The thought of sleeping in a bed made her sigh out loud three times before she even saw it.
“Look here,” her protector said, calling her to lookat the door, or more specifically, the lock on the door. “Here is the key. It locks from the inside. Once ye lock it, no one can get in. That is, if they get past me.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. He didn’t mean to—
Men’s voices shouting threats and obscenities reached the upper landing and the innkeeper’s ears. “I’ll wager a free supper that ’tis those two troublemaking brothers, Fionn most especially,” he said to Mr. Cameron. “I’ll whip their hides myself!”
Ismay watched the innkeeper storm out, leaving her alone with the handsome Highlander.
“What I meant was,” he continued as if no interruption had occurred—at least not one he concerned himself with, “I’ll be right ootside the door.”
“What?” It took a moment to remember what they had been talking about. “What fer?”
“To protect ye, why else?” he demanded curiously while she yawned.
Ah, yes, he had promised to protect her. Had he meant all night? “I still dinna know why ye would do that.”
“Why?” he repeated, eyes widening as if he could not believe she questioned him. “Why do ye ask that instead of thank the good Lord I was here tonight?”
“I already did that numerous times while you fed me, my lord.”
“Hmm, I see,” he said, sounding as if she had just blown all the wind out of his sails.
“I thanked Him, but I still dinna know why.”
He captured her and made her go still with a gaze. A gaze from some deep place where he was not all hard and detached as he appeared. “I know ye’re a—”
“Chief,” the innkeeper returned.
Chief? Ismay turned to cast her gaze on Mr. Constantine Cameron.
“Ye settled that swiftly, Lewis,” he said to the innkeeper, soundinga bit disappointed that the rumble was over before it started.
“I threw oot the whole lot of them,” Lewis told him. “’Twas those four Anglos loiterin’ about who started it, but I’ll be lockin’ up fer the night, so I sent them all home.”
“I’ll be stayin’.”
Lewis stared at his chief after his declaration and then glanced at Ismay. The innkeeper didn’t also know she was a woman, did he? She was certain the—oh, she had to swallow back a miserable groan that her protector was a chief—that the chief knew she was a woman. She suspected it was what he had been about to confess before he was interrupted.
Now it made more sense why he would offer to protect and feed her. Of course he wanted something for it. They would be alone.
Well, he would have to kill her first.
She waited while Lewis and his chief shared a few more words, then crossed her arms over her chest when they were alone again. “Chief?”
He nodded, perhaps noticing the sting in her voice, for his eyes narrowed on her.
“I didna know ye were a chief.”
“Is that what angers ye? That I’m the Cameron chief?” He moved closer to her, making her heart thump loud in her ears. Just when she was about to back away, he handed her the key. She snatched it from his hand.
“I dinna trust men who hold power,” she told him, walking to the door.
“That is why I got ye a room where the door locks from the inside.”
She almost tripped over her feet.
“But ye trust me.” His voice was lush and hypnotic falling against her ears.
