“What were ye thinking asking me to meet ye at this hour?” he said, as he rammed the torch into the sconce on the wall.

Alex had been on the galley sorting out the supplies he needed to take with him to Edinburgh when a young boy appeared and told him that a lady wanted him to meet her at midnight outside the kitchens. This was not the first time he’d had that sort of request. He was about to send the lad away, but something made him ask the lad to describe the lady first.

“I’m glad ye came,” Glynis said.

“Ye gave me no choice,” he said. “I couldn’t have ye wandering around a castle full of warriors—half of them drunk— looking for me in the dark.”

He took a deep breath. He had wanted to say good-bye to her—and to explain about what she’d seen when she walked in on him and Catherine—but he didn’t have a lot of time. He was meeting Duncan soon, and then they were all leaving.

“Why did ye want to see me?” he asked.

“When I talked with your friend Duncan this afternoon, he told me you’re going to Edinburgh.”

How had she gotten closemouthed Duncan to share their business with her?

“I want ye to take me with ye,” she said.

Alex could not have been more stunned if she’d sprouted fairy wings and flown over the pots and bags of grain in the storeroom. Just what was Glynis suggesting? His heart gave a big lurch as he considered the possibility that she might actually want to run off with him. Apparently, she liked what she saw of him earlier today.

But it seemed so unlikely that he had to ask. “Why?”

“I’ve decided to live with my mother’s family,” she said. “They are Lowlanders and live in Edinburgh.”

Alex waited for the relief he should feel upon learning that her request had nothing to do with him, but it didn’t come. A bad sign.

“Ye know verra well that I can’t just run off with ye across Scotland,” Alex said.

“Ye must,” she said, clenching her fists. “My da wants to marry me to Alain.”

Alex wanted to hit something. He didn’t have time for this, and her father hadn’t listened to him before, but he wanted to help her if he could. “Do ye know where your father is? I’ll speak with him.”

“Does my father strike ye as the sort of man who takes advice well?”

She had a point, but he said, “I can be verra persuasive.”

“So I’ve heard,” Glynis said with more than a touch of sarcasm. “But it will do no good. My father is too stubborn by half.”

As was his daughter. “Have ye considered a compromise? Is there no man ye are willing to wed?”

Glynis gave her head a firm shake and folded her arms. “Ye said ye would be my friend.”

“Stealing a lass away from her father is no being a friend,” he said, though his words felt hollow. Her mother’s family could hardly do worse by her.

“Take me, Alexander Bàn MacDonald,” she said, her gray eyes turning to hard flint. “Or I’ll go tell the Maclean chieftain right now that I saw ye swiving his wife.”

“That wasn’t what it looked like!” Alex was so used to having committed whatever offense he was accused of that he hardly knew how to defend himself. “My clan needs ties to the Campbells, so I couldn’t offend her.”

“Ye sacrificed yourself for the sake of your clan, did ye?”

“I didn’t do what ye think,” Alex protested. “Though it wasn’t easy, mind ye.”

Judging from the grim line of her mouth, Glynis was not impressed with his forbearance.

“Catherine is close to her brothers,” he explained. “If you’ve forgotten, they are the Earl of Argyll and the Thane of Cawdor, so I had to be verra careful about how I told her nay.”

“It looked like ‘aye’ to me—your being naked and all.”

Ach, she was full of sarcasm tonight. Glynis took a step closer and tapped her finger against his chest. Despite the anger in her eyes, the point of her finger sent heat radiating through his body.

“How about I tell Shaggy Maclean what I saw and let him sort it out?” she asked.

God preserve him, she was a determined woman. If she went running to Shaggy with this tale now, none of the MacDonalds would escape tonight. Alex ran his hand through his hair. He could tie her up and leave her in the storeroom. But he didn’t like the idea of leaving her helpless, not knowing how long she might lie here—or who might find her.

“If ye tell Shaggy, he’ll kill me,” Alex said, attempting to reason with her.

“It wouldn’t be my fault,” she said. “A man should pay for his sins.”

Hadn’t Teàrlag said something like that to him?

“Ye wouldn’t be that heartless,” he said, though Glynis was looking as if she damned well would. “And I’m telling ye, I didn’t sin with Catherine.”

Not this time, anyway.

“I’ll do what I must,” Glynis said with that stubborn look in her eyes. “There are hundreds of men here. My father won’t know it was you I left with, if that’s your concern.”

With her father attacking Mingary, he wouldn’t even know she was missing for days. Still, it was too foolish.

“The truth has a way of coming out.” Alex folded his arms across his chest. “Have ye thought of what your father will do if he finds out I’m the one who stole ye away? Angry as he would be, he’d demand a wedding.”

For the first time, Glynis looked uncertain. It grated on him that the possibility of being forced to wed him was the only part of her ridiculous plan that gave her pause.

“I’ll have to take the risk,” she said in a hard voice. “Now, do I go bang on Shaggy’s bedchamber door, or will ye take me?”

CHAPTER 10

Let’s go,” Alex said.

Glynis sucked in her breath as he pulled her tight against his side. Her feet barely touched the ground as they passed the kitchens and started up the stairs.

What was she doing, putting herself into the hands of a man she barely knew? What made her trust this too-handsome warrior from a different clan? He owed her no allegiance. And he was angry that she’d coerced him into taking her. He could abandon her in the wilderness.

This was the most outrageous thing she had ever done, except perhaps stabbing her husband. But sticking Magnus was something that just happened—she hadn’t planned it.

The cool night air hit her face as they left the keep, but Alex’s heat radiated through her. He had a warrior’s body, powerful and graceful, and he held her with a sureness that sent her heart hammering.

Would Alex expect to be more than her escort?

That might be a reasonable assumption for a man to make—especially if he was the sort of man who was accustomed to having women offer themselves to him. If half of what she’d heard about Alex Bàn MacDonald was true, he was that sort of man.

“If anyone sees us,” Alex said in a low voice, “we want them to believe we’re a pair of lovers sneaking off for a tryst.”

Alex only meant to pretend they would. Glynis was, of course, relieved that Alex had not mistaken her intentions.

“’Tis fortunate I have a companion with so much useful experience,” she whispered.

“Keep your head down,” Alex said. “We don’t want anyone to recognize ye.”

“I suppose it won’t matter if they recognize you,” she said. “In fact, it might seem suspicious if a night went by without someone seeing ye sneak off with a lass.”

“Shhh.”

They were walking along the castle wall, in sight of the gate now. Glynis’s heart raced. Would the guards stop them? Would they demand to know who she was and call her father? Alex slowed his steps. When he leaned down, the warmth of his breath in her ear sent a tingle all the way to her toes.

“Play along with me,” he whispered.

She nearly yelped when he slid his hand under her cloak and along her ribcage. It was far too close to her breast.

She grabbed his wrist and hissed, “I cannot breathe with your hand there.”

He chuckled deep in his throat, but he didn’t remove his hand. Instead, he nuzzled her neck. “Have ye changed your mind?” he said against her skin. “Because if ye want to go to Edinburgh, we must first get out of the castle.”

She heard the sound of boots coming around the corner of the keep. The next thing she knew, Alex had her flattened against the stone wall. His mouth was on hers before she could think, Oh, God, he’s going to kiss me!

And it didn’t seem like a pretend kiss at all. His body was hard against hers, but his mouth was soft and warm. As Alex kissed her again and again, her knees grew so weak she had to put her arms around his neck to keep from falling. He held her tighter as he deepened their kisses, his tongue in her mouth, probing, seeking.

Her insides turned to liquid, and her head spun. The things other women said about kissing were true after all. That was her last clear thought.

His hands were moving under her cloak, gripping her hip, sliding up the sides of her breasts. When she felt his hard shaft against her belly, a groan escaped her throat. She tangled her fingers in his hair, urging him closer still.

Suddenly, Alex broke the kiss. He was breathing hard, and he still had her pressed against the wall so that she felt every inch of his heat through her clothes.

He framed her face with his hands and looked into her eyes. She blinked, trying to take in what had just happened to her and what it meant.

“Do ye think we convinced the guards,” he asked, running his thumb across her cheek, “or should I kiss ye again to be sure?”

She was mortified. It was all a joke to him.

*  *  *

How had he lost control like that? God help him, he’d wanted to lift Glynis’s skirts and take her right there against the castle wall with the guards walking by.

Alex thought he could rely upon Glynis’s good sense. Ha! She melted in his arms from the first touch of their lips—and he’d lost his mind.