“Disconcerting…” he repeated. “Come to think of it, Shawna did look a bit on edge tonight. Quite disconcerted.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means that my brother does not completely trust Lady Shawna MacGinnis. And it also means that…”
“That?”
“Whether he trusts her or not, he is seeking something from her.”
“Revenge?”
“Perhaps.”
“Poor girl.”
“It’s a problem they’ll have to work out themselves.”
“I’m simply familiar with Douglas tempers.”
“Don’t you dare take her side, my love.”
“I’ll dare what I choose.”
“We’ll see, won’t we?” He didn’t give her a chance to argue any further.
Shawna should have slept quite easily.
Maddeningly, she did not.
She lay in bed for what seemed like forever, staring into the fire. And in the flames there, she saw the past. In her mind’seye, she relived the fire that had occurred so long ago. She remembered wakening beside the burned corpse. She could still hear her own scream.
She closed her eyes against the colors of the fire, then opened them, frowning. She hadn’t slept, she’d heard no sound, but she was suddenly afraid that someone might have come into the room.
Coward!she silently charged herself.
But she slipped quickly out of bed and looked around the room. No one. She still had the uncanny feeling that she was not alone.
She spun around in a circle, looked under the bed. She walked to the window and looked out on the night. The moon was high in the sky. So nearly full.
She shivered and was certain that she heard movement in the room.
Chilled, she ran back to the bed. She crawled back beneath the covers, staring across the room to the fire once again. A startled gasp tore from her lips.
It was impossible.
She had been right. She was not alone.
He was here.
Clad in a black shirt and black breeches tonight, he sat in a chair before the fire, one long, booted leg cast haphazardly over the arm of the old Queen Anne chair as he stared into the flames.
Oh god, he was there…
And she didn’t know whether to scream with rage and frustration…
Or simply to pray.
CHAPTER 10