Page 34 of Bride of Fire
Jenefer felt like crowing with glee. Reinforcements would likely arrive within the hour. And once that swaggering Morgan Mor mac Giric glimpsed the magnificence of the Rivenloch knights, he’d pack up his clan and cattle and scurry back to the Highlands. Triumphant, Jenefer would claim Creagor for her own.
At least that was what she’d thought before the Highlander burst in, all might and muscle, looking more dangerous than she remembered.
Now, standing in arm’s reach of the great beast of a man who somehow managed to loom even larger by the light of day, she had second thoughts.
Fearless and fearsome, he looked as if he might take on an entire army himself.
The contained fury in his eyes seared her. His nostrils flared with aggression. His jaw clenched. His chest swelled with rage.
Jenefer was sorely tempted to take a judicious step backward.
It took great restraint not to budge. But she managed, addressing him in a voice that was more confident than she felt.
“Did you think, Morgan Mor—just because we’re wee lasses and you’re a big man—we’d sit, and stay, like a pack of whipped hounds?”
To her dismay, her carefully aimed arrow went wide of its mark.
“Nay, Jenefer du Lac,” he snarled. “I trusted—since ye claimed to be seasoned warrior maids—ye’d have a sense of honor and keep your word.”
He glanced past her, toward Feiyan, branding them both with shame.
“Where has she gone?” he demanded.
“I don’t know,” Feiyan replied.
He glared at Jenefer.
She wasn’t about to give the Highlander advance notice of an assault on Creagor. But she didn’t need to lie to him. “She didn’t tell us. We woke up, and she was gone.”
Jenefer could see the gears grinding in his head as he imagined where she might go. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt to give him a little unsolicited help.
She furrowed her brow with feigned concern. “I hope she isn’t lost in the forest. There are wolves in the wood. And unarmed as she was…”
She hoped Feiyan wouldn’t ruin her ploy with laughter. If therewerewolves in the wood, Hallie had probably brought them all to heel long ago. And she could navigate the forests surrounding Rivenloch with her eyes closed.
Fortunately, Feiyan had her back. “Do you think something may have happened to her?” she asked, turning wide, watery eyes toward Morgan. “Our uncle will never forgive us if we’ve lost her.”
Morgan glanced back and forth between the two of them, probably trying to decide whether to believe them. In the end, caution forced him to play into their hands.
“I’ll send out a tracker.” He sighed unhappily. No doubt he had few men to spare. “Are ye sure ye don’t know where she’s gone?”
Feiyan shrugged. Jenefer sadly shook her head.
Morgan wasn’t fooled for an instant by the lasses’ pitiful semblance of worry. And he was certain they knew exactly where Hallie had gone, especially since he’d overheard Jenefer mentioning her da’s knights.
Hallie had obviously returned home to fetch her father’s army.
Nothing could be worse.
He’d hoped to avoid a conflict with the neighbors.
Now he was heading towards all-out war. Short-handed. Ill-prepared. Without the means to withstand an attack or a siege.
God’s bones. He hadn’t even been in residence one full day, and all chaos was breaking out.
Muttering a curse, he wheeled away from Jenefer. It was hard to think with the winsome and wily beauty staring at him like that. Especially when he knew he might have to use the lovely lass as a hostage.
He grimaced. The thought of holding a dagger to her bonnie throat sickened him.
