Page 38 of Tair

“I’m not going to do that.” Lucy was sick of being afraid of the chieftain, especially now that he had talked to her as if she were no more important than a blow-up doll. “May I go now, or do you want to talk more about my personal, private business, which is absolutely none of yours?”

He looked for a moment as if he wanted to snap her neck. “Our lord suffers. So, I reckon, do you. Refraining serves no purpose but to prolong such for you both.”

She suddenly understood why he had grabbed her and marched her in here. “Your brother said almost the same thing to me the other night. Did Sgathan tell you to scare me into having sex with Tair?”

He looked away and his lips thinned. “Seneschal doesnae command me.”

“So you did talk about it with him.” Lucy should have been angry, but something about all these men being so worried about her and Tair seemed bizarrely touching. That made her decide to level with him. “He’s not sleeping with any of the other women here, or those he used to visit on the other side of the ridges. Yes, I know about them, too. The girls around here love to gossip.”

Dorchad rubbed his eyes. “He’s no’ sought another wench since you arrived, Mistress.”

“He’s fallen for me, hasn’t he?” When he didn’t react she knew he’d suspected the same. “I’ll guess that Tair’s never been in love, which is why he hasn’t worked it out yet. If I give him everything he wants, I’ll own that man’s heart.”

“Such as ’tis,” the chieftain muttered.

“Such as it is,” she agreed. “For reasons that are too complicated to explain I can’t go back to my time. However, I’m not crazy about living in a time when women only make it to about thirty-two. So, when we find the cluet, I will see if it will take me away from here. Maybe I’ll go to another time, or another place in my time. It will have to be a safe place for me. But make no mistake, Chieftain. I am leaving your world.”

Dorchad studied her face as if this were the first time he’d seen it. “Why should you wish to part from Tair? You’ve already given your heart to my brother. There shall be no other for you, Mistress.”

“Just to review, I’m not your concern. That includes what I do, where I go, and who goes with me.” Lucy smiled as she watched that sink in. “Think for a change, will you?”

“He wouldnae turn his back on us.” Even as he said that Dorchad didn’t sound convinced.

“I don’t know what he’ll do. Love makes people crazy.” She looked him in the eye. “Now, this is the last time I’ll talk to you about Tair. And just so we’re clear, if you ever drag me into a room like this to browbeat me again, I’ll find a way to make you wish you were never born.”

He grinned, transforming his demonic features with pure masculine beauty. “I expect you would.” He unbolted the door and strolled out.

Lucy kept her cool as she went over to close the door, and then her wobbly knees gave out and down she went. The sob that tore out of her throat was nearly followed by another, but she pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes and breathed deeply until the need to dissolve into hysterics passed.

Even that evil sodding wanker could see she was falling in love with the laird. What was she going to do now? Tair would probably keep her chained to his bed permanently if she gave him what he wanted—in a time when women barely lived past thirty, and died horrible deaths from disease, lack of proper medical care and giving birth too often. She had never wanted to have children...

Why weren’t there any children at Gealladh, for that matter?

Once Lucy composed herself she went back upstairs to the room she shared with the laird. She didn’t think Dorchad would say anything to Tair, but it was time to settle this. She needed to know all the clan’s secrets before she became Tair’s lover again. Once he trusted her, she could do the same with him—and toss those wretched chains out the window slit, too.

She stopped outside the door to their bedchamber, which was slightly ajar, and put her hand on the latch. The sound of two voices from inside made her hesitate.

“They should arrive by the new moon,” Cath was saying. “’Tis a place in the forest where such caravans often stop. They keep the slaves in cages on carts, and then make the males unload their stores and the females prepare food before they cage them again for the night.”

“We’ll attack as soon as the sun sets,” Tair said. “A cart shall be too slow. Tell our men to ride leading an extra mount.”

“These slaves, they’re mortal, and likely weak from being beaten and starved into submission,” the war master said. “They shallnae have the strength to ride alone. Those that dinnae ken how to ride shall baulk and spook the nags. Their terror may cause them to fight us, as the women sometimes do.”

Tair grunted. “Double the men as well as the mounts, and saddle for two. Each shall carry a slave with them.”

“We’ll take the lot to the croft by the fruit orchards,” Cath said. “They’ve a barn we can hide them in and have them cared for until they’re well enough to travel home.”

“’Tis better to rally the villagers we trust to aid us in sending them home,” the laird said.

Lucy nearly stalked inside to demand why they were stealing slaves from slavers when all the things that didn’t make sense suddenly did.

If they weren’t going to steal the slaves, were they rescuing them?

“What of your bed slave?” Cath asked. “Shall we lock her back in the dungeons on the night of the raid?”

“No need.” The sound of a chain rattling made Lucy want to kick the door in and club both of them over the head with something hard and heavy.

Instead, she turned on her heel and strode off in the direction of the stairs to the watch tower.