He seemed confused by her words and said, “I did no’ realize I was being cruel. I’ve no idea why any o’ ye are here.”
She considered that briefly and then supposed it wasn’t perhaps something that Laird Buchanan would talk openly about. Still, gossip usually traveled quickly in keeps, and she was surprised that he didn’t know. Dwyn wished he did though. It was all rather embarrassing to have to explain. But it looked like she was going to have to. Dwyn drew in a deep breath to begin, and then paused when the action made her breasts rise perilously in the low-cut gown her sisters had insisted she wear. Grimacing, she pressed a hand to the tops of the round mounds to keep them down as she quickly blurted, “The other women are here hoping to catch the eye of one of the still-single Buchanan brothers and lure them into marriage.”
“What?” he barked, his eyes shifting swiftly up from her breasts to her face with disbelief.
There was no mistaking his reaction as anything but shock, she decided. He truly hadn’t known the purpose of the visitors presently filling the Buchanan keep. Perhaps he was one of the soldiers who usually patrolled the Buchanan lands so didn’t spend much time at the keep to hear the gossip.
“Surely ye jest?” he asked now.
Dwyn smiled wryly as she shook her head. “Nay. There are at least seven beautiful women presently wandering the keep and grounds, waiting for the three still-single brothers to return to Buchanan and select a bride.”
“Seven?” he asked.
“And their escorts,” she added. “Of course, a new woman or two seems to arrive every day so there may be eight or nine by the nooning, or sup.”
When he just sat there seeming lost in thought, Dwyn left him to it and turned to peer out at the hills again. He obviously meant her no harm, and it was nice to talk to someone who was not nattering at her to sit up straight, and stick out her chest, or alternately pointing out her faults and making fun of her. Honestly, she’d never realized women could be so cruel until this trip.
“Why would these women seek out the brothers for marriage?”
Dwyn glanced around at that question, and noted that the man appeared completely flummoxed by the news she’d imparted. Shrugging, she said, “Presumably because they’re all without a betrothed and their fathers wish to make an alliance with the Buchanans,” she said, and then frowned and added, “Although I do know at least one of the women is betrothed. Apparently, Laird Wallace is willing to break the contract in favor of a Buchanan son, should one of them be interested.”
“Why?” he asked again, this time sounding even more amazed, and she could understand his shock at this news. It was uncommon to break a betrothal. The family would lose the dower that had been promised in the contract.
“Because the Buchanans are becoming quite powerful what with the sons each marrying so advantageously. The siblings are all very close, and each now has their own castle and warriors.” She shrugged. “What man wouldn’t want to be a part of that and have that kind of power at his back?”
“Hmm.” He was silent for a minute, displeasure on his face, but then glanced at her and raised his eyebrows. “And yer one o’ these seven beautiful women?”
Dwyn grinned with amusement. “Hardly.”
That made his eyebrows rise in question. “Then why are ye here?”
Dwyn drew in another breath that nearly dislodged her breasts from her gown and covered her chest again with irritation. Holding them down with one hand, she tugged her neckline up with the other as she reluctantly admitted, “Well, that is why me father brought me. He has no sons to pass the title down to, and me own betrothed died ere coming to claim me. Father is hoping to make a match to help protect us from our neighbors, the Brodies, who want to add Innes to their holdings, but . . .” Giving up on stuffing her breasts any farther back into the gown, she let her hands drop with disgruntlement as she finished, “I fear he will be disappointed. The Buchanans are no’ likely to even notice me among so many beautiful women.”
“Why?” he asked, but she didn’t think he was really paying attention when he asked the question. His wide eyes seemed to be transfixed on her overflowing bosom.
Smiling wryly, she said, “Because I am overlarge and very plain in looks, sir.” When he continued to stare at her chest, she added dryly, “’Tis why my sisters stuffed me into this ridiculously small gown. They are hoping that the Buchanans will be too busy ogling me breasts to bother to look at me face.”
He wrenched his gaze up at that, his face flushing slightly, and murmured, “My apologies, m’lady. It was no’ well done o’ me to—”
Dwyn waved his apology away on a sigh that had her nipples peeking up over the neckline, and she muttered impatiently and returned to trying to tame her breasts and force them back into her gown. Honestly, this was going to be an embarrassing stay if her breasts kept popping out like this. Fortunately, the dress she’d worn when she’d arrived here yesterday had not been quite as tight as this one and she hadn’t been spilling out at every turn. Obviously, she needed to change when she returned to the keep.
“No need to apologize,” Dwyn growled now, more annoyed than embarrassed. “This was my sisters’ plan, after all, and it would seem it works. Perhaps one of the brothers will be so enamored of me breasts that they won’t notice me face. Men do seem to like breasts,” she added thoughtfully. “I think it must reassure them that their bairns will be well fed or something.”
Geordie restrained the laugh that wanted to slip out at her words. It wasn’t a bairn he was imagining suckling at her nipples as he looked on them. Damn, but the good Lord had been generous with her bosom. Shaking his head, he forced his gaze back to her face and examined her features.
Dwyn Innes was not a beauty. At least, not an obvious beauty. She had a nice face, a straight little nose, a mouth that was neither full and luscious, nor small and mean, but somewhere in the middle, and her eyes too were neither too small nor large. They were perhaps average, but the color was a beautiful clear blue that actually seemed to sparkle when she was amused, he’d noticed.
And then there was her hair. Dwyn had it pulled back tightly from her face and set in a bun at the back of her head that was as overlarge as her breasts, but it was a beautiful pale gold with darker highlights that he would have liked to see down and flowing around her face. Geordie imagined that now, but in his mind she wasn’t wearing the gown with its plunging neckline. Instead, she was naked, lying in the grass below the tree with her long hair spread out around her lush body.
Geordie shifted uncomfortably on his branch as his body responded to that imagining, his cock now waking from rest and beginning to poke up at his plaid. Leaning forward slightly, he rested his arm across his lap to hide it and then stilled as he realized the pose placed his face closer to hers, just inches away, in fact. Close enough to kiss, he thought suddenly, and then reached quickly for her when she jerked back in surprise and nearly tumbled backward off her branch.
“Careful, lass,” Geordie warned, his voice coming out a husky growl. Releasing her once the risk of her falling passed, he straightened and suggested, “Mayhap we’d best climb down now.”
“Aye,” she agreed, her face a little flushed, and then without another word, she placed one tiny slippered foot on the branch next to his leg, braced one hand on the large branch she sat on and began to push her bottom off it.