“Jesu!” James’s nostrils flared and the muscles of his jaw flexed as he clamped his lips together. After a long moment, he asked, “Sean did this to you?”
“He tried to strangle me,” she said. “Ye can see his finger marks.”
She turned her head to the side and pulled her hair back. Most of the bruising to Moira’s face had healed, thanks to Caitlin’s and Ilysa’s skills and smelly poultices, but the left side of her face still showed the damage Sean had done to her.
“I am so sorry he hurt ye,” James said.
“’Tis much improved,” Moira said, her voice wavering a bit. “Ye can imagine what I looked like the night I escaped. If I had not killed Sean first, he would have murdered me.”
“But why would Sean harm you?” James picked up her cape, wrapped it around her, and rested his hands on her shoulders. “How could any man harm you?”
Duncan ground his teeth to keep from shouting at the man to get his hands off her.
“Sean was afraid to hurt me while I had powerful protectors. I wasn’t safe from him once you and your father left Ireland.” She turned her gaze on Connor. “Sean did not believe my own clan was concerned with my well-being.”
Connor was gripping his cup so tightly that his knuckles were white. He worked with such single-minded devotion to protect their clan that Duncan knew what a blow Moira’s words were to him.
“I believe ye, Moira,” James said and blew out his breath. “But it’s no that easy. Having their chieftain killed by a lass in their own fortress humiliated the MacQuillans. They want retribution.”
“What if my brother was willing to make a modest payment to the MacQuillans?” Moira asked. “To compensate them for their…‘loss.’”
Such payments were sometimes made in cases of rape and murder, to avoid blood feuds.
“That was clever,” Connor said under his breath to Duncan, before he finally intervened in Moira’s play. “James, I am prepared to offer a modest sum, as my sister suggests.”
“That would help soothe their pride,” James said.
“Though I will expect one in return for the harm their chieftain did to my sister,” Connor added.
“I’ll leave now and let you men discuss it,” Moira said as if she had not orchestrated it all. “Thank you, James, for listening to me with an open heart.”
“You’re a brave lass,” James said and kissed her hand again, quite unnecessarily. “I’ve always admired ye.”
Duncan wanted to gag—or better yet, slice James’s silver tongue from his throat.
* * *
Moira lay on her bed, exhausted. Before her marriage, she could have carried off that performance without feeling like her soul was bleeding out on the floor. The display of her wounds was necessary and the drama effective, but she had underestimated the toll it would take on her. Making love with Duncan had made her believe she had recovered from Sean. But though she had always liked James, she found herself feeling faint when he stood too close and kept dropping his gaze to her breasts.
The mischievous faeries must have cast a spell on her for their amusement. Not only did she love a man who thought she was useless, silly, and wholly lacking in character, but it appeared that no other man could touch her without sending her into a panic.
A knock on the door made her sit up straight. “Who is it?”
She squelched her disappointment when Connor stuck his head through the door.
“Can we talk?” he asked.
When she nodded, he came inside and closed the door behind him.
“I appreciate what ye did,” Connor said. “I suspect you were more of a help to our father when he was chieftain than I ever realized.”
At least her brother was beginning to see her value, if belatedly.
“I am so sorry I didn’t send Duncan to Ireland sooner.” Connor came to stand by the bed and took her hand. “I believed you were safe, and there were so many dangers facing our clan that I…Well, there is no excuse for it. I should have found a way.”
Connor had such sadness in his eyes that she felt her own tearing up. “Thank you for saying that. I thought ye didn’t care at all.”
“It was never that,” Connor said as he brushed a lock of her hair off her forehead. “Growing up, it always seemed as if ye had a special magic around ye, and that nothing bad could ever happen to ye.”
