The Accidental Highland Hero (32 page)

“Did Eilis put you up to this?” James asked, although he already knew the answer to his query.

“Nay, my laird.” Fia smiled. “She would strangle me if she knew I had told you thus. Is that all you wished of me?”

“Aye, lass. Eilis will be my wife. One way or another.”

Fia grinned and kissed him on the cheek. “Praise be to thee, my laird. You will be good for her.” Then Fia curtseyed and hurried back to the chamber.

James stared after her, wishing tonight when he returned to his bed, Eilis was once again snuggled underneath the covers. Only this time he would know ‘twas her. And he would do more than just kiss the lass’s sweet lips.

Chapter Seventeen

Early the next morn, Eilis and Fia went to the hall to break their fast, but James seemed in a strange mood. He leaned over to Catriona. “How was your eve? Did you sleep well?”

At first, Catriona pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. “My chamber is not as nice as some, and I did not sleep well. Did you, my laird?”

Eilis bit her tongue. Was Catriona intimating that she needed James’s company last eve to make the night pass more quickly?  And why was James ignoring Eilis and only speaking with Catriona this morn?  Had he taken her advice, nay advice, but command to seek Catriona’s interest rather than Eilis’s?

She should have been satisfied. So why was her stomach bunching into knotted hemp?

By the time the meal had ended, Eilis could not wait to quit the hall. Not once had James looked Eilis’s way, nor had he spoken a word to her. Fia looked on sympathetically, and like Eilis, had not much of an appetite.

When Eilis and her cousin left the hall and, with Fergus guarding as usual, they took a walk in the herb gardens. Fia cleared her throat. “Laird James mentioned to me you had been to Brecken Castle.”

Eilis looked sharply at Fia but said naught.

“Do you remember?”

“Aye. That is where I met Lady Allison.”

“And the trouble you had there?  A cousin took you away?”

Eilis stared at the flowers in the garden, vaguely remembering Allison had been in trouble in the stable. “Aye…oh, Fia, a man had…had attacked Allison.” Eilis closed her eyes then looked again at Fia. “‘Twas the cousin I had taken such a fancy to.”

Fia’s eyes widened. “You do not mean Fann, do you?”

“Aye, t’was he. The devil was in the drink. He had been in his cups and had tried to take advantage of poor Allison, but I…I heard her scream and raced in to see the matter, thinking a horse had nipped her. When I saw it was our cousin, I seized a pitchfork and poked him soundly in the arse. He turned his fury on me, but then realizing the trouble he might be in, he forced me to leave Brecken at once so I would not reveal his identity. Allison had no idea who he was.”

“Och, Eilis, why did you never tell me?”

“He was out of his head with drink, and he never did it again that I know of.”

James stalked into the inner bailey and spoke to a couple of his men across while Catriona practically was tied to him like a saddle to a horse.

“I cannot believe he has a guard watching your every move.” Fia folded her arms and gave Fergus the evil eye.

“’Tis not that he needs me here any longer. Look at the way Catriona fawns over him. And how he talked only to her at the meal this morn.” Eilis took a heavy breath. “He has finally realized his mistake in wishing me for a bride.”

Catriona reached for James’s arm, but he sidestepped her.

Then one of the men he was speaking to looked Eilis’s way, and when he did, James caught sight of her watching him. He smiled and took Catriona’s hand and kissed it.

Eilis’s mouth gaped before she caught herself. So did Fia’s.

“Did you see what James just did?” Fia asked.

“Aye. You see why I say he has no more need of me?”

“But…”  Fia clamped her mouth shut, and she and Eilis glanced back at Fergus. The guard watched them, his face expressionless.

Two men approached James and pulled swords from their scabbards, and Eilis’s stomach clenched. “What is His Lairdship doing now?”

They challenged James, and he spoke to Catriona then she moved a safe distance away.

“What is happening?” Eilis tried to mask the alarm in her voice but failed.

“Practicing sword fighting,” Fergus said.

“Two against one?”

For the first time since she’d known him, Fergus smiled. “Our Laird likes more challenging odds in case he is bushwhacked some day.”

The two men thrust at James, and every time he swept their swords away from his chest with a clang.

At first, James stepped back from their thrusts. Suddenly, he slashed at one then the other, forcing them to retreat. With a decisive blow, he knocked the sword from one of the men’s hand, and charged like a wild boar at the other until he struck the man’s sword and it flew into the air.

His people clapped.

Catriona quickly made her move to congratulate him, but after he resheathed his sword, three young boys approached him, wielding wooden swords. One handed a spare to James then they all attacked him with a vengeance, growling and yelling.

James sounded just as fearsome as he whacked their swords with his, but not once did he strike hard, nor did he wound them in mock battle. Instead, he groaned whenever one of the junior warriors slashed at his leg or hit his arm.

Then in a dramatic final bout, the tallest of the lads knocked James’s sword from his grasp. The courtiers cheered.

Eilis asked Fergus, “Does he oft practice with the lads?”

“Aye. They must learn to protect themselves. Our laird is one of the best swordsmen around.”

Again, Catriona moved in close to James to get his attention.

“I have seen enough, Fia. Let us retire to our chamber, shall we?”

“Och, you cannot let her have him. The poor man.” Fia hurried beside her as they entered the keep.

“He wanted her, Fia. My only purpose in being here was to ensure she saw the error of her ways. Now that she has, my obligation to him has been fulfilled.”

Eilis glanced back at Fergus and frowned. “I hope you do not repeat everything I say to His Lairdship.”

“Only that which His Lairdship wishes to hear.”

‘Twas good that she spoke of naught that James would be interested in hearing in Fergus’s presence. Eilis entered the guest chambers with Fia and waited for Fergus to shut the door. Once the latch clicked, she said to Fia, “Our best chance at escape is to climb over the wall they are rebuilding.”

“They have a guard or two there every night. But, Eilis, you must consider James wishes to wed you.”

“We had a fight last night, I tell you. One little fight, and he sees me as too much of a challenge and returns to the woman he wanted in the first place?  There are bound to be more disagreements after marriage. What then?  Would he seek another woman’s arms for comfort?  Mayhap he wouldn’t even need that excuse if he becomes anything like his sire.”

Fia wrung her hands, her brow wrinkled in thought. “I know you well enough to believe this has more to do with worrying that our uncle and Dunbarton will join forces and destroy the MacNeills. That this has nothing to do with your concern that James no longer desires you.” She sighed. “I have to agree with you about our uncle and Dunbarton’s combined forces and how brutally they could deal with the MacNeills. But what if James offers a bigger bride price to our uncle for you?  Mayhap this is all for naught.”

“Think you Dunbarton will give up that easily?  That our uncle will agree to receive anything less from James than the sun and the moon and the earth, too?”

Fia snorted softly. “Aye, once he learns James loves you, our uncle would stop at naught to get the most out of the bargain.”

“All right then, ‘tis agreed. Where the wall is still being rebuilt is the only place we might be able to climb over. The gate is closed tight in the eve,” Eilis said, feeling less decisive about this than she wanted to be. In fact, deep in her heart, she had the traitorous hope she and Fia wouldn’t succeed. But she had to at least make the effort to protect the MacNeills in any way that she could. .

Fia stared out the window. “But how are we to get past the guard at our room?”

“We go through James’s bedchamber.”

Fia’s eyes widened.

“
Before
he has retired this time. His door is slightly beyond the bend in the wall. All we need do is slip out of here after we finish the evening meal.”

Fia looked back out the window and gasped.

Eilis hurried over to peek out and stared at the redheaded man astride his black horse, accompanied by several other hardy Highland warriors. “Who is he?”

Fia gaped at her. “Do you not recognize him?”

Alarmed at Fia’s worried response, Eilis asked again, “Nay, who is he?”

“Och, you have not regained all your memories. ‘Tis our cousin, Broc. Uncle MacBurness’s only son. His being here is not a good sign. Agnes’s brother must know you are here, or he would not have come. Oh, Eilis, I fear we are doomed.”

****

James stiffened as he listened to Eanruig give him the grave news in the great hall. “You say he is Agnes’s brother, Broc MacBurness?”

“Aye.”

“And he believes we have his sister, Agnes, here?”

“Keeping her safe, my laird, and he wishes to take her off our hands now.”

“He does, does he?”  James ran his hand over his chin. “And you have told him?”

“That we have no lady like that here, my laird.”

James glanced at his mother, standing quietly in the entrance of the great hall. He took a heavy breath. “My mother, please ensure the kitchen staff prepare meals for two of our ladies in their chambers for evening meal.”

“You should have married Eilis already and not have been dallying with Catriona all morn.” Frowning at him, she inclined her head and hurried off to the kitchen.

Mayhap, but he’d hoped if he’d shown no interest in Eilis this morn, she would realize the error of her ways, capitulate, and agree to wed him.

“You intend to keep the ladies’ presence here secret?” Eanruig asked.

“Possibly Fia should come to the meal, although I am afraid she might be too nervous to face her cousin, Broc. But he may know she is staying with us.”

“Aye, the word must have reached his father that you have shown some interest in marrying Fia, and he wonders why.”

“Or the word is out that she has come here to see her cousin, whom she cares for a great deal. I assumed it would come to this eventually but not as soon as all this.” James sighed.

“How will we keep this Broc from taking Eilis away with him?”

James raised his brows.

Eanruig smiled.   

****

A knocking at the bedchamber door made Eilis and Fia jump.

Tavia entered. Her face looked so grave, Eilis feared the worst concerning her cousin Broc, but she didn’t speak a word.