Conran would agree. Was he glad they were going to wed? Her father had pretty much tricked and trapped him into this marriage.
Evina smiled wryly at the thought. After years of leaving her to fend for herself, Fearghas Maclean had suddenly recalled he was her father and tried to see to her future. She may have fought him on it, but would have to give him credit for that. He’d chosen a fine time to do it, and a fine man to see her married to. Because she certainly felt lucky that she’d brought the wrong Highlander home and was going to marry him. Had she brought Rory home that day, as intended . . . well, he was nice enough, and no doubt family was as important to him as the rest of the Buchanans, but Evina really didn’t think the healer’s temperament would suit hers. Not that she’d set out to bring back the Buchanan healer with marriage in mind. In fact, that had been the furthest thing from her thoughts at the time. But she was glad now that she was marrying Conran. He was a man she knew she could depend on.
He also made the bedding a pleasure she couldn’t imagine experiencing with anyone else. All the man had to do was look at her with that hungry expression he got, and she began to tingle in places that had never tingled before. And once he kissed or touched her? Forget everything else. She was lost. Evina became nothing more than a mass of trembling need and desire, ready to lie down and spread her legs for him.
Aye, she’d got the right Highlander in the end. She liked him, respected him, found pleasure with him and . . . She might even love him, Evina admitted solemnly to herself. Certainly, if she didn’t already, she was headed that way. She was beginning to find it hard to imagine life without him, and certainly couldn’t begin to envision sharing her life and body with anyone else.
Aye, she probably loved him, Evina acknowledged, and then grimaced at herself for her cowardice, and admitted that aye, she did love Conran Buchanan. He was a good man, a strong man, a brave man, and intelligent. But he was also gentle, and patient and kind. She loved him and wanted him, and was eagerly looking forward to being his wife, she acknowledged, and then stilled when she heard a shuffling sound behind her. It was much like the sound she’d heard just before someone had tried to drown her in her bath.
But the passage entrances were all locked now, Evina reminded herself. It must be mice this time, she reassured herself. Still, she started to turn to see what was causing the sound . . . and then paused halfway, jerked back around to face the door when a knock sounded.
Shaking her head at how jumpy she was, Evina called out, “Enter,” and stood up to brush her skirts down as the door opened.
Evina half expected it to be her father come to collect her. But since her feelings about that man were presently somewhat muddled, she was relieved when Gavin stepped inside.
“Ye look beautiful, cousin,” he said with a combination of awe and pride as he closed the door and looked her over.
“Thank ye,” Evina murmured, shifting uncomfortably under the praise, and then to change the subject, she asked, “Is everything all right? I was waiting for Da to come get me.”
“Aye. Uncle Fearghas sent me to fetch ye down. He’s a bit tender at the moment and didn’t think he could manage the stairs,” Gavin explained.
Some voice in Evina’s mind pointed out that he was failing her again, but she pushed it away. The past was the past, she reminded herself firmly.
“Ye were no’ planning to run away, were ye?” Gavin asked suddenly.
Evina dragged herself from her thoughts to peer at him with confusion. Her bewilderment showed in her voice when she asked, “What?”
When Gavin raised his eyebrows and gestured behind her, Evina turned and saw that the entrance to the passage was open. She stared at it with shock. It hadn’t been open when the women were here, or while Tildy was cleaning. They would have noticed. And it shouldn’t be open now. Her father had locked down the passages from the inside. No one should have been able to open it from the passage.
“I thought ye wanted to marry Conran?” Gavin said behind her, and she could