing look or “I got you” smile and she would have spun on her heel and stomped away. But perhaps he had matured in the past few years. Even if sheknewhe was feeling that way inside, his expression was blank.
She stopped when she was within a few feet of him. Something slammed against her ribs, and she had the horrible suspicion that it was her heart. It wasn’t slamming in the way it used to, with excitement and anticipation, but with something more troubling. It was a depth of awareness falling into place that she didn’t like.
It must be because he was so changed, she told herself. It wasn’t just the muscles or his size—he was nearly as big as Patrick now—or the scars and lines on his face. It was the aura that surrounded him. He’d become formidable.
The roguish boy had become an imposing man. She wasn’t sure she liked it, but there was nothing that she could do about it. What was done was done. She, better than anyone, knew that.
“One week,” she said. “I will give you one week, and if I want you to leave, you will promise me that you will go.”
“Two,” he said stonily.
“This isn’t a negotiation, Niall. You and I both know that if I go to my brother, you will be escorted out of here by the tip of his sword, Highland hospitality or not.” He didn’t argue with her. “One week,” she repeated.
He considered her for a moment, taking special care to let her know that he’d noticed her attire. “Very well, but I’m confident enough in my abilities to know that at the end of the week you will want more.” She didn’t miss the suggestiveness of his words, and he smiled. “Want more of mytrainingabilities. Unless, of course, you ask me to leave for another reason.”
“What other reason?”
He shrugged, but she knew exactly what he meant. He thought she would run scared because she wasn’t as over him as she wanted to be. Well, he was completely wrong about that.
“I’m agreeing to let you train me for one week, Niall, nothing else. You understand that, don’t you?”
