Page 7 of Married to her Kilted Enemy

“Ach, wheesht yer fussin’, will ye? Ye’ll have me cryin’ in a moment,” Odhrán told them a little sheepishly but really deeply touched by the brothers’ loyalty and concern for him. “Nay, ye warm me heart with yer friendship, lads. Ye’re like the braithers I always wished fer. But now, talkin’ about havin’ me back, when they come in, she’ll have her two braithers with her, one at each side. So, I want ye both tae be at me shoulders, right behind me, just in case they try anythin’, all right?”

“Och, we’ll be right behind ye, dinnae worry about that, Odhrán,” Liam assured him. “But I doubt they’ll try anythin’.”

“Aye, they’ll nae wish tae offend the King, now, will they?” Tadgh put in with a chuckle.

Odhrán chuckled too, but when he said, “Aye, ye’re right,” he wished he felt as confident as he hoped he sounded.

CHAPTER FOUR

How can I be here, walkin’ intae his castle, when I am already dead?

Maddison’s heart pulsed sluggishly, as if its chambers were clogged with ice. It was beating slowly, dully, like a distant drum, each thud loud in her ears with every step she took nearing her to her doom. Her body felt chilled as well, bereft of all feeling.

Unaware she was doing it, she held her breath as she stood with Lillie and Diarmaid at her side in the grand vestibule of Lennox Castle, waiting for her husband-to-be to arrive. She physically shivered to think she was back in the place of her captivity, that dark, dreadful time of terror that still dogged her, and that she was going to have to marry the lying brute whose name she could hardly bring herself to say.

When she saw him rapidly advancing along a broad hallway to greet them, flanked by two hulking warriors who might have been twins, she dug her nails into her palms and let out a silent scream.

It was like taking a punch to the guts when he laid eyes on her again after so long. As he drew nearer, striding along the hallway to greet her and her family in the vestibule, he felt the breath literally leave his body, and his heart pounded in his chest as if desperate to escape.

“Ye’re all right, me friend, just keep goin’,” Liam whispered in his ear, clearly sensing what he was feeling and wanting to support him at what he knew was going to be a very difficult meeting.

“There’s only one braither. Is that nae the laird?” Tadhg whispered.

“Aye,” Odhrán murmured his mouth dry. “That’s Diarmaid. And that’s his wife, the one he stole from me.” The memory of the auction he had organized more than half a year ago, to sell off the daughters of reputable lairds whose clans had fallen on hard financial times, returned to him when he laid eyes on Diarmaid’s wife. It was not one of his proudest moments. He had been about to bid for her as his own wife—forced to do so by his father’s obsession with him getting married—when Diarmaid had beat him to it. He had greatly outbid Odhrán. But Odhrán had known it was all to spite him and his father and provoke him into revealing Maddison’s location.

Despite Diarmaid having married Lillie, they had finally agreed to exchange Lillie for Maddison on the grounds that the marriage had not been consummated and, therefore, could be annulled. But it had turned out that that had just been a ruse for the Kincaids and their allies to get into the castle and launch their rescue mission for Maddison. Diarmaid had never had any intention of letting Lillie go. She had simply been bait.

It had been during that final confrontation that Odhrán had killed his father to save Maddison. Now, as his gaze glanced over Lillie, Lady Kincaid, he felt nothing. But as soon as his eyes alighted on Maddison, he could not look away.

Summoning all his wits and pushing down the feelings she was already stirring inside him, he finally came face to face with the trio.

“Good day ye all. I trust ye had a good journey here,” he said, smiling in welcome. “Lady Kincaid, a pleasure tae see ye. I hope ye’re well.” Lillie bobbed a polite curtsey and allowed his lips to graze the back of her glove in greeting when he bowed.

“Laird Kincaid,” he said, giving the huge Diarmaid a respectful nod, unmoved by his stern expression.

“Laird Lennox,” came the similarly curt reply.

At last, Odhrán turned to look down at Maddison, deep into her dark gray eyes. It was like time stopped, and his mind stuttered for a moment, seeing the pure hatred writ large within them. Her face as she looked at him, her small, rounded chin held high, was a frozen mask, devoid of warmth or welcome. Even so, he marveled at how her delicate beauty had grown even more ethereal since their last meeting.

In that split second, his eyes drank in the perfect geometry of her features, her flawless pale skin, and the high, rounded cheeks that had a little more pink in them than before. Dark eyebrows arched elegantly above her large, thickly lashed eyes. Her small, straight nose was just as he remembered it, and her lips – oh, her lips! – looked as full and soft and pink as early roses. He thanked God she could not read his mind and tell how many times he had imagined what kissing them would be like, broken hearted to think he would never get the chance to find out.

He suddenly felt a slight nudge in his back from Tadgh and came back to reality. Taking hold of himself, he summoned his warmest smile.

“’Tis good tae see ye again, lady Maddison,” he managed to say in a surprisingly even tone. He gave her his best bow, but when he went to kiss her hand, she withheld it, turning her head away, stony faced, refusing to look at him.

It hurt him deeply to be so brutally snubbed by her before the others, but he told himself he should be thankful she had not spat in his face in the circumstances, resolving to downplay the incident. All that mattered was that she was here, that they were going to be married shortly, and he would be able to watch over her until Rollo was no longer a threat. That made him remember his manners, and he turned to Liam and Tadgh.

“I’d like tae introduce ye two me two best war leaders. Liam MacTavish and his braither Tadgh. They’re me good friends,” he said. He was pleased with the way the brothers did him credit by both greeting the visitors with warmth and civility, bowing to each of the party in turn and kissing the ladies’ hands before respectfully shaking the hand of Kincaid.

An awkward silence fell where Odhrán clapped his hands together and maintained his smile, while groping for what to say next.

“Perhaps ye would be good enough to have the ladies shown to their chambers? I’m sure they’d like tae refresh themselves after the journey. And we can have a quiet word. In private,” Diarmaid said, flashing Odhrán a meaningful look.

“Och, of course,” Odhrán said at once. With his eyes, he instructed the maid, Jessica, who was waiting nearby, to commence her carefully rehearsed duties.

She smiled as she bobbed a polite curtsey to Maddison and Lillie and said, “If ye’d like tae follow me, me ladies,” before leading them up the grand oaken staircase. Two burly male servants followed behind, lugging the first part of the copious pile of stacked trunks and other baggage the visitors had brought with them.

Briefly, Odhrán allowed his eyes to follow Maddison up the stairs, transfixed by the sight of her shapely figure, which her gown of pale blue accentuated in ways he knew he had no business even thinking of… yet.