Free The Border Trilogy by Amanda Scott

“We look to see you and yours at the wedding.”
    Mary Kate followed Robin’s rapid progress through the gray shrubbery, wondering what Douglas would say to her. He had leaped a trifle more quickly to anger just now than he had earlier, she decided. No doubt that was due to the borderer’s natural inclination to protect his chattel. She could think of no other reason for the difference, especially since this time his anger had dissipated so quickly. However, she couldn’t be certain that it had dissolved altogether, so she decided that it would be foolish to annoy him further by venting the remains of her indignation. When she realized that he still had not said anything, she wiped a lingering dampness from her cheek with the back of her hand and turned to face him.
    He was regarding her thoughtfully, as though wondering where to begin.
    “It truly was not what you thought,” she insisted.
    “I know that, lass.” His voice was gentle. “But you should have taken him into the house as soon as he arrived. For all you may say, this place is too private.”
    She hadn’t thought about that. She shot him a slanting look from under her lashes. “No one condemned private meetings between us when Robbie and I were eleven and ten. That such meetings must now be considered improper only because eight years have passed seems hardly fair.”
    He chuckled, as she had intended, and she began to relax. There was one more item, however.
    “Will you speak of this incident to my father?”
    “Should I not?”
    “If you please. If you thought our meeting clandestine—by heaven, what a dreadful word that is! But if you thought it, then so will he, and if he thinks such a thing has happened again, he will speak to Ian MacLeod.”
    “The lad’s father?”
    “Aye.”
    “A harsh man?”
    “Fearsome when he’s crossed.”
    “And you feel sympathy for Robin?” When she nodded, he grinned. “Will you sympathize with me if I tell you my father is cut from the same bolt as yon MacLeod?”
    “I wouldn’t believe you,” she retorted flatly.
    “Well, he is. Mind you, most people think him no more dangerous than any jovial sporting man, though he was known in his youth to be one of the finest swordsmen to come out of the borders. In a good temper, he is the sort of man who cracks a jest and claps one heartily on the back. But when he is angry, he can still make me tremble in my boots, just as he did when I was twelve years old and had managed to enrage him.”
    “You tremble? Never.”
    “Scoff if you must, but bless you, lassie, I was like any other active lad.” A reminiscent gleam lit his eyes. “Once I dabbled in just such a relationship as that betwixt you and yon MacLeod, though mayhap not quite so innocent as that. After my father discovered us, I was sore for days.”
    With a twinkle, Mary Kate said, “I begin to think I will like your father wondrous well, sir.”
    Douglas laughed. “A fine thing to say!”
    “Well, I will like him. And I hope he beat you often.”
    “Not often, perhaps, but thoroughly. Aye, I thought that would please you. What a little fiend you are. That time I just mentioned it wasn’t even my fault. The lady—a young cousin of mine—instigated the whole affair.”
    “I don’t believe you. I know well how you border men take advantage of your women, and you should be ashamed to malign your poor cousin like that.”
    He grimaced. “Duncan warned me that you’d acquired some highland prejudices, and I’ll warrant our first meeting did naught to allay them, but you might at least meet Megan and ask her about it before you say I’ve maligned her. She was young then, of course, and not yet married. Indeed, ’tis hard now to imagine her up to such mischief, so sweet as she is, but the tale is a true one.” When Mary Kate only looked skeptical, he shook his head at her, but he was smiling again when they turned back toward the house.
    A brief silence followed. “Adam?”
    “Aye?”
    “I