Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels #5)(57)
Author: Catherine Bybee

She opened the link in her head to his. You think I’m a child.

No, Amber. I think you’re scared.

“God’s teeth, Amber…you’re not cloaked,” Myra said as she pushed in only to hold back outside Gavin’s shield.

Gavin’s eyes traveled to Myra’s heavily pregnant belly and he stood back, sucking in his shield so it only layered his skin. Amber did the same and opened her arms to her sister.

While the women moved to gather around her, the men regarded her husband with thinly veiled anger.

“You’re cured,” Tara said.

“It seems I am.”

“But how?” Tara asked.

Amber glanced at Kincaid and lifted her chin. “The same shield that protects my husband protects me.”

“They’re bonded,” Lizzy told those who hadn’t heard the earlier exchange.

“Really?” Myra asked.

While the other women asked questions, Amber stared directly into his eyes. “Aye,” she said softly. “We are.”

Bonded and wed, Amber. Running from me won’t change that. He opened his mind to her…every thought, every emotion. I have nothing to hide.

She blinked several times. I am frightened.

Kincaid faced her father. “Laird Ian,” he said with a slight bow of his head. “Gavin Kincaid, m’lord, at your service.” He extended his hand and waited to see if he was to be accepted or denied.

Ian swept his eyes up and down Gavin’s frame, his eyes landing on his extended hand. “Are you kin to Grainna?”

Gavin sucked in a deep breath. “I want to tell you I’m not. But the truth is I have no knowledge of my extended lineage.”

For one awful moment, Amber noticed her father’s shoulders tense and felt the static in the air charge.

“He speaks the truth, Father.”

Several seconds passed before Ian nodded and slowly extended his hand.

The men regarded each other in silence, and Gavin then turned to Duncan. “Duncan MacCoinnich, I presume?”

“Aye.” They shook hands.

“And Finlay?”

When he turned to Cian, her brother stared at his extended hand but didn’t offer his own.

“I won’t shake the hand of evil incarnate.”

“Cian!” Ian scolded.

“Nay, Father. If this man has an ounce of her blood in his veins, then he is our enemy.”

“We will withhold judgment.”

Cian offered a cold stare in Amber’s direction. “How clever to penetrate our family through the bed of the most innocent one among us.”

His disgust shot like a dagger into Amber’s core.

Gavin dropped his hand, his jaw clenched. “Apologize to my wife.”

Amber’s gut twisted. To see her beloved brother denying her husband left her ill. This wasn’t what she wanted when she’d run home. What had she expected? Watching her brother’s stone-cold stare directed at Gavin made her realize how thoughtless she’d been in running away.

The air cracked with the force of her father’s gift. “You’re out of line, Cian.”

“Better to die a noble death than to spawn with the devil.”

Gavin pulled his arm back and swung. His fist connected to her brother’s face with a loud clash.

Fin grabbed a hold of Cian and Duncan and Todd pushed Gavin away.

Instead of backing away from the violence, Amber pushed in, placing herself between her brother and her husband. “Stop!”

Get out of the way, Amber! Gavin pushed around Duncan only to have him keep hold of his arm. The fact that Gavin didn’t use his gift to push off Duncan proved her husband was distracted by the chaos in the room. Chaos that left him vulnerable. She left him vulnerable.

Instead of addressing Gavin’s words, she leveled her eyes to her brother. “Gavin has not been in my bed. Not in the way you mean. I was close to death and he bonded to me, extending his gift. He did so without any assurance he would survive. We only just learned of his possible lineage.”

“Yet you ran,” Cian told her.

“Aye. I wanted the council of my family. I too fear what I don’t know. But do not lay blame on an affair that hasn’t occurred.”

Cian pulled out of Finlay’s grasp and squared his shoulders. “You call him your husband.”

“And he is. I spoke the vows. We are bonded.”

There were voices in the hall that told her they were about to be discovered by either servants or knights. None of which would understand the presence of Gavin and herself.

“Mother?”

“Ian,” Lora said with the calm voice Amber wished she had. “Shall we find something for our son-in-law to wear while we,” she indicated the women in the room, “assist Amber with an appropriate dress?”

With the distraction, Cian slid from the room without a backward glance.

Ian watched his youngest son leave and said nothing. “Finlay, Todd, see to Gavin’s needs. Duncan, we will speak downstairs. Myra, tell the others we expect Amber and her intended to arrive before dawn. Tara, take your son from his bed and lead a horse to the south wall.” Ian paused, glanced at Gavin. “Do you ride?”

“Of course.”

“Elizabeth, prepare the children.”

The room started to buzz with activity.

“Father?” Amber stopped him from leaving the room.

“Aye, lass?”

She opened her arms and embraced her sire. “He’s a good man,” she whispered into his ear.

He kissed her forehead and gave her a slight smile. “We’ll speak later.”

****

The drizzling rain of Scotland wasn’t something he’d ever get used to. God help him if his wife wanted to stay.

He stood under a tree with a horse at his side while he waited for the women…or maybe it would be one of the men, to bring his wife to his side.

It was surreal, really, to have Ian MacCoinnich orchestrate his entry into the family, into the fortress with little more than a few barked orders.

Dressed in a kilt, and not one that had enough pockets to house his weapons, Kincaid stood by the dark horse and waited.

How had his life been reduced to this? He was a warrior, for God’s sake. He’d battled men throughout time, saved lives…taken others. And here he stood in the damn rain waiting.

Waiting.

When he started to contemplate what was happening in Simon’s time, his head felt as if it was going to explode. Too damn much turmoil. Once Kincaid was brought into the Keep with enough pomp and circumstance to secure his welcome, he would be able to take all the men aside and discuss life in the twenty-first century.