Margaret Mallory - The Guardian

“I’m no saying ye should accept less than your due,” Alex said. “But I suspect Ian cares for ye more than he knows.”

“Seems to me,” she said between her teeth, “that not knowing that he cares is the same as not caring.”

“Sometimes a man needs to be pushed a wee bit,” Alex said. “Hitting him over the head with the skillet a couple of times was a good start.”

Sìleas felt her cheeks grow warm. “Ian deserved it.”

“I haven’t a doubt that he did,” Alex said. “But ye can’t blame him for trying to get ye under the blankets.”

“Hmmph.”

A seal popped his head up and looked at her with its black eyes for a long moment before disappearing again below the waves.

“Do ye remember how the four of us lads used to sail to Knock Castle to take ye out fishing with us?” Alex said. “It was always Ian who talked us into it. Not that the rest of us didn’t like ye, mind, but we were lads off having adventures. We wouldn’t have brought ye along if Ian hadn’t insisted.”

“He just felt sorry for me,” she said.

“Aye, Ian always did have a soft heart,” Alex said. “But he liked having ye around. He was always talking about the funny things ye said or how quick ye were to learn something.”

“I was a wee girl,” she said. “He doesn’t know me now.”

“So give him time to get to know ye again,” Alex said. “That’s all I’m saying. Don’t decide against him so quick.”

“Why are ye trying to convince me?”

“Because I know ye will make Ian happy,” Alex said, his expression serious for once. “He’s a good man, Sìleas. That’s why ye waited for him so long.”

“Hmmph.” She was more confused than ever.

Alex narrowed his eyes at the clouds on the horizon. “We’d best head back. A storm is coming.”

The waves grew wild on the way back, bouncing them like an egg in a kettle at full boil. Sìleas held tight to the sides of the boat, enjoying the rush of the water and the sting of the sea on her skin.

“ ’Tis grand, isn’t it?” Alex shouted, and they grinned at each other.

The rain was pelting the sea not far behind them as Alex rowed hard for the beach.

“Is that Ian?” Sìleas shouted over the wind, though she knew that was him pacing up and down the beach.

“Ahh, perfect,” Alex said. “Even from here, I can see he’s in a state.”

Ian had seen them now and was standing with his hands on his hips, glaring out to sea in their direction.

“Shall we stay out a bit longer?” Alex said. “The man deserves to suffer, wouldn’t ye say?”

“What are ye about, Alex?”

“ ’Tis all part of my plan to make Ian appreciate ye.”

“Appreciate me? Ian looks as if he’d like to murder us both.”

“What fills the eye fills the heart,” Alex said. “Trust me, ’tis a good sign.”

She crawled closer to Alex so she could hear him better over the wind. “Ye said ye had a scheme, but ye never told me what it was.”

“Well, one part is to make him jealous,” Alex said.

“Jealous? Of you?”

Alex laughed. “Believe it or not, most women find me irresistible.”

Though Alex wasn’t for her, it was easy to see the appeal of the sea-green eyes and Viking warrior looks combined with all that charm.

She turned to see Ian striding through the surf to meet them. He had that dangerous look about him that made her heart beat fast.

“Are ye sure this is a wise idea, Alex?” she asked.

“I’ll make a wager with ye,” Alex said. “If I’m right and ye have Ian groveling at your feet within a fortnight, ye must give me a big kiss on the mouth in front of him.”

“Ye are a devil,” she said, unable to keep from laughing, despite the tension she felt with Ian bearing down on them. “And if ye are wrong?”

A slow smile spread across Alex’s face. “Why, the same, lass. The very same.”

Ian must have been bewitched by faeries to let his cousin take Sìleas out in the boat alone.

You’re no doing so well on your own, Alex had said to him. Let me see if I can help her to see things your way. Ye know how persuasive I can be.

Ian knew precisely how persuasive his handsome cousin could be. Women fell over each other to make fools of themselves with Alex.

The sea was rough, and heavy, black rain clouds were rolling in as Ian paced the beach. Where in the hell were they? What was Alex doing keeping her out with this storm coming? The weather was getting worse by the moment.

He reminded himself that Alex had a second sense on the water, as if a Viking ancestor was whispering guidance in his ear. All the same, Alex shouldn’t be taking chances with Sìleas in the boat.

Ian glanced again at the old, leaky boat resting high on the shore. He was almost desperate enough to take it out to look for them, when he caught sight of their boat as it appeared and disappeared between the troughs. By the saints, he was going to kill Alex.

As they neared shore, Ian waded out into the rough surf to help haul the boat in. Neither the icy water nor the cold, wet wind on his face cooled his temper. It burned hotter still when Sìleas moved to Alex’s end of the boat and her laugh traveled across the water.

He caught hold of the side and steadied it as Alex dropped into the water. Instead of taking his side of the boat, Alex lifted Sìleas out. Alex headed for the shore, carrying her in his arms above the reach of the waves—and leaving Ian to drag the boat alone as if he were a damned servant.

“Mind the boat!” Alex shouted over his shoulder. “We don’t want to lose her.”

When Alex reached the sandy beach, he turned with Sìleas still in his arms to watch Ian do his work for him. For God’s sake, why did the man not set her on her own two feet now? And there she was, smiling up at Alex, as if she were enjoying herself.

As soon as he had secured the boat, Ian stomped across the beach to join them. “Is my wife injured?”

“I wouldn’t let harm come to my favorite lass, now would I?” Alex said with a broad wink at Sìleas. “But I couldn’t risk letting her get tossed about in the surf. ’Tis a stormy day, if ye hadn’t noticed.”

“I suggest ye set her down before I break your arms,” Ian said. “Better yet, I’ll take her.”

“I can stand,” Sìleas said. “Put me down.”

“Whatever ye say, lass,” Alex said, and set her down.

Ian itched to give his cousin a clout across his smiling face, but he wanted some answers first. “What in the hell were ye doing, having her out on the water with that storm coming? And don’t tell me ye didn’t see it.”

“ ’Course I saw it coming,” Alex said, easy as could be. “I may have cut it a wee bit close, because we were having such a grand time, ye see. But we made it in all right.”

Ian glared down at Sìleas and did not feel at all badly when she trembled. With her color high from the wind and her hair wild about her, she looked like a sea nymph come to shore hoping to be ravished.

“What were the two of ye doing out there so long?” he said to her. “I didn’t see any fish in the damned boat.”

“It was a poor day for fishing,” she said.

Now that he thought of it, there wasn’t even a net in the boat.

“Then just what were ye doing all this time?” he yelled, with the image of her arms around Alex’s neck as he carried her to shore vivid in his mind. “Is it not enough that ye have Gòrdan Graumach eating out of your hand?”

“Ye may find it strange, but I enjoy being with a man who doesn’t shout at me,” she said, shouting herself.

“Enjoying Alex, were ye?”

With her green eyes flashing and her hair whipping about her face, she looked like the magnificent Celtic warrior queen, Scáthach, herself.