Chapter Thirty-One #2
“Why?” Keegan frowned.
“Is it not obvious? I don’t want my father and his men to kill you.”
“They won’t kill me. They may try, but chances are they’ll get a blade in the gut.”
“Stubborn,” she muttered.
“Indeed, I am.” Keegan lifted her to his horse and climbed on behind her. He wished he could’ve stolen her away, but he knew she would never leave her sister behind.
Even though he would enjoy holding her in his arms for a few minutes, he had to figure out how the devil they were going to retrieve Talia, then escape Murray and his men.
∞∞∞
Seona didn’t wish to return to the village or the castle, but she had no choice if she wanted to ensure her sister’s safety.
And she didn’t want Keegan anywhere near her father now that his men had surely told him they’d found her and Keegan in bed together at the inn.
Her father would be in a killing rage. She prayed he hadn’t already punished Talia for running away.
Riding in front of Keegan, his strong arm around her, Seona turned to him. “We must find Talia.”
“Aye, we will,” he whispered against her ear, then kissed it. Delicious shivers slid down her body. She would love naught more than to sink down into the pleasures Keegan knew how to indulge her with, but now was not the time. She had to focus on finding her sister.
Keegan guided his horse toward the back of the tavern, his friends following. But as soon as they rounded the corner, her father, a few of his men, and Wentworth came into view. Nausea rose within her. Saints! Exactly who she didn’t want to see.
As they rode closer, her father’s face grew redder.
“Where is Talia?” Seona asked.
“Where have you been?” Murray growled, his glare shifting to Keegan.
“Haldane MacKay captured me. Then, thanks be to God, Keegan and his friends came to my rescue.” She gave a quick glance at Wentworth’s sullen face, where he stood stiffly by the tavern’s back door. Simply looking at him made her cringe.
Keegan dismounted and helped her down.
“Where is Talia?” she asked again.
“Inside. Holed up in the storeroom,” her father grumbled. “Go in and talk her into coming out.”
“What do you mean holed up in the storeroom?”
“She’s blocked the door, and she has a knife. She stabbed two of my men in the hands already. She’s gone mad!”
“I see.” ’Twas true that Talia was belligerent. Even if her actions got her into worse trouble, she would keep rebelling.
Seona headed toward the tavern’s back door, Keegan and his friends following.
Her father and Wentworth entered the dim room behind, along with five Murray guards. “I want to talk to you over here, Seona,” her father said in a stern tone.
She gave Keegan a quick glance. His firm mouth, hardened jaw, and icy glare said he was ready to stab someone. But none of them had drawn swords yet, thank the saints.
Her father and Wentworth waited twenty feet away, near the tavern’s huge cold fireplace.
When she joined them, her father asked, “Haldane, you say? Is he Griff MacKay’s youngest son?”
“Aye.” The men had already told her father how Haldane had ambushed them several times on the journey here, trying to kidnap her.
“Did he rape you? Seduce you?” her father demanded.
“Nay.”
“I don’t believe her,” Wentworth muttered between his crooked, yellow teeth. “She doesn’t have the look of an innocent to me. She probably already carries another man’s bastard. I withdraw my suit.” He strode from the tavern, slamming the front door on his way out.
Seona’s heart lightened with a moment of happiness. Marrying that man would’ve been hell on earth. But she was surprised to see her father didn’t attempt to stop him.
“’Twas not Haldane who compromised you; ’twas that one there.” Her father sent a sharp, lethal glare at Keegan.
Seona held her breath, waiting for a battle to break out. But everyone remained silent and still.
“How did Haldane MacKay capture you?” her father asked. “You had to be outside the castle walls. We know the guards were drunk on whisky and not at their posts. You slipped out, did you not?”
“Nay.”
“You’re lying, you little whore,” he muttered, too low for Keegan to hear. “One of the maids saw you slipping out of the kitchen with Rebbinglen. And six of my men saw you in the chamber upstairs with Keegan MacKay. Naked. You sicken me.”
We are married. I love him. He is my husband, she almost said. But she couldn’t yet. She had to take her sister to safety first.
“Where is Talia?”
“There.” He swung his thumb toward an alcove with a closed door. “Get her to come out.”
Seona approached the rough door, made of wide planks. “Talia? Are you in there?”
Silence.
Seona knocked. “Talia? ’Tis me, Seona.”
“Where is Father?” Talia asked, her voice muffled behind the thick wood.
“Here in the room behind me.”
“I’m not coming out,” she said in a stubborn tone.
“You cannot stay in there,” Seona said.
“I can. There is food in here. I’ll let you in and you can stay with me. We won’t have to marry the beasts.”
Footsteps approached, and Seona turned to find her father striding closer, a murderous gleam in his eyes. “What is that on your finger?” he yelled.
The wedding band. Fear paralyzed her for a moment, but then she drew in a deep breath for courage, her gaze connecting with Keegan’s—intense blue and arrow sharp. Silently, he and his friends moved closer.
“’Tis a ring,” she said. “I am married.”