Duncan held up a hand to his brother with an unspoken request to leave him alone.
He spotted her marching away and sighed in relief. He watched her for several minutes before shortening the distance between them.
Tara didn’t turn to look when he came up behind her. “Where are you going, Tara?”
“Out!”
“I can see that, but where?”
She stopped and turned. “Far away from you.”
He almost collided with her. But before he could react she was storming off again.
“A lady is not safe out here by herself.”
She stopped again. This time he didn’t stop in time and fell into her.
Hands at her sides, her chest thrust up next to his, she gritted the words between her teeth. “A lady isn’t safe around you, either.”
“Now, Tara.” He tried pleading with her.
“Oh don’t you even, ‘now, Tara’ me.” She stepped to the side and started off in a different direction.
Walking in circles.
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He let her walk for several minutes before attempting to talk to her again. “I would be happy to escort you on a walk. But we need to get you more properly dressed.” He knew the effect watching her walk was having on him. He could only imagine what his men must have thought when she had stormed the courtyard in her shorts.
“You’re a bastard, you know that MacCoinnich?”
He wanted to counter what she said but cautioned himself against it. “Still, we need you in more fitting clothes. If someone were to come along, questions would be raised which would be most difficult to answer.”
“You should have thought of that before you brought me here.” She waved a hand in his general direction. “Right now I don’t give a crap what questions you might have to answer.”
“I told you how necessary it is for secrecy.” He turned to the Keep and noticed some of the men watching to see what would happen. He needed to put a stop to this and soon.
“Bite me.”
A completely inappropriate image of him doing exactly that popped in his head. A slow lazy smile inched over his lips.
Unfortunately for him, Tara read his thoughts.
She didn’t find them nearly as entertaining as he did. “You ass...” She raised her hand to slap his face.
He caught her hand before it made contact. “I’ve had enough of this.”
Without warning and in complete disregard for what she might think, Duncan bent down and unceremoniously tossed Tara over his shoulder and started back to the Keep.
Once she caught her breath, and realized what he was doing, she started pounding on his back, demanding he let her down.
He ignored her every plea. Fin watched his 121
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brother approach and bit back the smirk on his lips.
“Let me down.”
Quiet, Tara.
Let me down, and I’ll be quiet.
He saw the image of her running away from him if he did as she asked. “I don’t think that would be wise.”
“Since when do you think?”
Duncan took the stares of his men and some of the jibes as he marched past them all. “Women,” was his only explanation.
Many laughed. Some rolled their eyes and went back to their tasks. Fin closed the doors to the Keep once Duncan had Tara inside.
He didn’t set her down until she was back in her room.
Her fury had calmed slightly, replaced by the humiliation of being carried around like a sack of potatoes. But she still dared him with her words.
“You have to sleep sometime. And when you do, I’ll make my way out of here, away from you.”
Her words sobered him, and the words of his brother rang in his ears. “You cannot leave. Maybe when you’ve calmed down, we can discuss the why, but right now you simply need to trust—”
“Trust? You want me to trust you?” She flopped down in a chair. “Ha.”
“I see you’re not ready to talk about this.”
“You think?”
Resigned with what he had to do in order to keep her there and safe, he walked to the door.
He glanced at her one last time before he left.
All she awarded him with was her profile.
Fin stood in the hall, smiled, and calmly handed Duncan a key.
The second they heard the loud noise of the lock sliding in place, they both learned how colorful Tara’s vocabulary could be.
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****
He didn’t know which was worse, her wrathful vengeance or the silent misery he sensed when she realized she had no way out. He sat staring into his cup, thankful that after two full days and nights, she had finally ceased crying. How many times had he stopped himself from going to her in that time? He couldn’t count.
The ale he drank wasn’t potent enough to drown out her pain, pain overwhelming him in waves. He knew every time she cursed his name in her head, felt every insult she threw his way.