The chief paused chewing and appeared to be thinking about it, then he scowled. “Who?”
“The baker’s daughter.”
“Ennis, the baker from Mallaig?” asked the chief.
Both men nodded and the chief went back to his bowl. Soon, Lewis, the innkeeper joined them at the table, taking a seat near the one with sandy waves and large topaz eyes. He also inquired on the whereabouts of Lachlan.
“These men are my kin,” the chief turned to her. “I didna introduce ye properly when ye last were with us. That’s Fionn MacDonald,” he motioned to the one with black hair tied back into a neat queue, “and that is his older brother, Geoffry. Ye already met Lewis.”
Geoffry smiled at her and began to remove his bonnet. He frozewhen his chief glared at him.
All Ismay could think about was that these two Highland brothers would likely kill her if they knew who she was and what she had done.
“This is—”
“Joseph Drummond,” she blurted, interrupting the chief. His kin didn’t look happy about it. “Fergive me.” She bowed her head before the chief without any difficulty in submissiveness. It had been taught to her in her earliest days. “I meant no disrespect.”
“Again,” he said without turning to her. “Nothin’ to fergive. Quit that way of thinkin.”
Quit…How? She leaned in close and whispered. “How am I supposed to do that?”
Finally, he lifted his head and seared brands into her soul when his gaze met hers. “Ye claimed to trust me. Start there.”
Chapter Four
Constantine finished breakinghis fast and pretended to listen to the conversation around him. He wanted to look atMissDrummond. Miss Ismay Drummond, but he would have to resist the urge to scowl.
She wanted to know why he helped her. He didn’t have an answer. She had appeared so weary, so afraid and alone. He offered his help without thinking first. It was a habit he thought he’d broken years ago. When she wept while she ate, it tore at his resolve, though he did his best to ignore it. It tore at all the men’s resolve. Without saying anything to her about it, they had guessed she was a lass early on. He was glad. He didn’t want them to be fooled by anyone.
Yesterday morn they couldn’t stop talking about her sobbing into her bread. Lachlan had asked if any of them noticed her shoes with the soles worn down to her flesh. They all agreed she was running from someone. Now, Constantine knew she’d been running from her kin and her betrothed. She’d been running for a long time, proving her fear and her resilience were real. He wanted to take her to Tor, where she would be safe for as long as she wanted to stay.
But she refused his offer.
What more could he do? She was not his responsibility.
“If ye’re hidin’ from the law,” Fionn addressed her, “the chief will take ye in.”
“I’m no’ hiding from the law,”Mr.Drummond told them in a voice soft enough to leave three of the four men oblivious to what she said.
“Ye will be safe at Tor,” Geoffry assured her with a tender smile that tempted Constantine to kick him under the table.
“Safe from what?” She let out a short, high-pitched laugh that sounded more like the beginning of more weeping. “I told ye I am no’ hiding from the law or anyone else.”
She trusted Constantine not to tell his cousins about her plight. So he didn’t. He turned and cast her an impatient look instead. Would she truly prefer to travel the Highlands alone than travel with him and men who would protect her?
He shouldn’t have indulged his senses by studying her so closely, even for a moment. It was too reckless, too dangerous. She was beguiling, snatching the breath from his body—a malady he hadn’t suffered in many years. It wasn’t her large misty eyes, or the hundreds of freckles splayed across her nose and cheeks that made him forget for a moment his name, his past. It wasn’t her straight, pert nose, or, Lord have mercy on him, her full, pouty mouth. He imagined what she looked like when her hair was set free from under that man’s bonnet. No. It was the courage and resolve that made her eyes shine and her delicate jaw set that tempted him to offer her his protection until whatever end came to him. But that was all he would ever offer her.
“Chief? Are there lions in the vicinity?”
He wanted to tell her not to be afraid in his tenderest voice. But she didn’t want to be treated like a woman. She was correct to travel as a man…if she insisted on going, and if anyone believed her. He wouldn’t give away her secret, and neither would his men—if they didn’t want to get trounced.
Without taking his eyes off her, he made another promise. “Even lions dare not enter Tor Castle, young lad.”
“What do lions have to fear?” she asked, daringhim with the slightest quirk of her mouth to take the bait and boast about himself, and appear a fool.
He took the bait, fool or not, delighting in the taste of it. “They fear my teeth.”
“Lochiel doesna speak an untruth” Geoffry said raising his cup. “They do fear his teeth.”
