He wasloath to admit it to himself, but he had been unprepared for someone to come after Margaret. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her when she came to beg him for protection, but he doubted that anyone from England would dare pursue her. Had he not gotten the two of them out of there quickly…
Best I daenae think aboutthat right now.
Using one hand,Ryan opened the doors to Margaret’s chambers. She clung to him still, as though she were deriving some sort of unspoken comfort from his proximity. If there weren’t questions he needed answered, Ryan might have indulged her and held her longer.
At least hershaking had stopped. That was the least he could do for her at the moment.
When he loweredher to the floor, she kept her hands braced against his biceps. She was frowning, giving a show of her displeasure for being carted through the halls though she seemed to swallow most of her complaints. Turning her nose to the air, she smoothed her skirt with a huff.
“You really liketo behave like a beast,” she said as though she were chastising an unruly pet. “Picking me up whenever you want. I’m a lady, My Laird. You would do well to remember that.”
If ye thinkI’m a beast for that, I’d hate to ken what ye’ll think of me when I get ahold of whoever that bastard was.
10
“We need to talk, lassie,” Ryan said, his words sharp as he ignored her insult. Clearly, he wasn’t in the mood to joke around with her like he was earlier. “I need ye to tell me everythin’ ye ken about that man we saw in the village.”
His face was grim;she’d even go as far as to call the expression murderous. She didn’t think it was directed at her, but now that it was just the two of them, she wasn’t so sure. Perhaps he was upset that she’d brought danger to his people and wanted to get rid of the source.
Margaret hesitatedas that thought gripped her, worrying her bottom lip as her hands opened and closed at her sides. She’d asked for his protection, and part of that was disclosing exactly who and what she needed protection from. Still, she thought she had more time before something like this would happen.
And when Ryanfound out who was after her and the kind of things they were capable of…
I should have thoughtabout how to explain this to him. What do I say that isn’t going to make him turn all that anger on me?
He took a step toward her,his fingertips gripping her chin and tilting her face upward. He was clearly tired of her stalling, and the pressure he was applying made that obvious. Forced to look into his eyes, a shiver of fear ran through her. Once again, she was faced with the knowledge that, despite the comfort he’d given her, he was still a Highlander.
Right now,he looks just as dangerous as the men my aunt told stories about. He’s not angry at me, though, at least I don’t think he is. I don’t need to be so scared.
“Who was he?”Ryan demanded, his hold tightening slightly. “Ye need to tell me. That’s the only way I’ll be able to help ye.”
“I…”she began, picking her words carefully. Part of her wanted to make a joke, to do something to diffuse the suffocating tension. She already knew that he wasn’t in the mood for that, though. With a slight shake of her head, she continued. “I don’t know who that man is exactly. But I know the man he works for. He works for Duke Cunningham. At least… I think that he’s one of Cunningham’s men. He looked familiar.”
“Cunningham,”he repeated, the name dripping with poison. He turned away from her for a moment, his jaw working angrily. He looked back into her eyes. “The man you rejected.”
“Yes,”Margaret said, her body relaxing when the Laird dropped his hold on her chin though she found she missed the warmth of his touch. “That’s him.”
Ryan spun away from her,stalking across the room. He stomped against the stone flooring, as if he were trying to take out some of his anger on the ground beneath him. Every muscle in his body seemed to be held tight. He was a thread pulled taut. Her fingers twitched, part of her wondering if she could soothe him.
No,he doesn’t seem like the kind of man who’d like that. I’d only make it worse, especially since I’m likely the reason for this frustration.
She worriedthat he might throw her out. Perhaps he hadn’t actually anticipated that she would be pursued. It wasn’t as though she’d given him many details. For all he knew, she had run off in a show of dramatics, not in a calculated move to take care of the only family she’d ever known.
“I ranfrom my home to protect my family,” Margaret said, deciding to get the whole story out before she was cast aside. “The only way to keep him from targeting them was to leave. He hunts people down if they don’t give him what he wants. He tortures them. That’s why I’m in Scotland.”
Ryan glanced over his shoulder.His expression had softened a bit, but he still had fire in his eyes. When he didn’t say anything, Margaret kept going, the words spilling from her mouth as though they were desperate to be heard.
“My family isn’t aspowerful as Duke Cunningham’s,” she said, taking a deep gulp of air. This shouldn’t have been so embarrassing to admit, yet it was. She was being treated as some sort of prize rather than the person that she was. “So, even though I don’t want to marry him, he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”
“Bastard. That damn bastard,”the Laird growled, the harshness in his voice making her flinch. He saw the way she cowered and sighed. “Sorry. Should watch me mouth around a lady.”
“He is one, though,”Margaret said, managing a weak smile as she wrapped her arms around her body as if to protect herself from the reality of her situation. She murmured, “He was going to blackmail my family to get me. It would have escalated. They wouldn’t have just handed me over, and that would have endangered all of them. I couldn’t let them get hurt because of me. I couldn’t let them be killed.”
“So ye left,”he finished for her, walking past the plush bed that Margaret had slept so soundly in the night before. “Ye left to protect them.”
“Yes,”she whispered, watching the way that he paced. It was methodical and soothing in a curious way. It was almost as if he were doing it for her just as much as he was doing it for himself. Clearing her throat, she said, “I don’t know the man who was watching us in the village, but I’ve seen him with Cunningham.”
Ryan gruntedas he walked to the window. He rested his hands on the edge, leaning forward. Then, he glanced back at her, making another sound. Margaret took that as a signal to keep speaking.