Chapter Ten
Bonny flopped onto her bed and groaned. “It’s never going to work.”
“Of course it will,” Brenna said dismissively as she pulled the thick tartan around her shoulders tightly and sat down in front of the fire. “I told you what happened. Today was a complete success.”
Bonny grabbed her pillow and started tossing it in the air and then catching it. “You said they didn’t kiss.”
“I said they almost kissed,” Brenna clarified, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
Normally the cold did not bother her, but she had been outside a long time spying on everything that had happened after she had exited Maegan and Mhàiri’s company before they realized what she had done. And based on what she had witnessed, Mhàiri was not going to be mad at her either.
“Seeing them almost kiss proves that our plan is working, Bonny.”
“Well, Mama almost figured it out today. She came looking for you.”
Brenna jumped to her feet and went to stand over Bonny. “What did you say?”
Unfazed by her sister’s malevolent stare, Bonny said, “I told her the truth. That you were with Uncle Conan and Mhàiri.”
“Why did you do that? Now Mama will be suspicious and start asking questions! If she learns that Uncle Conan and Mhàiri are about to get together, she will do something to ruin things again!”
Bonny threw the pillow in her older sister’s face to get her to back away. “What should I have said?” Bonny yelped, seeing Brenna prepare for revenge. “She would have found out the truth if I said something else! This way, Mama knew you were safe and didn’t keep looking for you.”
Brenna considered that rationalization and then threw the pillow back down forcefully before returning to her blanket and the fire.
“Well, all we have to do now is make Uncle Conan heroic.”
“Everyone already knows he’s brave.”
Brenna shook her head. “He needs to do a heroic act to be a hero.”
Bonny grunted. “That’s going to be impossible.”
“Why?” Brenna challenged.
“How are we going to create a situation where Uncle Conan can be a hero? Do you know how hard it was to get him to go outside the castle today? And now that he knows I tricked him, he’s going to suspect everything I say.
” Bonny turned on her side and propped her head up with her hand.
“And both Mhàiri and Maegan are going to be worse.”
Brenna tapped her chin. “I’ve thought about that,” she said with a smile. “And you’re right. We”—she pointed to Bonny and then herself—“can’t do it.”
Bonny’s eyes grew wide. “Not Mama.”
Brenna shook her head in agreement. “I was thinking about someone Mhàiri and Conan would never suspect,” she said as her impish grin grew even larger.
* * *
“You want me to do what?” Maegan gasped. “You cannot be serious.”
Brenna gave what she hoped to be her newest ally her most infectious grin and bobbed her head. “Will you do it?”
Maegan’s head pulled back as if she were trying to avoid someone’s fist. “Of course I won’t do it.”
She had come up to the girls’ bedchambers to talk to them about their antics that afternoon, not get drawn into another one of their schemes.
All their eavesdropping and plotting was stirring up trouble, and if it did not stop, someone was going to get hurt.
Maegan had intended to give them one last warning with a promise that if they instigated any more surprises their father was going to be told.
Maegan normally would have gone to Laurel about the situation, but Conor had made it very clear that no one, and he meant no one, was to unduly stress his wife.
And Maegan had no idea whether Laurel would be angry, or secretly delighted that her daughters were following in her matchmaking footsteps.
She had barely taken two steps inside the room when Brenna had squealed with excitement upon seeing her. Unable to utter even a single word of her lecture, Maegan had been guided to one of the chairs and forced to listen to the craziest matchmaking plan ever concocted.
“Brenna,” Maegan began, trying to ignore the little girl’s hopeful look. “I think it is sweet that you want to bring Mhàiri and Conan together, but it will never work.”
Brenna giggled. “But it is working.” Seeing the continued doubt in Maegan’s eyes, she gave her best evidence to prove she was right.
“Mhàiri and Conan almost kissed today. Their mouths were that far apart.” She created an inch of space between her index finger and her thumb.
“And they would have if Mhàiri had not taken a step back.”
Maegan licked her lips. Mhàiri had forgotten to include that little detail in her summary of what had transpired after she, Bonny, and Nairne had left for the warmth of the castle’s fires. “How do you know?”
Brenna raised her shoulders along with her hands. “I was there,” she answered with an impish grin.
Maegan closed her eyes and looked upward, praying silently for both patience and guidance. Someday, Brenna was going to hear something she should not and get into serious trouble. Her only hope to avoid that fate was to break this awful habit of hers.
“Brenna, you were out there that entire time?” When she nodded, Maegan sought for calm and said, “It’s too cold to be outside for so long, and you could have gotten very ill. But more importantly, your uncle would have been furious to learn that you had been spying on him out there.”
“It’s not like I wanted to be there,” Brenna announced in her defense.
“But there was no other way to know if our plan was working or if we had to do honorable all over again. But it did work.” Brenna got to her feet and held out four fingers.
“Mhàiri wanted someone who was honest”—Brenna pulled down one finger, “kind”—a second finger disappeared—“honorable”—down came a third—“and a hero.” She waved her remaining index finger at Maegan.
“That’s the only one we still need to do to prove to Mhàiri that she can fall in love with Uncle Conan. ”
Maegan slunk back into her chair. With her elbow on the sidearm, she rested her forehead in her hand.
If only love were that easy to turn off and on.
Sometimes she wished she could simply dismiss what she felt for Clyde and find happiness and love with someone else .
. . maybe even Seamus. But it was not that easy.
Peeking out from her hand, she asked, “Why do you want them together so badly?”
Brenna breathed in deeply and exhaled. “I want Uncle Conan to be happy before he leaves. It is his turn to fall in love and get married. Until Mhàiri, I didn’t think it possible, but she liked him when no one else ever did. She just needs to fall in love with him.”
“But how do you know that Conan loves her?”
“He keeps kissing her,” Bonny answered.
Maegan swung around. “What does that prove? Lots of men kiss women, and while you may want it to mean love, it often doesn’t . . . especially in the case of your uncle.”
Bonny, who was lying on her stomach with her head on the heels of her palms, shook her head. “They all kissed him. He never kissed them. The only women he ever kissed were the two widows that live outside the village.”
Maegan’s jaw dropped an inch. “How . . . how do you know them?” she asked even though she knew the answer.
“I heard him tell Seamus once,” Bonny replied. “Uncle Conan was mad that Seamus believed all the soldiers’ chatter about him being with lots of women just because lots of women had chased him.”
Maegan was shocked. She had been one of those people, and she was sure that Laurel was among them as well. “Why did Conan never say anything?”
“He didn’t want to,” Bonny answered. “He thought the rumors would help keep women away and he especially didn’t want Mama to find him a wife.”
Maegan felt her jaw tighten. Once again, she had been played. It did not matter that she understood Conan’s reasons, but that he had successfully fooled all of them about his nonexistent exploits was rankling. “So you think because Mhàiri is the first one he has kissed—”
“More than once,” Brenna chimed in.
“—more than once, that Conan is in love with her.”
Brenna nodded. Maegan looked back at Bonny, who was also nodding. “I don’t think he knows it though,” the seven-year-old added. “Or if he even wants to be, but he looks exactly like Uncle Craig and Uncle Crevan did when they were in love.”
A disturbing thought came to Maegan. “How do you know they kissed before?”
“Mhàiri told you about the one that happened just before she went on a picnic and I saw the last one. If you had seen them, you would want them together, too. They kiss like Mama and Papa do.”
Maegan swallowed at the idea that Brenna, whom she loved like a little sister, had secretly witnessed what sounded to be a very heated embrace. “You were there? Because Mhàiri told me she had opened the passageway and made sure you were not around.”
Brenna bit her bottom lip, realizing her mistake.
“There is more than one secret area in a lot of rooms. I don’t know where they all are either. She won’t tell even me,” Bonny chimed in, hoping to make Maegan feel better for not knowing about the second secret hiding spot. “Why don’t you want Mhàiri and Uncle Conan to be together?”
Maegan’s eyebrows rose as she searched for an adequate answer. Finding none, she finally said, “It’s not that I don’t want them together. I just think they would get mad if they found out that people were trying to trick them into falling in love. Love should find its own way.”
Brenna scoffed and crossed her arms. “Then it will never happen. They don’t have years, like Craig and Meriel did, to figure out that they should be more than friends. Mhàiri and Conan are leaving in the spring! That’s why they need our help.”
“Uncle Conan won’t be mad if Mhàiri and he get together. He’s nicer when he’s around her. And Mhàiri would be happier if she were with Conan. She doesn’t really want to go with her father.”
Now that was something Maegan knew for certain was incorrect. “Aye, she does. Mhàiri has told me several times how she never wanted to marry.”