Page 45

E ileen stood in the stone corridor, her fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles ached, her breath still coming in short, furious bursts.

She watched Archer disappear down the hall, his broad back vanishing with maddening confidence as if he hadn’t just pinned her to the ground like some wild boar.

As if he hadn’t just accused her of espionage and arrogance in the same breath.

“Daft brute,” she muttered, her teeth grinding. “Bloody. Daft. Towering. Brute.”

The gall of him.

She had come all this way to help her brother, to act while others sat idle, not to be manhandled against her will and insulted by some arrogant laird with a god complex.

Her cheeks still burned with fury and humiliation and also from the feel of his weight pressing her into the earth, the fierce way his eyes had locked onto hers, and the scent of pine and smoke that clung to him like sin itself.

She paced, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides, trying to shake it off.

Focus.

She needed to focus. She had come here with a purpose—to find Reid and bring him home. But her thoughts were a tangled mess of rage and… something incredibly hotter.

Soft, measured footsteps approached from the end of the corridor, and she turned on her heel, ready to lash out and defend against another tackle. But the woman who appeared before her was not the person she had expected.

“Ye must be Lady Kilmartin,” the older woman said in a soft voice.

Eileen blinked, caught off guard. “Aye… I am.”

“I’m Lyla Fleming, Archer’s maither. I thought ye might appreciate a place to bathe and rest, seein’ as it’s late and ye have had a… rough arrival.”

Eileen stiffened.

“Come with me, child. I’ll show ye to a guest room.”

Still wound tight with frustration, Eileen followed.

Lyla walked with quiet elegance, her hands folded neatly in front of her.

“Please forgive me son,” she said after a long pause. “He’s… protective. Nae always gentle. But he means well.”

Eileen offered a tight smile, unsure if she believed that. Still, as they walked side by side through the winding corridor, she stole glances at Lyla. There was a sadness on her face—something old and deep. Not the kind that came from grief alone, but the slow erosion of hope.

The hollowness in the woman’s eyes quelled her irritation.

They stopped before a wooden door, its iron latch cool to the touch.

“We will send in a maid shortly,” Lyla said. “And… I believe yer maid has just arrived.”

The door swung open, and there was Piper—flushed, panting, wild-eyed. “Me Lady!”

Before Eileen could speak, Piper rushed forward and threw her arms around her. Eileen hugged her back tightly, letting herself feel the comfort for just a moment.

Lyla smiled faintly and gave a quick nod. “I’ll leave ye to it. Rest well, Lady Kilmartin.”

Once the door closed behind her, Eileen released a long breath.

“Thank the stars,” Piper whispered, pulling back. “I was half ready to storm the gates. Are ye all right? What happened?”

Eileen sat on the edge of the bed, finally allowing herself to sag beneath the weight of everything that had transpired. “Aye, I think so. Laird MacLennan found me before I could even get a proper look around. He tackled me to the ground like I was some assassin in the shadows.”

Piper’s gasp was sharp and immediate. “He tackled ye?”

Eileen groaned. “Right into the dirt. And then he pinned me like a bloody hare on a spit.”

Piper plopped down beside her, her brow furrowed in concern. “Well… that sounds awful. But at least ye are safe now. He says we are to be escorted back home tomorrow.”

Was it awful, though?

Aye , it was awful, and ? —

“Right?” she heard Piper say, but she hadn’t heard anything else.

Eileen nodded her head quietly, not meeting her maid’s eyes. Her fingers twisted in the folds of her untucked tunic. Silence stretched between them as she felt Piper’s eyes fully take in her dirty clothes.

“I willnae go without Reid,” she said decidedly.

Piper’s expression softened. “Eileen, ye tried. And if yer braither is out there, he will find his way back to ye.”

“But what if he cannae? What if he’s trapped?

Laird MacLennan said that I could search the dungeons here, but what if that was a ruse to placate me and he believes that I’ll leave it at that?

What if O’Gunn got to Reid afore he reached this castle?

” Eileen sprang up and started pacing the room.

“Maybe… maybe there’s another way. If O’Gunn took Reid, then I could go to him and accept the proposal in return for?—”

“What!” Piper nearly shouted, standing up too.

Eileen turned to her, desperate. “Just listen. If I accept, mayhap he will release Reid, and I can figure out how to get away from him without causin’ a war.”

“Ye dinnae even ken if he has him! Please, just think for a moment—ye cannae offer yerself to him either way. If ye go to O’Gunn, ye might nae come back, and ye ken I willnae let ye go there alone, and I dinnae want to be trapped there for the rest of me life.

Please, ye cannae do that to both of us. Ye ken the stories about him.”

“Aye, I ken the stories,” Eileen conceded. “I also ken the stories about Laird MacLennan, and he’s nae been beastly to me, has he?”

“Nae been beastly?” Piper sputtered, her eyes wide.

“He pinned ye to the ground, and who kens what he was thinkin’ when he did that?

And it’s nae the same thing. Laird O’Gunn’s reputation is far worse than Laird MacLennan’s, and ye’ve done nothin’ to antagonize Laird MacLennan yet.

If he becomes yer enemy, ye might see his darker side. ”

I might have annoyed him enough for him to show that side, but he deserved it.

“Forget about Laird MacLennan. This might be what O’Gunn wants, though. And if he does have Reid, maybe he’ll have nay more use for him—when he’ll finally have some claim over some of our land.”

“But ye have nay claim to the land. That’s yer braither’s land now.”

Eileen groaned loudly, frustration bubbling up her throat. “He’s a monster!” Her voice cracked then. “I willnae let Reid suffer!”

Piper sighed and, after a moment, pulled her into a tight embrace. “There is another way; we just cannae see it. We shouldnae put the cart in front of the horse, though. We have nay way of kennin’ whether Reid is even with Laird O’Gunn.”

The two sat in silence for a while, until the keep settled and dusk crept through the shutters.

“Ye should bathe, Me Lady,” Piper urged, her expression strained.

Eileen nodded shyly, and Piper smiled in apparent relief. But Eileen had other plans.

As Piper left through the servants’ door at the back wall of the room with quiet resolve, Eileen stood up and pulled on her cloak.

Reid was still out there somewhere, and she wouldn’t sit still for a moment longer until she found him. No one had helped her, and she was no closer to knowing what had happened to her brother.

She opened the door and tiptoed out back first, her eyes fixed on the servants’ door in case Piper was waiting. As she crossed the threshold, she sensed someone before she saw them.

Eileen turned and opened her mouth to scream as the dark figure came for her.