“Do you know this woman, Nicholas?” he demanded.
His brother-in-law took exception to Gabriel’s tone of voice. “How the hell could I know her? I haven’t met her yet. ”
Johanna hurried to make the introductions. Clare made a curtsy; but because Nicholas was scowling, she didn’t smile.
Gabriel still wasn’t willing to admit defeat. He believed he’d thought the matter through and come up with the only logical conclusion possible. The MacBain plaid had been spotted near MacInnes land. Nicholas had worn the plaid on his last return trip to England. Since none of the other soldiers had been near the holding, Nicholas had to be the man responsible for getting Clare MacKay with child.
“Are you telling me you’ve never met Clare MacKay before?” he asked.
“That’s what I’m telling you all right,” Nicholas drawled out.
“Hell.”
“Gabriel, what is the matter with you?” Johanna asked. “Clare, come and sit next to me, please.”
“I thought your brother was the one responsible for Clare’s condition.”
“How could you think that?” Johanna cried out. “He would never abandon . . .”
“It was a logical conclusion,” Gabriel defended.
“It was a sinful conclusion,” Johanna countered.
Nicholas was trying to follow the budding argument. He understood Gabriel was trying to blame him for something or other and that Johanna was valiantly trying to defend him, but he didn’t have a clue as to the topic.
“Exactly what is it you think I’m responsible for?” he asked Gabriel.
“Nicholas, this matter needn’t concern you,” Johanna said.
“How can it not concern him?” Gabriel asked. “If he is the father . . .”
She wouldn’t let him finish. “He isn’t,” she blurted out.
The frown on Gabriel’s face was chilling. “I see,” he remarked. He sat down, motioned for Nicholas to do the same, and then turned back to his wife.
“Then you know who the man is, don’t you, Johanna?”
Johanna nodded. She fully intended to explain the situation to her husband, but she wanted to wait until they were alone.
“We have company,” she whispered, hoping her reminder would make Gabriel realize she didn’t wish to discuss the delicate topic now.
He refused to take the hint. “You will give me the man’s name,” he ordered.
She let out a sigh. Clare had been diligently studying the tabletop with her head bowed and her hands fisted in her lap. She looked up when Johanna’s husband demanded an answer, took a deep breath, and then said, “There isn’t any man, Laird MacBain.”
Gabriel wasn’t prepared for that answer. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the MacKay woman for a long minute before he turned to his wife.
Johanna immediately nodded. “There isn’t any,” she said, repeating Clare’s statement.
Johanna kept her gaze on her husband as she reached over and took hold of Clare’s hand. “You’d best get ready,” she whispered.
“Ready for what, m’lady?” Clare whispered back.
“Growling.”
Gabriel ignored the banter. He was still reacting to the news he’d just been given. The ramifications were staggering, and try as he did, he couldn’t understand why the woman would put herself in such jeopardy over a lie.
He shook his head. Johanna nodded. “It’s joyful news, Gabriel,” she remarked.
His face turned red. She guessed he didn’t think it was joyful at all. Clare was squeezing her hand now in obvious fear. Johanna turned to her.
“You have no reason to be frightened,” she announced. “My husband would never hurt you. He’s just been given a surprise, that’s all. In a minute of two he’ll get over it.”
“Will someone tell me what in thunder is going on?” Nicholas demanded.
“No!” Gabriel, Johanna, and Clare all shouted the denial together.
Johanna was the first to realize how impolite they were being to her brother.
“Gabriel, this matter can wait until later for discussion,” she announced. “Please?” she added when he looked like he was going to argue with her.
Her husband finally nodded. “We should only have pleasant conversation at the supper table,” she said then. “Isn’t that right, Clare?”
“Yes,” Clare replied. She let go of Johanna’s hand and straightened on her stool. “Have you given your brother your good news?”
“My husband has,” Johanna replied.
“No, I haven’t,” Gabriel said.
He still sounded irritated to her, but she wasn’t upset. “Why haven’t you told him?”
“I thought you would want to,” he answered.
She smiled. Nicholas’s curiosity was captured of course. “What is this news?”
“I want you to tell him,” Johanna insisted.
“Tell me what?” Nicholas asked.
“Your brother’s a very impatient man,” Clare remarked. “But then, most Englishmen are, aren’t they?”
“No, they aren’t,” Nicholas snapped. “Johanna, tell me your news.”
Clare was startled by Nicholas’s hard tone of voice. Her shoulders straightened a bit more, and she frowned at the man she now decided was a rude boor.
“She isn’t barren.” Gabriel made the announcement and actually smiled. His soldiers all immediately nodded their agreement.
“ ’Tis the truth, she isn’t barren,” Keith remarked.
The men all nodded again. Calum and Leila came into the hall then. Leila was holding Calum’s hand. She let go of him when they started down the steps. Johanna smiled over the sight of the happy couple before turning her attention back to her brother.
He still didn’t look as though he understood. “I’m going to have a baby, Nicholas.”
“How is such a thing possible?”
Johanna started blushing. Gabriel laughed, for he found his wife’s embarrassment amusing. He was still determined to give her hell because she hadn’t told him the truth about Clare MacKay, of course, but he wouldn’t raise his voice to her when he was letting her know how displeased he was, given her delicate condition.
“She is married to a Highlander,” Gabriel said in answer to Nicholas’s ridiculous question. “And that is how it happened.”
Nicholas laughed. He pounded Gabriel on the shoulder while he congratulated him, then turned his attention to his sister.
“This is joyful news,” he said. His voice shook with emotion. “Mother will be very happy.”
Johanna became teary-eyed. She reached for the linen square she kept tucked in the sleeve of her blouse. “Yes, Mama will be very happy,” she said while she dabbed at the corner of her eyes with her cloth. “You must be certain to tell her when you return to England, Nicholas. She’ll want to begin sewing for the baby.”
“Now do you understand why I don’t want my wife upset by any unpleasant news?” Gabriel asked.
“I understand,” Nicholas replied.
They really weren’t going to tell her about Raulf. She didn’t have a shred of doubt about that truth. Both men were trying to protect her from worry. She would have to be told eventually, of course, and she wondered how long they thought they would be able to keep the secret.
Their motives were good-hearted, she supposed, but Johanna wasn’t going to let them treat her like a child. Besides, the matter needed to be discussed. She had a sound plan in mind to keep Raulf from making any trouble, and she wanted to talk to Gabriel about it.
Her husband became preoccupied. Nicholas also seemed to be caught up in his own thoughts. Both men were frowning now, and neither was eating.
Johanna wasn’t about to bring up the topic until the men had finished their supper. She decided to turn the conversation to everyday matters.
“Have you noticed our wall is almost completed, Nicholas? The men have done a fair amount of work since your last visit.”
Nicholas nodded.
“Keith, have I mentioned how fit you look wearing the MacBain plaid?” she remarked.
The soldier grinned. “Aye, m’lady, you have mentioned it at least ten times today.”
“She told me my shoulders look wider and stronger with the MacBain plaid,” Michael interjected.
“She told me I looked taller,” Lindsay called out.
“And I meant every one of my compliments,” Johanna blurted out. “Every single one of you does look better in the MacBain plaid.”
The soldiers laughed. “We have accepted our laird’s colors, m’lady. You don’t have to fret any longer.”
“I haven’t been fretting,” she defended.
“Then why are you suddenly complimenting us?” Keith asked.
She shrugged. The men found her reaction vastly amusing. She deliberately changed the subject to a less embarrassing one. The soldiers had all ignored Nicholas; when one mentioned the incident with the wolves, they outshouted each other in their bid to tell the tale of their mistress’s cunning.
Johanna didn’t believe her brother needed to hear the story, but her protest was ignored. Gabriel reached over and took hold of her hand. The men were laughing and shouting now, and in the middle of the chaos, Gabriel leaned close to Johanna.
“You know I’ll always protect you, don’t you?”
He whispered his question. Johanna leaned to the side of her chair and kissed her husband. “I know.”
Nicholas saw the tender moment between Johanna and Gabriel. He nodded, satisfied. He’d done the right thing by insisting she marry the laird.
Calum asked Gabriel a question then. Johanna scooted back on her stool and turned to Clare.
“Are you feeling all right?” she whispered.
“Yes, m’lady,” Clare answered.
Johanna wasn’t convinced. Clare had barely touched her food and had stayed remarkably silent for most of the meal.
She thought Nicholas might be the reason for Clare’s timid behavior. For some reason the two of them had taken an immediate dislike to each other. If Clare wasn’t sick, then Nicholas was the only other reason for her odd conduct. They both kept staring at each other; and when one caught the other looking, a quick frown resulted.
Their behavior was bizarre as well as distressing, for Johanna had grown quite fond of Clare and she wanted the young woman to like her family.
She put the matter aside when the men requested permission to leave. “Where is Father MacKechnie this evening?” she asked.
Keith stood up before answering. “Auggie wanted him to sample a drink of his new batch of brew.”
“If you run into him, will you please tell him I would like to speak to him?”
“What do you want to speak to him about?” Gabriel asked.
“An important issue.”
“You will discuss your important issue with me,” he commanded.
“Yes, of course I will,” she agreed. “But I would also like to hear Father MacKechnie’s opinion, too.”
She turned back to Clare before her husband could question her further. “What do you think of my brother? He’s handsome, isn’t he?”
“Handsome? M’lady, he’s English,” Clare whispered.
Johanna laughed. She turned to her brother. “Clare doesn’t appear to like Englishmen, Nicholas.”
“It’s unreasonable to dislike an entire country of men,” he remarked.
“I’m not an unreasonable woman,” Clare defended. “If I were English, I might think your brother was handsome.”
It was all she was willing to concede. Nicholas didn’t appear to care what her opinion was. Yet Johanna wasn’t fooled by her brother’s indifferent behavior. He was interested in Clare MacKay all right and trying not to let anyone know.
Clare was acting a little too defensive. Johanna suddenly straightened on her stool. Gabriel noticed the look of surprise on her face. He demanded to know what the hell was the matter with her.
She patted his hand and gently told him she didn’t care for his gruff tone of voice. She deliberately didn’t answer his question.
“Nicholas?”
“Yes, Johanna?”
“When are you going to get married?”
Her brother hadn’t been prepared for her blunt question. He laughed. “I’m putting it off for as long as possible,” he admitted.
“Why?”
“I have other more important matters to think about,” he said.
“But do you have anyone in mind when you do decide to marry?”
Nicholas shook his head. “I really haven’t thought about it. When I’m ready, I’ll marry. Now, enough of this talk.”
She wasn’t finished discussing the topic just yet. “Would a large dowry be important when making your choice?”
He let out a sigh. “No,” he answered. “I don’t need a large dowry.”
She smiled. Then she turned to Clare. “He wouldn’t want a large dowry,” she repeated.
Clare frowned in puzzlement but only for a second or two. Then she realized what Johanna’s plan was.
Her eyes widened, and she vehemently shook her head. “You cannot think I would ever consider an Englishman,” she whispered.
Johanna tried to soothe her. “I wasn’t asking you to consider anything,” she said. It was a blatant lie, of course, but her motives were sincere and she didn’t believe she was committing a sin. She’d achieved her goal, too, for all she wanted was to plant the idea in Clare’s head.
“My father would die.”
“He would recover.”
“How does one recover from death?” Gabriel wanted to know.
Johanna ignored his question. “No one’s going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do,” she told Clare.
She turned to her husband. “Isn’t that right, Gabriel?”
“Isn’t what right? Johanna, I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
Johanna wasn’t bothered by her husband’s irritation. “When is Clare’s father coming back here?”
“Tomorrow or the day after.”
Nicholas was staring at Clare now. The look on her face bothered the hell out of him. When she heard her father was coming, her eyes clouded up with tears, and damned if she didn’t look frightened. Nicholas didn’t understand his own reaction. He barely knew the woman and had already decided he didn’t like her much, yet now he felt the urge to try to straighten out her problem for her.
