Page 379 of Wicked Highland Heroes

“Nay.” She yanked free. “’Tis Father Brennan you should not have told. Faith, how does a priest instruct

a man to seduce a woman?”

Iain stared. “You think me in league with your priest?”

“You have said it.”

He leaned to within a hair’s breadth of her nose.

“And you believe he instructed me to—” Iain swore. She colored, and he looked at Father Brennan. “Tell her.”

Father Brennan gave them both an uncertain look. “Your brother-in-law came to the abbey looking for you.”

“My—Edwin?”

“Aye,” Father Brennan confirmed. “He is on his way here even as we speak, and he brings men-atarms.”

She swayed.

Iain steadied her. “Are you all right, lass?”

She nodded. “’It is just…a surprise. That is all. A surprise.”

Iain studied her. “This has been an eventful night for you.”

“It has,” she said.

“You understand why we must marry, then?” he asked.

“Marry?” Her eyes cleared. “You tricked me.” “I did not,” Iain answered with genuine feeling. “You were the one who threw down the gauntlet. It is not my fault you were unable to carry it.”

“No one in their right mind would be expected to pay a debt in this manner.”

He gave her an assessing look. “I recall you saying a woman had just as much honor as a man.” Her mouth thinned, but she said nothing, and Iain addressed Father Brennan. “Tonight, Father.”

Iain turned and started toward the table. From the corner of his eye, he saw the object fly toward him. A chorus of warning shouts rang out as he ducked and a pitcher crashed into the wall behind him. A roar of protests followed when ale showered him, Thomas, and several others sitting nearby. Stunned, Iain looked at Thomas, who looked back at him with just as much shock. Iain glanced at the lass, and the maid who stood stone still, the pitcher she’d been carrying gone.

Iain looked back at Thomas, feeling a comical lack of concern. “Seems I made the mistake of forgetting the lady’s love of throwing things.”

The din halted when he turned and strode toward the retreating woman. Step by deliberate step he moved closer, his eyes conveying the command that her passion should be saved for the wedding night, when he was stopped by a single word.