Page 77 of Claimed Highland Brides

Delwyn figured by the way the man mentioned again and again he would kill his sister that he was measuring with how much Delwyn cared for her. He was trying to scare him, to see his reaction. He had to remain calm and win his impulses.

By coming to Scotland Delwyn showed that he cared for her so there was no way back. Maybe in the beginning the ransom was a bluff. His sister knew the man. Maybe he cared for her a bit but he decided to make the best out of it and get some ransom on top of getinge her to come with him. But now they will take it to the end - no doubt. They know about the mine and there is no way back. I have to save her. They will chase me forever or they will push it and hurt her. Her fate is on my hands now.

Delwyn took a breath. He calmed himself. All he could do now was buy time. “Don’t be ridiculous!” he began “I will get you the money but I need more time than that. They don’t even trust me. I am a stranger to them. And clearly they don’t take well to strangers.” He gestured towards the sisters who were being hustled away from the group of men—who, Delwyn realized, were Neacel Hunter’s people—and to a less crowded area.

“Och aye? Well, I can help ye wi’ that. Ye want them tae trust ye? Fight for them.”

“What does…?” Delwyn began to say before he realized that the man had disappeared. He sighed with irritation before weaving through the crowd to find the Douglasses again. They were standing at the edge of the crowd, near the front. He smiled, slipping between them once again and presenting Ùna with the rose he’d hastily picked from a bush nearby. She squealed with pleasure and grinned at him and he smiled back, quite liking her lack of shyness with him.

He straightened up then, his eyes meeting her older sister’s, which held all the reserve that Ùna’s lacked. Still, she gave him a tentative smile, her lips looking so warm, soft, and inviting that it was all he could do not to slip closer and taste them. The laird was right to guard these girls for they were indeed sorely tempting.

When the scream went up in the crowd just as the dancers were preparing to go on the small uplifted stage, he had almost jumped out of his skin. It was instinctive for him to reach for his sword and brandish it, backing up to stand in front of Jamesina and her sisters. Before he knew it, he was in the thick of the fight as the attackers seemed intent on getting to the girls. He didn’t really recognize any of the men and it did not occur to him at that time that they were Neacel’s. Not until Simon flicked the tartan and said “Hunter.”

Then he visibly paled, thankful that no one was watching him just then. His eyes flew to the three sisters, knowing full well that had they been less well guarded or had the guards been less skilled, one or all of them might have been hurt, kidnapped, or killed as well.

And it would have been my fault.

He felt a curious kind of horror at how quickly everything was escalating out of control. When the laird had offered him a coin in return for his help, he was almost tempted to take it and go. He might have if not for the thought of Maegan, alone and relying on him to free her.

He had an opportunity and he had to take it. When his mother had first suggested this plan to him, he had hardly spared a thought for the Douglass girls. They were merely a means to an end. And now he had met them and they were perfectly lovely young ladies. He could not simply step over them to achieve his purposes.

Could I?

Even as he asked himself the question, he knew the answer.

Still, I’d better play along for now. Neacel will be watching.

“I would ask a different boon if I may…I find myself at…a bit of a crossroads and would very much appreciate the chance at employment.” His heart twisted with pain even as he said the words. A pain that deepened as Jamesina spoke up on his behalf.

I am going to hell, he thought with a sigh.