“We did meet already, Robert. At the church. Remember? There was a little matter of you stealing my rental car and personal items.”

“Send her out here now,” Baird growled at Cearnach.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Elaine said to Baird.

Baird looked at her. “I’m talking about Calla.”

Calla had gone into hiding? Cearnach had thought she was at her father’s home.

“Calla’s not here,” Cearnach said. “If she were, I wouldn’t send her to you unless she wished it.”

Robert cleared his throat and motioned to one of the vehicles they had come in. “We’ll take you to the bed and breakfast now, Elaine. I’m sorry for the… mistakes made yesterday. Had I known that you were the bonny lass sitting beside me at the church—”

Looking beautifully obstinate, Elaine folded her arms. “I want my car and all my belongings…” She looked up at Cearnach as if she needed his permission first, even though this was her home now and she didn’t need it.

He nodded, giving her a small smile, which he knew would irk her kinsmen.

She took a deep breath and continued. “I want them brought here.”

“You can’t stay here,” Robert said as if she was considering sleeping in a dungeon and as if he could dictate to her. Then he got more to the point. “We have a private matter to discuss.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Cearnach said, wanting to make that perfectly clear.

Elaine didn’t take her eyes off Robert, watching for every reaction like a wolf would. Like an alpha wolf. “You owe Cearnach a replacement minivan and whatever else he lost in his vehicle, including his clothes and sword.”

“They’re not our friends.” Robert gave Cearnach and his men a cold glare, then turned his attention back to Elaine. “You don’t know the history between us.”

“That may be so, but your history has nothing to do with me. And you know what? Cearnach protected me from hunters when my own kin left me in an untenable situation. More than untenable. Potentially deadly.”

They had to have known what might happen when they stranded them without vehicles or clothes, and Cearnach and Elaine had no choice but to run in their wolf coats across territory not their own. Cearnach assumed they had figured she was a new girlfriend of his and it didn’t matter what had become of her… or him. He was more than irked that they valued her life so little.

“We didn’t know who you were,” Baird growled. “You don’t side with our enemy if you know what’s good for you.”

“Are you threatening me?” Her tone of voice had darkened, she-wolf in battle mode. “You didn’t believe I was related to Cearnach, did you?”

Robert shook his head.

“So then why would you have stolen my car?”

One of Baird’s older brothers spoke up. “We thought you were Cearnach’s new girlfriend. His bringing you to the wedding was an insult and upset Calla.”

“I see. Instead, I was part of your extended family and had every right to be at the wedding. Did my being at the church truly upset Calla?”

Baird huffed out an annoyed breath, folded his arms, tilted his head up in an arrogant way, and didn’t speak.

Elaine straightened and clarified her situation. “Cearnach had a little accident. I gave him a lift to the church. I didn’t know him before this. Then again, I didn’t know who you all were, either.”

“Okay, so we start over. You come with us, and you can have your car and belongings back,” Baird said, his voice dark with annoyance.

Cearnach didn’t trust Baird. The man had to recognize that Cearnach felt protective of Elaine, and he suspected Baird would use that vulnerability to get back at him for Calla standing him up at the wedding if he could.

“Where’s that brother of yours, Baird? Vardon? I demand an apology from him,” Elaine said.

He was standing beside the second car, looking angry, his hands fisted at his sides. Cearnach imagined that Vardon wanted to punch her again, except not by accident this time. He’d kill him before the wolf ever got close to her again.

Baird glanced at Kilpatrick and the irritated looks they shared said that no way in hell was Vardon going to apologize.

“You got in the way,” Robert said. “He didn’t mean to punch you. He was aiming for Cearnach.”

Cearnach growled under his breath. Vardon was a bastard for not apologizing to the lass, and her cousin Robert just as much of one for defending Vardon’s brutal behavior. Cearnach opened his mouth to tell him so, but Elaine was running the show.

“That doesn’t excuse what happened. Accident or no accident, he missed Cearnach and struck me. I’ll have an apology. He doesn’t have to get down on bended knee, unless of course he wants to, but a sincere, heartfelt ‘I’m sorry’ will go a long way,” she said, her voice cold with fury.

Robert and Baird’s faces couldn’t have hardened any further. Cearnach and his kin were grinning. Cearnach heard a few snickers from his own people. He could just imagine everyone envisioning Vardon on his knees in front of Elaine, pleading with her to accept his apology.

No one said anything for a moment.

“You can’t stay here,” Robert reiterated. “It’s an insult to our name. Beyond that, they’ll tell you that the stolen goods came from their ships and that you have no right to keep the goods.”

So the matter was no longer private? Good.

“If they had belonged to the MacNeill clan?” Elaine asked.

Robert scowled. “Don’t tell me the scoundrel has already set you against your own kin. You can’t mean to give him the goods.”

Rapid feminine footfalls echoed on the stone pavers behind Elaine and Cearnach and the others with them. They turned to see his mother and aunt approaching. Cearnach frowned at them, not wishing their interference. What now?

“Robert Kilpatrick.” Cearnach’s mother’s voice was sharp. She sounded like she was scolding a small child as she stood on the other side of Elaine, close, protective like a mother wolf. “I thought your mother raised you better.”

His eyes narrowed. “This is between Elaine and me and no one else.”

“Seems you made it our business when you stole the lass’s car. Be off with you. She’s with us now and perfectly content to enjoy our hospitality. Whatever financial dealings you had planned to discuss with her are over. Do you understand?” She turned her sharp eyes on Elaine, who quickly closed her gaping mouth and smiled a little.

Cearnach liked it when his mother was giving someone else hell.

“What part of ‘I’m not going anywhere with you’ did you not comprehend?” Elaine asked Robert. Then she did the unexpected—slipped her arm around Cearnach’s waist and said, “I’m ready for breakfast and a walk in the gardens.”

Every one of her kin looked as though they wanted to thrash her soundly. Even though they didn’t know her, they would expect her to remain loyal to them through kinship, no matter the circumstances.

Cearnach was proud of her. “You heard the lass. When her wishes are met, she’ll grant you an audience.”

The looks on their faces said they could kill Cearnach right this very minute.

Standing beside Cearnach, Duncan gave a murmured, “Aye.”

Before anyone could say a word, Cearnach wrapped his arm around Elaine’s small waist and headed her back to the keep. His brother and cousins hung around the gate, waiting for the McKinleys and the Kilpatricks to vacate their lands.

“You know they’ll test your resolve,” Cearnach said to Elaine. “They suspect you’ll want to return home before long and need to finish your business here. They’ll try to force you to come to them on their terms.”

“Too late for that,” she said, giving him a wicked smile. “Seems I’ve made my bed and I’m staying in it.”

He chuckled low, planning an early night for both of them.

Chapter 18

Cearnach escorted Elaine back to the keep for breakfast, and she was hopeful that everyone was away working at their jobs so he and she would have some privacy.

“I do have a question for you.” He led her through the great hall.

He sounded so serious that she looked up at him expectantly.

“I never considered how my bedchamber would look to a prospective mate.”

“It’s fine,” she said dismissively. She really didn’t care as long as he was part of the scheme.

“Nay, it’s not. It’s a warrior’s haven. You decide how you want to decorate it.”

“The guest room isn’t mine any longer?” she asked, a teasing laugh in her voice.

“Nay, it is not.” He was smiling, but he had a possessively dark tone to his voice. “You belong in my bed. Our bed, now.”

“Hmm,” she said, snuggling closer to him as he walked her through the dining room. “How about purple? Lavender and thistle purple.”

He groaned.

She laughed. “So much for my input on redecorating.”

He chuckled. “Hopefully we can agree on something, but if we can’t, I’ll be man enough to deal with it. Purple sheets, purple floral paintings. As long as you’re wrapped up in the sheets with me, that’s all that matters.”

She sighed. “My room back home is like a garden.”

Brows raised enquiringly, he looked down at her.

She smiled up at him. “Not all floral. But I love plants. So it has green walls, a mural of a garden, and a large window with plants hanging from it.”

His eyes sparkled with humor. “Aye. So we’ll take over the garden room, and that will be our new bedchamber.”

She laughed. “I’m sure your clan would love that.”

“Anything for you, Elaine,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

She knew then he was the right man for her.

When they arrived in the kitchen, the smell of sausage and baked bread still permeated the air, and the room was toasty warm from all the cooking. Heather was talking with Shelley about her poodles. Both quickly turned speculative gazes their way. So much for everyone being off somewhere else, busy with their chores.