Lowering her hands quickly, Dwyn turned to peer out over the land beyond the wall and tried not to think about the odd sensations now swirling through her body. Or who the man might be. And whether he might repeat the experience should they encounter each other again while she was here.
Chapter 2
“Brother!”
Geordie nodded at that greeting from his eldest brother, Aulay, as he reached the high table, but then turned to lean over and press a kiss of greeting to his sister-in-law Jetta’s cheek.
“Geordie! We have been wondering where you got to,” Jetta cried as she leapt up from her seat to embrace him warmly. Pulling back to peer up at him, she added, “We were not expecting you until today, but the stable master said your horse was in its stall when he went out this morning.”
“Aye,” Aulay agreed, taking his wife’s place to hug Geordie next. Clapping him on the back, he asked, “Where did ye sleep last night?”
“The great hall was so crowded I knew we must have company, so I took meself out to the orchard,” Geordie answered, his gaze sliding to the guests at the table who were now eyeing him eagerly. All but two, he noted. The women he had first seen in the gardens chasing after Dwyn with their taunts were looking a bit dismayed and chagrined. He suspected they were recalling the sneers they’d cast his way on seeing him sleeping out there and now regretted it.
“A good thing,” Aulay said, regaining his attention. “I fear ye would have given the Innes lasses a scare had ye gone to yer own room.”
“Innes?” He glanced at his brother sharply. “Dwyn?”
Aulay’s eyebrows rose slightly, but he nodded. “Aye. Dwyn, Una and Aileen. Their father, James, slept in his traveling tent in the bailey, but we gave the girls yer bed last night.”
Geordie hadn’t noticed any traveling tents set up in the bailey as he’d crossed it to the keep, but it had been late, and dark, and he’d been exhausted enough that he hadn’t really looked around much. That didn’t matter to him though. His attention had been caught by the knowledge that Dwyn had slept in his bed last night, her lovely hair spread out on his pillow, her body warmed by his linens and furs.
Realizing his own body was responding to the image in his mind, he shifted the bag he held in front of him to cover his growing groin. “I just came to let ye ken I was back. I’m heading to the loch now to clean up.”
“I’ll come with ye. We need to talk anyway,” Aulay announced, following on his heels when Geordie turned and started away.
“I’ll join ye too.”
Geordie glanced around at that eager cry, just catching the exasperation that flashed across Jetta’s face at being left to handle all their guests alone, before his gaze found his uncle Acair on his feet and hurrying after them with a speed that belied his age. Geordie’s gaze slid back to his sister-in-law with apology, but she smiled faintly and waved them off, then paused with surprise when Aulay suddenly turned and hurried back to kiss her. It was no quick peck, but a long, deep kiss that left his wee wife flushed and breathing heavily.
Geordie shook his head and continued walking, and Aulay caught up as they reached the keep doors. The three of them were silent as they crossed the bailey to the stables to fetch their horses. It wasn’t until they’d reached the loch and dismounted that Aulay finally spoke.
“I suppose ye noticed that most o’ our guests are female,” his brother started as they dismounted.
“Aye,” Geordie agreed as he tied his mount’s reins around a low-lying branch.
“How could he not notice?” Uncle Acair growled as he took care of his own mount. “We’ve got women crawling out of the woodwork just now. There’s no’ a room in the keep that a man can find a moment’s peace without giggling females following to ask questions.” Speaking in a high voice meant to imitate the women, he asked, “Which o’ the three brothers is most handsome, do ye think? Who is strongest? What kind o’ woman do ye think this one would like? Or that one? Do they have all their teeth? Which one is best at battle?” Shaking his head, he said in his own voice, “’Tis damned annoying.”
Finished with his horse, Geordie turned to his brother, one eyebrow raised.
Grimacing, Aulay avoided his gaze and muttered, “It appears you, Rory and Alick have become somewhat sought after.”
“Sought after?” Acair hooted with amusement. “They’re being hunted, the three of them.” Turning, he speared Geordie with a look and said, “I’d run like the devil if I were you, lad, else ye’ll find yerself run to ground and shackled to one o’ those lasses back there.”
“Uncle,” Aulay growled with irritation. He then turned a scowl Geordie’s way, and said, “Do no’ even think about running. I have been stuck with a keep full o’ females for several days now and want them gone. But they’re no’ going anywhere until you and yer brothers pick one each, or at least decide ye do no’ want any o’ them and make it known.”
Geordie grunted at that, and moved to the water’s edge. Once there, he quickly shed his plaid. He started to remove his shirt next, but paused and turned back to Aulay. “How the devil did they all end up at Buchanan?”
“Ah.” Aulay grimaced. “Well, ye remember when the lasses decided to have that visit a couple months back?”
Geordie nodded. It was hard to forget. Jetta had sweetly but determinedly told him, Aulay, Rory, Alick and Uncle Acair that they were not welcome and to make themselves scarce while their sister and their brothers’ wives, as well as Jo Sinclair and Annabel MacKay and her daughters, visited. Aulay had taken her at her word, put his second, Simon, in charge of the men and he, Geordie, Uncle Acair, Rory and Alick had all left for the hunting lodge. They’d soon been joined by the rest of the brothers as well as MacDonnell, Sinclair and MacKay, who had escorted their wives to Buchanan, only to be sweetly kicked out by the women.
It had got damned crowded in the lodge, and they’d ended up talking, laughing and drinking the nights away, and then spending the better part of the days nursing hangovers. There had been little actual hunting in the end. But the alcohol had been needed to make the floor seem less uncomfortable at night, and it had been a good time in the end.
“Well,” Aulay said now, “it seems they got talking about the three o’ ye—you and Rory and Alick—and fretting about how they wished the three o’ ye were settled and happily married too. They apparently came up with the idea that they should help ye with that.”
“Good Christ,” Geordie breathed.
“Aye,” Acair agreed grimly.
“So?” Geordie asked when Aulay didn’t continue. “What did they do? How the hell did we end up with a castle full o’ women?”
“Apparently, they made a list o’ all the women they knew who had lost their betrothed and were available. They then whittled the list down to all those who were the eldest child without a brother to inherit land or title, and finally they wrote letters to their fathers, pointing out the advantages of the daughter marrying a Buchanan.”
“Advantages?” Geordie asked with amusement. “I do no’ have a pot to piss in. What advantage is that?”