shade as her brother’s, only lighter. She looked so damn familiar. And Simon…well, she could use the coin.
All the same, who the hell did Toran think he was dealing with? She was a leader of a rebel army and a soldier in her own right! She was raising an army to defeat the English. She couldn’t be in charge of his siblings while he—
“I won’t leave them—unless ye make me.”
Make him… She should. But the way he implored her with his eyes. Perhaps she was a fool, but for the first time since they’d met, she actually sensed a sincerity in him she’d not taken notice of before.
“What’s this?” The words were harshly spoken, coming from behind her by Dirk. “Fraser,” he fairly growled.
“Mackintosh.”
Dirk had questions, she could read it on his face, but he kept silent, thankfully deferring to her for the moment.
“Would ye take the children and their guard to get something to eat, please?” She added the please in order to soften the request.
Dirk frowned harder but nodded to the two wee Frasers and Simon. They in turn glanced at their brother to gain his permission before going off with Dirk.
“Simon?” She held out her hand, and he placed the bag of coin on her palm, the weight of it staggering.
Dirk passed her a questioning look, but she nodded for him to go. There would be time later to explain to him her motives.
As soon as she and Toran were alone, Jenny’s heart sped up, pounding so hard inside her body she was certain to crack a rib. The grand foyer felt suddenly smaller, the walls closing in around her and making it hard to breathe.
“If ye run again, I’ll have my men hunt ye down, and I’ll put the bullet in your chest myself. And they…” She glanced toward the corridor where his family had disappeared, hating that she had to make threats against children. “They will suffer.”
“I dinna doubt ye, Mistress J.”
“Good.”
* * *
Toran watched the swish of her skirts as Jenny whirled, giving him her back on her way to what he presumed was the great hall. Her hips swayed gently as she walked, not in a way that some women intentionally moved to be seductive, but it seduced him nonetheless. He found himself watching, mesmerized. And then her head snapped around, emerald eyes flashing at him, as if she’d known exactly what he was doing.
“Are ye coming?” The command in her voice was full of confidence. The woman was used to giving orders, and he didn’t doubt that any man put in a position to follow would do just that.
“Aye.” He picked up his pace, still a little shocked that she’d allowed him entry, when a large part of himself had been certain she’d put him in the stocks.
She was more beautiful than he remembered. And not because she was now in a dress that accentuated the strength of her figure, showing off her shoulders, the long column of her neck. Truth be told, he wouldn’t mind if she continued to dress in trews. Hell, in those he could see the roundness of her bottom, the muscled outline of her thighs. He’d die of joy right now if she came to him naked and covered in mud. It didn’t matter. Seeing Jenny Mackintosh had been like a punch to the gut because he hadn’t realized how much he’d wanted to see her. Damn if his body wasn’t telling him just how much. He shifted as he walked, trying to hide the evidence.
Apparently, while he’d been asleep, his mind had determined that Jenny was… Toran shook his head. He didn’t want to think about whatever it was his damned brain had decided she meant to him.
She was a rebel leader. And every time he looked at her, he pictured his mother begging for her life. Whether or not it was Jenny who was at fault, his mother had died, and somehow the rebels had been involved. He couldn’t trust her.
And yet when her pistol had been pointed at him—more than once—she’d not taken the shot. When she had the chance to toss him out the croft door at Boyd’s feet—she hadn’t. When she could have left him and Archie on the side of the road—she’d taken him up on her horse and tended Archie’s injuries instead.
He could still recall the heat of her body beneath his, the coiled anger that he wanted to tap. Mistress J was beautiful, sensual, and, he needed to remember,