Scot to the Touch (The Hots for Scots #7) - Caroline Lee Page 0,49

a fine wife. I’m just lucky none of the rest of those clot-heids realized what a prize ye are, because ye would have received many better offers. I love ye, Katlyn MacKinnon, and I swear to be true to ye the rest of our days. Will ye marry me?”

Well, how was a lass supposed to turn that down?

Not that she wanted to.

Her smile must’ve been all the answer he needed, because Kiergan’s lips slammed down atop hers.

Her arms were already wrapped around his neck when she heard Duncan grumble, “So…intruder? Anyone still curious about that, or did we all just gather to watch them swap saliva?”

“Ye’re disgusting,” someone else said to him, but Kiergan began to chuckle. He pulled away, still grinning down at Katlyn.

“I dinnae ever want to stop swapping saliva with ye, Kat.”

Duncan made a little choking noise, and Rocque blurted, “Ever? Ev ‘er? I barely even ken her!”

Katlyn pressed her hand to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud, as Malcolm groaned, “St. Thomas’s tibia, nay, Rocque. Ye still dinnae understand how this joke works, do ye?”

Alistair was the one who cleared his throat and got back to the questioning. “Ye said ye’ve seen the intruder before?”

“Last night I was in the passages with my Kat,” Kiergan explained with a nod. “We saw a man —early this morning, I suppose ‘twas. I chased him and confronted him.”

“And can ye be certain ‘twas the same man?” Alistair asked probingly. “The one ye saw once before?”

Katlyn corrected him. “Twice before.”

When everyone’s attention—including Kiergan’s, who still held her in his arms—swung to her, she shrugged and offered a grin. “I saw him in the passages the night I came to yer room.” She had no problem announcing her midnight adventure in front of these men who’d soon be her family.

“Ye didnae think to mention that to me?” Kiergan asked, aghast.

She shrugged again. “I was keeping other secrets, as ye recall.”

He hummed, but there was a twinkle in his eyes.

“Kiergan,” Duncan began again in exasperation, “the intruder?”

Clucking his tongue lightly, Kiergan shifted so she was at his side once more, then turned to his family. “I pinned him. He was the same man—and looked enough like me to be damned confusing, I dinnae mind telling ye. Said his name was Graham, but that was all I learned before he escaped.”

As he described the encounter and fielded his brothers’ question, Katlyn tried to catch Davina’s gaze. If naught else, she wanted her sister to share in her joy.

But Vina was staring at the floor, her arms wrapped around her middle, her weight resting against the stone wall beside the hearth.

“Graham?” Alistair was saying to his father. “Does that sound familiar to ye?”

Katlyn dragged her eyes away from her sister in time to see the older man shaking his head pensively. “Nay. The only Graham on Oliphant land died last winter.”

“I recall him,” Malcolm spoke up. “He was a good twenty years over Da’s age.”

“No’ him then.” Finn winked teasingly. “Someone that auld likely could nae beat Kiergan in a fight.”

“Likely,” his twin responded drily.

Kiergan bristled. “Hey! Graham didnae beat me!”

“For certes,” Duncan said seriously. “Ye just keep telling yerself that.”

As Kiergan began to again describe what had happened, Katlyn pulled out of his arms and stepped toward her sister.

“Vina?” she murmured, hoping not to draw too much attention to them.

But when her sister realized she was coming near, she jerked backward. Her gaze snapped up to Katlyn’s, and the genuine fear in her eyes stopped Katlyn in her tracks.

But it was too late. In her startled reaction, Davina’s shoulder hit the stone behind her, which swung open, and she stumbled backward through the wall.

Chapter 11

It was Katlyn’s startled yelp which yanked Kiergan’s attention away from the argument with his brothers. He turned in time to see Davina disappear through the entrance to the secret passageway, and Katlyn lunge after her.

Cursing himself for not ensuring the secret doors on either side of the great hearth were closed tightly last night, Kiergan reached out for her.

But ‘twas too late. Katlyn had gone into the passage after her sister, and the door swung shut with a thud behind them both.

Every man there froze for a moment, then began talking at once.

“We should wall up those damned doors,” Finn began, but Alistair cut in with, “Where’s the fun in that?” and Da roared, “The passages have important historical significance!”

“Historical significance?” snorted Duncan, “ ’Tis an odd way of saying ‘I sneak my lovers around through