“Leod.”
Kuresh cast a quick glance at Jamie. “I have never heard this name. What does it mean?”
Jamie tried to contain his laughter. “Beautiful warrior,” he lied.
Kuresh narrowed his eyes. “Beautiful warrior?”
“Jamie!” Miran said. “Doona lie to yer captain.”
Jamie wagged his fingers at her in warning, but Miran dinna listen. She never did.
“What is the true meaning of the name?” Kuresh pressed her.
Miran stood on her toes and whispered in his ear.
“Ugly?” Kuresh’s voice boomed.
That’s when he picked her up and flung her over his shoulder.
A small crowd had begun to gather because of all the noise, and as Miran squirmed and kicked to get away, Kuresh ignored her and headed for the doors. No one challenged him, not even Jamie.
“Jamie!” Helen joined him near the entrance to the great hall. “What is Kuresh doing to Miran?”
“Something I should have done long ago,” he said, taking his wife’s hand and following the onlookers outside.
Kuresh marched to the half-frozen loch. “Do you have anything to say to me, Miran?”
“Lady Miran,” she corrected him.
“Do you?”
“Ye are the ugliest creature I have ever set eyes on! Now put me down!”
“As you wish, Lady Miran.” Kuresh tossed her into the shallowest part of the loch.
Miran screamed and spluttered, splashing like a crazed duck as she surfaced. “I will find the right moment to exact my revenge on ye, Kuresh.”
The captain dinna say a word. He removed his fur cloak and threw it on the ground in front of Miran. “Put this on before you catch your death, woman.” Then, he strode away.
Helen ran to Miran and picked up the cloak. She shook it out. “Come, Miran. I’d better get ye inside by the fire.”
Miran let Helen wrap the fur about her shoulders as her teeth chattered. “Jamie.”
“Aye?”
“I hate him,” she said. “Send him back to Laird Alex, please.”
“Nay,” Jamie refused. “He is an asset to this clan, the best sort of man I’ve ever met.”
“Ye are blind.”
“Miran,” Jamie said, “perhaps I should let him take a whip to yer arse, as I did to Duncan Munroe’s.”
“Come along now,” Helen urged, and they started back toward the manor house.
“In fact…” Jamie began. “I know how to make peace between ye.”
Miran stared at her cousin. “I doona want to make peace with that man. I wish him a painful death.”
Jamie ignored her. “Kuresh is planning a trip across the Highlands, and I will ask him to recruit new soldiers along the way. Why not combine yer efforts? I will send ye with a few other women to find maids who wish to work for me.”
Miran fisted her hands, caught between the life she had always dreamed of living and the one she was forced to live. She must come up with a plan to get rid of Kuresh to restore any chance she’d ever get at happiness. But how? Laird Jamie loved her, she never doubted it. But with his captain always at his side, whispering ideas in his ear, he’d never take her seriously, not about things that mattered, anyway.
Taking a deep and steadying breath, she stood and climbed the rest of the stairs, then walked to her chamber door. She opened it and found a welcoming fire and a tray of food and wine on the table. The first thing she would do in the morning was attend Kuresh’s naming ceremony. She wanted to hear the Scottish title the self-important barbarian had chosen for himself. Then, she’d find a way to make sure he regretted the day he dropped her in the loch.
