he said. "I was out here enjoying the quiet when I saw ye burst out of the keep like a lamb chased by a wolf."
Ilysa wondered if he was speaking the truth. Remarkably, she was no longer afraid of him. At least not much.
"'Tis growing dark, and there are a great many men here," he continued. "Ye should know better than to wander outside the hall without one of your clansmen to protect you."
"My brother would not be pleased if he knew," she said and gave a humorless laugh. It did not bear thinking about what Duncan would do if he learned she was alone in a secluded corner of the castle with the man her clan called the Scourge of Skye. And that was the nicest name they called him.
"That's an unusual brooch you're wearing," he said.
"It was my mother's," Ilysa said, looking down at it. The brooch was distinctive with its unusual pattern of interlocking leaves surrounding a deep red stone.
"I'm sorry, has your mother passed?" he asked in a surprisingly soft voice.
Ilysa felt a sting at the back of her eyes and nodded. Ridiculous as it seemed, Ilysa felt as though the MacLeod chieftain understood her sadness.
"She died three years ago, when I was sixteen." Ilysa ran her fingertip over the slippery surface of the brooch's red stone. "She dressed plainly and always wore it under her gown where no one could see it."
"Were ye named for her?" he asked.
"No. Her name was Anna."
After a moment, he said, "I hope ye still have your father to look after ye."
"Ach, I never had him, whoever he was." When she looked up, Alastair MacLeod's eyes had that hollow look of someone for whom pain is a constant companion, and her heart went out to him. "Does your shoulder pain ye a great deal?"
"What?" he said, his tone sharp as a blade. His earlier kindness had made her forget who he was, but he was all chieftain now, huge and intimidating.
"I meant no offense," she said quickly. "I'm a healer, and it troubles me to see that ye suffer because your injury was not looked after properly at the time."
"We were a long way from home," he said, glaring down at her, "and no one was concerned about how the shoulder was set because they didn't expect me to live."
"That's a poor excuse," Ilysa said. "Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do to repair it now, but I can make ye a salve that will soothe it."
"I don't mind the pain," he said. "It serves to remind me who my enemies are."
* * *
After working his way around the hall, Connor was once again attempting to have a conversation with the MacIain about his granddaughter when Ilysa caught his eye. The arched entrance was just behind her, framing her like a painting. It was a mystery to him how she could look like herself and yet so achingly lovely at the same time.
His muscles tensed when he noticed that Alastair MacLeod was next to her. It was a testament to how shocked he was by Ilysa's transformation that he did not see the MacLeod chieftain first. He could not bear for her to be so close to their enemy. When he took a step toward them, MacIain stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"I'll have no trouble between you and the MacLeod here," his host warned.
Connor relaxed as the MacLeod moved away from Ilysa and into the crowded hall. Suddenly, the man turned and met his gaze, as if he had been aware of Connor watching him all along. The animosity that burned between them could have set the hall on fire.
Chapter 19
Feels like we've been here a month," Duncan said when Connor found him at their camp near evening on the second day. "When can we leave?"
"As soon as I get this business of a wife settled."
All day, Connor had had careful conversations with other chieftains about their marriageable daughters and sisters without committing himself, which had tested his skills and made him sweat. Now it was time to enter into serious negotiations with one of them.
His near mistake with Deirdre made Connor realize that, if the circumstances allowed, he ought to consider the nature of the lass as well as the strength of her clan. Unfortunately, his own judgment had proved fallible when it came to prospective brides. It was a shame Alex was not here, because Alex knew women. Duncan was useless on the subject, and Moira