Chapter 3
Megan was following him before she even realized what she was doing. He led her down a high-walled stone corridor and abruptly stopped at a discreet wooden door. He slipped inside, leaving the door open for her.
Megan stuck her head inside and was surprised to find that this was the Laird’s study.
“I was expectin’ somethin’ showier,” she remarked, stepping inside.
The room was small, with no tapestries on the walls, and ringed with bookshelves.
The shelves were crammed with tomes, manuscripts—scrolls even—cluttered with boxes and trinkets set carefully in between.
The room was dominated by a wide desk, hewn roughly from good wood, with a chair set behind it and a stool in front.
She had expected Ryder to go and sit behind the desk, but instead, he leaned in front of it, arms crossed over his chest.
“The thing is, Megan Blackwood,” he said shortly, “I need ye to do somethin’ for me.”
Megan eyed him for a moment, loosening her quiver from around her shoulder and lowering it to the ground. She gave a short laugh.
“Oh, aye? So, ye staged all of this because ye were too shy to ask for help?”
His eyes flashed, and that was all the warning she had before he lunged forward, long, cool fingers wrapping around her chin.
Megan gave a squawk of surprise. She tried to duck away, but his fingers were too tight around her chin, holding her firmly.
“Steady on, lassie,” he murmured, his voice low and menacing, his long nose inches away from hers. “Ye are in me study, me Keep, now. Best to remember that, eh?”
“Let go of me!”
He tightened his grip. It did not hurt, exactly—he wasn’t digging in his nails or squeezing tight enough to mark her skin, but she could not manage to jerk her chin away. Reflexively, she grabbed his wrist.
She couldn’t get her hand around his wrist; it was so thickly corded with muscle. She felt them shift under her fingers as he adjusted his grip.
“Best to mind yer manners in another man’s Keep, lassie,” he said gently, but there was a dangerous undertone to his voice. “It’s yer help that I need. I’m nae askin’ a favor. I need yer services.”
At last, Megan managed to wrench her chin away.
She retreated to a safe distance, glowering at him.
When he made no move to lunge forward, she lifted her hand to rub at her chin.
There were no painful spots, no marks left, but somehow she could still feel his fingertips on her skin.
It was a curious sensation, and one she was not sure she liked.
“I’m listenin’,” she snapped at last. She thought—briefly and guiltily—of Lily and Alasdair back at the house.
She’d left a note saying that she had gone hunting so that they wouldn’t expect her back until nightfall.
If a full night came and went, however, Lily would panic.
She needed to get home, or else send them an update on all of this.
Ryder returned to his desk, perching right on the edge. He folded his arms tight across his chest, muscles bulging. That odd sensation plunged into Megan’s stomach once more, and she cleared her throat to distract herself.
“Me faither left a good many enemies behind him,” Ryder stated at last. “He was nae a popular man. I tried to make peace with most of them and dealt with those who wouldnae make peace. Ye ken, the ones who’d make war on a man for the sins of his faither.
I thought I’d dealt with them all, but it seems that I was wrong. Apparently, somebody wants war.”
“That’s nae good,” Megan murmured. This was not her business, of course, but war in one clan generally meant difficulties for the other clans. It sent ripples of danger throughout the Highlands. “Although I am nae sure what this has to do with me.”
Ryder flashed a grim smile. “Somebody tried to abduct me sister.”
Megan blinked. She vaguely remembered catching a glimpse of three women sitting on the platform beside Ryder. There’d been an older woman of about twenty-eight, clearly a nurse or a maid, then there’d been a teenage girl. A little girl had sat on the floor and played with her toys.
“What?” she managed.
He nodded. “Aye, about two weeks ago. It was the oldest of me two sisters, Alaina. She is sixteen, and if she were kidnapped…” He paused, swallowing. “I am nae sure what dangers might befall her. Even if I paid a ransom, or did whatever her kidnappers wanted.”
Megan shivered at that. She remembered being sixteen years old.
Why, she and her sisters had been around that age when Ma died, and it had been the most devastating thing they had ever experienced.
They were left vulnerable, and if they hadn’t had each other, Megan couldn’t say what might have happened.
She glanced at Ryder again, taking in his taut, angry expression.
At least his sister has him to look out for her, she thought.
“Did ye catch the men who tried to take her?” she asked.
He gave a curt nod.
Megan brightened. “Well, that’s great news! Question them, and they’ll tell ye who gave them the orders.”
Ryder shrugged carelessly. “They didnae tell me.”
“Well, did ye torture them enough? Me faither always said…”
“I killed them.”
There was a brief silence after that. Megan gulped.
“Oh,” she managed at last. “Well, that’s not the greatest thing, is it? Ye could have questioned them.”
He rolled his shoulders, and she heard the joints crack loudly. The sound made her wine. “Well, I didnae, and I cannae go back in time now.”
This was a fair enough point. Megan narrowed her eyes, taking a step forward.
“This doesnae explain why ye need me. It doesnae explain the ploy ye made to lure me here. Do ye want me to find out who tried to take yer sister?”
Ryder shifted. “Nay, I’ll find out meself. Now, to explain what I want from ye, I must tell ye a wee bit about me sister. Alaina is… well, she’s a wee bit pig-headed.”
Megan bit back a smile. “Of course she is. She’s sixteen and has probably been brought up as a princess. Even without that sort of upbringin’, she is sixteen. I recall what I was like at that age.”
“I dread to think,” Ryder murmured, quirking up an eyebrow. “At any rate, ye can imagine what she’s like. She wants freedom, but with our faither’s enemies bouncing around, she cannae simply go walkin’ around wherever she likes. She has to be watched, and she hates bein’ watched.”
“I cannae imagine why.”
“Me duty as her braither is to keep her safe,” Ryder continued, as if Megan had not spoken. He straightened up, pushing away from the desk, and began to pace up and down the room. His expression was inward-looking, almost as if he were talking to himself and not to Megan at all.
“I added guards outside her room,” he continued, “and she was nae pleased. I caught her climbin’ out of her window one night.
She didnae plan to sneak out of the Keep, only out of her room.
She claimed that she’d planned to climb along to the next window, crawl into that room, and then roam freely around the Keep without her guards knowin’. ”
Megan bit back a smile. “She sounds like an interestin’ lass.”
He made a dismissive gesture. “She’s a headache, but I love her. The point is, she is nae fond of the guards. She willnae admit to any danger. And when I forbade her to leave the Keep…”
“Ye did what?” Megan interrupted, staring in horror.
He blinked at her. “I forbade her leaving. What else could I do?”
“Well, forbiddin’ a girl of that age to do anythin’ is the worst thing ye can do. It’ll make her want to do it more.”
“Aye, well, I ken that now, daenae I?” Ryder sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “She’s furious about all the new guards and restrictions.”
“I cannae blame her!”
He glowered at her. “I must keep her safe! And that, lassie, is where ye come in.”
Megan pursed her lips. “Explain.”
“Isn’t it clear? I want ye to guard her.
I want ye to watch over her for the next three months, which will give me time to hunt down the men who want to take her and deal with them.
I chose me sister’s guard carefully. I have watched ye for a while.
Winnin’ the competition was only the final thing I needed to see from ye.
I think that ye would be able to keep my sister safe when I’m not around to do it myself. ”
Megan blinked, not sure what to do with this sudden compliment. She cleared her throat, glancing around.
“I see,” she managed, a little lamely. “Thank ye.”
He barely seemed to notice. He paced up and down, as restless as a wild animal in a cage. Megan found her eyes following him, up and down, up and down, her chest growing tighter. What was this feeling?
It’s because he’s handsome, she told herself furiously. If he were old and ugly, he wouldnae affect me in this way. I havenae seen any handsome men in a while, that’s all.
“The thing is,” Ryder continued, reaching up to scratch his head, “ye cannae act like a real guard. She’ll see through that in a moment. This isnae a case of ye replacin’ all the guards and standin’ at attention outside of her room for three months.”
Megan frowned. “Then what am I to do?”
He sighed impatiently. “Ye ken, Megan, I thought this conversation would go very differently from the way it is goin’ right now.”
She bit back a smile. “Well, considerin’ that ye brought me here with the understandin’ that I’d win me faither’s long-lost treasure, ye should probably be glad I’m nae stickin’ ye full of arrows.”
Ryder paused in his pacing, glaring at her. “Careful, lassie. That sounds like a threat. Threatenin’ the laird of a Keep within his own walls is never a good idea. At this range, I am nae sure yer arrows will help ye very much.”
Megan clenched her jaw, lifting her chin. “Ye never stabbed a man with an arrow?”
Ryder chuckled. “Aye. I have. Have ye?”
Megan found herself groping for a response. While she was trying to come up with a witty comment, Ryder began to pace and talk again.
“I want ye to act as her friend, her companion. Spend time with her. Do what lassies do together.”