“Aye, lass, now which is it? Bri doesna come from this place that ye speak of. She is the daughter of Laird MacChristy, a twin to be exact, although few people knew he had two daughters until recently. While I’ll admit that ye speak much like her, she spent her childhood living in many different places, traveling with a relative of her father. I doona know her well, but I have met her, and I know this to be true.”
I sat up and leaned forward so that we stared squarely at one another. “You don’t know squat, because all of that’s not even remotely true. I can’t imagine why she would have made that up, maybe you have to tell a cool story to get into this club, but it’s seriously time to give me a break. Haven’t I been through enough today? I got dressed up in this ridiculous garment, I rode all the way out here only to be knocked unconscious and somehow dropped into the middle of the pond out there, I cut open my head, and now I’m held against my will. Please. I am begging you, just cut the crap and tell me what’s really going on here.” I tried to look as desperate as possible, not that I found it hard to do. I started to feel panicked about the inconsistencies of everything that went on around me. None of it made any sense.
He reached forward and grabbed both my hands, his touch gentle. I didn’t have enough fight left to pull away. It reassured me to know that despite how crazy he seemed, he genuinely felt sympathetic to my plight.
“Lass, I doona know what ye wish for me to tell ye. Why doona ye ask me a direct question, and I will do me best to answer it. But doona use the strange words ye’ve been using or I willna be able to help ye a bit.”
“Fine.” I moved around in the chair, unable to get comfortable. With my dress still very wet, it grew heavy. “For starters, is there any woman around from whom I could borrow some clothes? Jeans would be nice, but if you all insist that I wear another costume dress like this, I guess it will suffice.”
He looked nearly as tired as I felt. “Ye did it again. ‘Jeans?’ I doona know what those are. I will send for someone to bring ye a new dress just as soon as I leave ye.”
“Leave? You said you would take me to Bri.”
“That I did, but ye are forgetting that I told ye I canna do it right away. I have promised me mother that I would see her to my aunt’s and that I shall. It should take me no more than three or four days. Upon me return, I will take ye to Bri at once.”
I crossed my legs and arms while shaking my head. “Are you suggesting that I stay here for four days while you’re gone? You’re crazy. That is so not going to happen. You said she’s at Conall Castle, right?”
He glanced down at my chest disapprovingly, and I rolled my eyes. Crossing my arms pushed up my breasts and emphasized the cleavage in the dress.
“While I doona believe ye are from where ye say ye are, I do believe that ye doona come from here. I havena seen a lass sit like that in me entire life.”
Just to aggravate him, I squeezed my arms together, just briefly, to make them stand out even more. “Good grief. They’re just boobs, and what do you expect when the dresses are cut to hold them in like they’re being served on a platter?”
He laughed loudly, a deep, belly laugh so contagious I couldn’t help but smile in return.
“I dinna say that I doona enjoy the sight of them, but ye would be asking for trouble in the wrong company. ’Tis lucky that I found ye in the pond and no Niall and, aye, Bri is at Conall Castle.”
“Great! Then I don’t need anyone to accompany me. It will take me all day, but I’m pretty sure I can find my way there on my own.”
“I’m afraid ’tis no possible, lass.”
A knock on the door interrupted us, and the oldest looking woman I’d ever seen stuck her head inside the door.
“Yer, mother is awake and ready to leave as soon as possible.” The woman glanced over in my direction and took in the puddle forming at both our feet. “I’ll bring the lass a new dress at once. Will she be staying here?”
I stood and moved toward her. “No, I’m leaving as soon as I get a change of clothes.”
She paid me no mind, looking through me as if I’d said nothing. “Baodan?”
“Aye, she will stay in this room until I return. I have left her in Eoghanan’s care, mistake it may be, but please have men stay close to the door at all times, and make sure that she is well cared for.”
The woman nodded and left, closing the door behind her. I made to follow her but Baodan quickly moved to block me, looming in the doorway. “I’m sorry, lass, but ye willna be leaving without me. ’Tis too far to Conall Castle for ye to travel alone, and I doona trust me brothers to see ye all the way there.”
“Why?” He spoke of his brothers as if they were criminals. I didn’t have much experience with siblings or normal families myself, but his mistrust of them seemed odd.
“Eoghanan is negligent, and Niall would seek to woo and take ye for the sport of it. No, that ye will have a choice in it, but promise me that ye willna leave this room until I return.”
“You’re joking? I will do no such thing.” I tried to step around him, but he grabbed both of my arms, holding me still out in front of him.