“No,” he said. “I came here to see if you were all right.”

“And what do you care? You’ve been as intolerable to me as my uncle. All the Scots have been so kind, except for you. You-” She waved her hand, as though she couldn’t think of anything bad enough to say to him.

“I think you should go downstairs and get on some dry clothes.” Slowly, he was moving toward her. If she made a sudden move to jump, he was going to be close enough to catch her.

She didn’t move, didn’t look at him. “You were probably right to throw me into a horse trough. I wish you’d thrown me off the top of this falling down pile of rocks. In fact, I should do it myself.”

“What could make you want to do something like that?” Angus asked, truly aghast at what she was saying. “You’ll not get into Heaven if you take your own life.”

“Wherever I go, it won’t be worse than here.”

“What could be so bad, lass?” His voice was soft; he didn’t want to scare her.

“You know Uncle Neville’s friends, those two downstairs, Alvoy and Ballister?”

“Aye, I do.”

“Tell me what you think of them.”

He was standing just a few feet from her now so he felt he could relax. He could catch her if she tried to jump. As for her question, he wasn’t about to answer it honestly. Maybe Shamus was right and Lawler didn’t like his niece, but Angus knew he didn’t feel that way about his two despicable friends and she might repeat what Angus said.

“Come on,” she said. “You can tell me. After what we’ve been through today, you can be honest with me. Would you like either of those men as your friend? Would you trust either of them?”

“No,” he said cautiously, “I can’t say that I would, but I’m a Scot. I don’t trust any Englishman.” He’d hoped to distract her from this line of questioning, but she wasn’t deterred.

“Do you think they’re smart?”

“That depends on what you call smart. They’re both cunning, that’s for sure. They tell your uncle what he wants to hear so they get free room and board-and no work.”

She nodded, as though she agreed with that. “What about kindness? Pleasant company?”

“I can’t say that they are to me, but your uncle likes them well enough.” He didn’t know if it was the anger that seemed to be surging through her, but she was no longer shivering, even though her clothes were still sopping wet. “It’s not for me to give advice, but if I were in your place I’d steer clear of both of those men. I don’t think they’re who a young girl should spend her time with.”

“Now that will be a problem because my uncle says I’m to marry one of them.”

Angus looked at her in shock, unable to say anything. Her beauty matched with either of those dreadful men who sponged off of her uncle was not something he wanted to contemplate.

She didn’t turn to look at him, just kept staring at the courtyard below. “In four days I’ll turn eighteen and my uncle’s guardianship will end. He plans for me to marry one of those men at one minute after midnight, then my dowry will belong to my husband, who has made an agreement to give it back to my uncle.”

Angus grimaced. It was a very bad situation, but there was nothing he could do about it. “Ah, lass, that is a hard one.”

She turned to look up at him, her blue eyes pleading. “Help me escape. Please.”

“I can’t do that,” Angus said as he took a step back from her. “This is my home. These are my people.”

“I know that. It’s why I’ve asked you for help. People have told me they depend on you. You’re the McTern of McTern, aren’t you?”

The way she said it made him want to defend himself. “My grandfather was the laird of this clan and some people still remember that. The title of laird may no longer have land, but I carry a responsibility to the McTerns.”

“How very romantic,” she said as she took a step toward him. “Does that mean that if I were some McTern girl and being forced to marry a man twice my age you’d step in and help?” She was being sarcastic, but when she saw his face she knew the truth. “You would help her, wouldn’t you?”

“I would feel an obligation, yes, but that hasn’t happened in my lifetime. A girl marries who she wants. It’s the Scots way.”

“It’s the English way, too, except that I’m cursed with having a dowry and an uncle who needs money, plus, I have no friends or relatives to help me.” She took a breath. “What if I pay you?”

“I couldn’t go against your uncle. He owns this place now.”

She took another step forward and he took one back. “What if my uncle decided to marry some pretty girl in your tribe?”

“Clan.” He couldn’t repress a smile.

“All right, your clan. What if my uncle decided he wanted to marry… your sister?”

“She’s already married and has three bairns.”

“Bairns. Babies. She has three children now, but if she didn’t and Uncle Neville wanted to marry her, what would you do?”

He didn’t say what he thought, which was that Lawler would never marry her. He might make her his mistress, but the man had never shown much interest in women. They’d all heard him say that he’d much rather have a good horse than any woman.

She was still staring up at him with those deep blue eyes and waiting for his reply.

“I would have to send her away,” he said.

“You would do that for her?”

“I would have to, wouldn’t I? Your uncle is a lot of things, but I don’t think he’d make a good husband.” He was teasing her now, but she wasn’t smiling.

“But not me,” she said. “So what I’ve heard is true, that you’d help another woman, but you won’t help me. Why? Because I’m not a blood relative of yours? Or is it me you hate? And why is that? Because I stood up to you? I see the way the girls look at you. Do you refuse to help me because I don’t swoon at the sight of you?”

As she spoke she was moving toward him and he was backing up-and he was working hard to keep his amusement from coming to the surface.

“You’re laughing at me!” she said. “You enjoyed making me fall, enjoyed humiliating me in front of everyone, didn’t you? You know what you are? You’re a bully. You’re a bully, and I hate you! I really and truly hate you!” With that, she once again used her hard-soled boot and kicked him in exactly the same spot where she’d kicked him earlier.

Angus couldn’t help it. Maybe it was the relief that he wasn’t going to have to hide forever in shame after being caught “spying” on her, or relief that he wasn’t going to be punished for tossing her into the cold water. Or maybe it was just giddiness at being so close to this beautiful woman with her wet hair falling deliciously about her neck, but he started laughing. Days of pent-up anger and fear and embarrassment left him, and he leaned against the wall of the roof and started laughing.

“You’re disgusting,” she said with contempt as she went through the door that led back into the castle. Even when Angus heard the bolt thrown on the inside he kept laughing.