“There,” she snapped, letting her skirts drop and tossing the braies across the bed as he reached eight.
Her father opened his eyes and smiled when he shifted so that he could look around and see the braies on the end of the bed. “Good. Now the sword.”
“The sword?” Evina asked, and started to shake her head. “I—”
“Ladies do no’ carry swords around on their person,” he said firmly. “Remove it and set it on the braies. Ye can have it back when ye return.”
“A fat lot of good ‘twill do me then,” she snapped at once. “If ye’re going to make me ride outside the bailey with him, that’s when I’m most likely to need me sword. We could be attacked by bandits, or—”
“I’m sure Rory can protect ye against anything that might crop up,” he said, unconcerned.
“Rory is a healer, no’ a warrior,” she said with disdain.
“And ye’re a lady, no’ a young lad,” he snapped back, and then said slowly and firmly, “Ladies do no’ carry swords. They are sweet, and gentle. They smile, and coo, plea prettily and compliment a man. They do no’ hit him in the head with the hilt of their sword and drag his naked arse back to my castle! ”
“He told ye,” Evina whispered with dismay.
“Sword,” he growled, pointing toward the braies on the bed.
Biting her lip, Evina removed her sword and set it carefully on the bed.
“He did no’ tell me,” her father said now. “I was awake and heard everything when ye arrived back and were arguing here in me chamber.”
“Oh,” she breathed, and then sucked in a mouthful of air and said defensively, “Ye were very sick at the time. Deathly so. I was just trying to get him back here to save ye.”
“For what?” the Maclean asked dryly. “So I’d be healthy when his brothers came to kill us all for kidnapping one of their own?”
Evina’s eyes widened incredulously. “I’m sure he will no’ send for his brothers. He seems perfectly content helping ye. I have no’ had to hold me sword to his throat to get him to do it or anything as I feared on the ride back. He—”
“O’ course he’s acting content,” her father snapped. “He is alone in a strange castle, surrounded by strangers, all of whom are armed while he is no’. Did ye expect him to refuse to tend me, or tell ye he would complain to his brothers about his treatment? Only a fool would do that. Ye might kill him and bury him here so no one ever kenned what happened to him.”
“I ne’er would!” Evina gasped with amazement.
“I ken that,” her father said wearily. “But he does no’. The Buchanan does no’ ken ye, lass. He kens none o’ us. What do ye think he’s been thinking while being kept here?”
“I . . .” Evina shook her head helplessly. She hadn’t really thought much on how he might be feeling. They weren’t keeping him prisoner with guards on him or anything. She’d assumed he understood that he was a guest, not a prisoner. Not that he wouldn’t have been a prisoner had he refused to help her father. The truth was, she would have made him help her father at sword point had he refused at first. But he hadn’t; he’d set to work on the man the moment he saw how ill he was.
“The Buchanans are becoming a very powerful family, lass,” her father said solemnly. “The boys have been marrying into, and becoming lairds over, keeps with their own armies. If ye go up against one, ye’ll find yerself dealing with all o’ them, and all o’ their soldiers. That would be the Buchanans, the Drummonds, the Carmichaels and the MacDonnells combined. And their friends the Sinclairs would no doubt join in any battle they took on as well. All those armies at once would crush Maclean . . . and Rory’s asked to send a message to his family,” her father told her unhappily before admitting, “I fear what he’s going to say, but can hardly refuse to let him send a message else he would be a prisoner.”
Evina’s eyes had widened further and further with every word out of her father’s mouth, until she was now gaping at him with horror. She truly hadn’t considered the fact that the brothers had married into their own keeps complete with armies, or that they’d doubtless combine forces with the Buchanan