me . . . Actually, he offered me her hand in marriage. The letter said Rory Buchanan.”
“What?” Conran growled.
“Aye,” Alick said with a grin. “And he promised to make Rory his heir. He’d become laird here when the Maclean passes.”
“Aye, it did say Rory Buchanan,” Aulay agreed, his eyebrows rising. “Now is no’ this a pickle?”
“It’s no’ a pickle,” Conran snapped. “Rory can no’ marry her.”
“Why?” Aulay asked with interest.
Conran merely scowled at the question, his feelings in an uproar. He’d been more than eager to bed Evina, but hadn’t ever contemplated marrying her. He hadn’t considered that an option. He was a fourth son, with a small inheritance, and some coin of his own he’d made helping out his brothers with their various endeavors, but had no castle to put a wife in. He was hardly in a position to offer marriage to someone like the Maclean’s daughter. Most men like the Maclean would want a man with better prospects for his daughter.
“O’ course,” Alick said, drawing him from his thoughts. “He made that offer ere he learned ye’d tumbled his daughter and—Ouch!” he complained, grabbing the back of his head when Aulay smacked him.
“Shut it,” Aulay growled, and then lowered his voice to say, “Ye do no’ ken who may be listening outside the door. The whole Maclean clan does no’ need to ken Conran ruined their laird’s daughter. Are ye trying to shame the lass or get Conran strung up?”
“Sorry,” Alick muttered, rubbing his head. “I was no’ thinking.”
“Ye rarely do,” Aulay said grimly, and then turned to Conran and said quietly, “Alick is right though. When we got here, the man was understandably froth. He did no’ even allow me to introduce Rory and Alick before announcing that the situation had changed: Rory had tumbled the lass in the field ere they were attacked by bandits. The marriage was no longer an offer, but a demand. Rory would now have to marry the lass to save her honor.”
“That’s when yer brother introduced me to these two lads here.” Fearghas gestured to Alick and Rory. “As ye can imagine, I was a bit dismayed to learn ye were no’ the man I thought ye were.”
Aulay nodded and then raised his eyebrows in question. “So? Is the Maclean’s daughter ruined?”
Conran stood frozen for a moment, completely stunned. He hadn’t imagined anyone knew about what had happened in the clearing . . . except perhaps the bandits. But then he recalled Gavin appearing suddenly in the clearing. The arrow had already hit Evina, and the bandits had rushed from the woods to attack him when the lad had suddenly appeared. At the time, he’d considered it a lucky happenstance that Evina’s cousin had been passing when needed. But now he wondered what the lad had been doing there. Had he been sent to watch them? Had he seen the whole thing? His kissing and caressing Evina, and then taking her innocence?
Conran noted the Maclean’s satisfied expression and felt his stomach drop as he realized he’d been completely wrong about his eligibility when it came to Evina. The Maclean didn’t think him not good enough to be a son-in-law. It looked to him as if the man wanted him for the position. So much so, in fact, that Fearghas Maclean had set him up. At least, he’d apparently wanted him for a son-in-law when he’d thought him Rory, Conran thought. Fearghas obviously got rid of the weeds as an excuse to get him and Evina away from the keep and alone in the hopes that something might happen between them . . . and then Gavin had been sent to be a witness.
But had Evina been a party to the plot? Conran wondered, and considered the possibility that he hadn’t been the seducer at all. After a moment though, he shook his head. Nay. He was the one who had initiated things. He was the one to kiss her first, and then to caress and so on. And he’d pulled her down on top of his cock, taking her innocence. Mostly, Evina had just held on and responded, and her responses had shown her inexperience. In fact, if he hadn’t been so desperate to plant his cock in her, he would have realized she wasn’t the knowledgeable widow he’d thought she was before breaching her innocence, he acknowledged.
Besides, there was no mistaking Evina’s shock when it happened. She’d looked almost traumatized. And then there were her comments just now in