“Very well, if it will ease your minds,” Ronan said with a resigned shrug, a cup of ale held in his hand that he had hardly touched. “Liam and I left her only a short while ago—aye, O’Toole, why don’t you go with them?”
Liam lunged from his chair so suddenly that it toppled over with a crash to the floor, making the women gasp and Niall, Conor, and Eva’s husband, Tiernan, to glance at each other.
“Seems like Deirdre’s tongue-lashing wasn’t enough for him,” Conor observed wryly, Liam having apprised them all of what had happened when he had suggested she might be with child.
They were going to be his family after allifDeirdre still wanted to wed him, Eva and Nora casting him sympathetic looks while Conor had laughed outright, Niall and Tiernan joining in—though Ronan had said little.
The O’Byrne appearing pensive as he had stared into the fireplace at the dancing flames, while Liam had been hard-pressed to sit patiently amongst them and sip at ale that was tasteless, his desire to convince Deirdre of his love at a fever pitch.
“Go on, man.”
Liam threw a look of gratitude at Ronan and headed to the door, Niall, Nora, and Eva not far behind him when a clansman burst into the feasting-hall and threw back the hood of his sodden cloak.
“Lord, Darragh O’Sullivan rode out from the stronghold moments ago but he wasn’t alone—aye, the guards and I thought you should know. Your daughter was with him.”
“Deirdre rode out with him?” Liam echoed as Ronan arose to stride toward the man, who nodded at Liam, his expression uncertain.
“It seemed strange, but she was laughing…the two of them together on one horse, O’Sullivan’s arms around her. Should we have stopped them, Lord?”
Stunned by this news, Liam glanced at Ronan, whose scowl was truly fierce to behold.
“By God, what foolishness could have possessed her?”
Conor’s expression, too, had lost any humor while the rest of the family appeared as shocked as Liam, his heart pounding hard.
Had Deirdre’s outrage caused her to change her mind and choose Darragh over him? Ah, God, no, it couldn’t be true! Yet the guard said she was laughing…
“Something isn’t right,” Ronan muttered next to him as if thinking aloud. “She was angry, aye, but not so much that she would ride off in a storm with us still concerned about her.”
He didn’t say anything more, but hastened outside into the pouring rain and broke into a run, Ronan heading straight for Deirdre’s dwelling-house.
Liam’s stomach twisted into knots as he sprinted right behind him, his apprehension mounting to see the front door yawning open.
Yet his gut instinct was screaming when he reached Deirdre’s bedchamber, Ronan’s heated curse pricking the hairs on the back of Liam’s neck to see him sweep up from the floor what was left of a white linen nightgown.
Deirdre’s nightgown, torn in two.
“God help me, I will kill him!”
“Not if I get to the bastard first,” Liam answered Ronan through clenched teeth as he lunged from the room, nearly careening into Conor and Niall, who both jumped out of his way. “That pleasure will be mine, I vow it.”
Liam charged outside and ran toward the stable as thunder boomed overhead and the downpour only seemed to have intensified.
Which direction would Darragh have gone with Deirdre? Home to his clan? Surely his father, the chieftain of the O’Sullivans, wouldn’t abide such a transgression against Ronan Black O’Byrne. Yetwhere, then?
Fury gripping him, Liam was nearly to the stable when a commotion at the entrance to the stronghold made him slow his pace, while behind him, commands rent the air.
Ronan roaring out for his men to grab their weapons; Niall and Conor shouting for horses.
The heavy inner gates hauled open at the same time, which made Liam rush toward them instead as he pulled his sword from its sheath.
Had Darragh reconsidered whatever foul intent he harbored for Deirdre and returned with her? Yet within the next instant, Liam’s hope was dashed as a host of warriors thundered into the stronghold.
A dappled gray stallion at their lead, a cloaked figure dismounting at once to run toward Ronan, who flung out his arms.
“Triona!”
The O’Byrne’s voice hoarse with emotion, Liam guessed then if his wife had arrived from Carlow, which lay to the south, she wouldn’t have seen Darragh and Deirdre, for Triona and her heavily armed escort would surely have stopped them.
