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Fergusson land, the glen where Sheena went to swim.
    “Why were you there?”
    Jamie did not notice the change in the boy’s tone. “I’ll no’ be saying, for it only adds to my shame.”
    “You’ll tell me if…if you want me to forget you’re The MacKinnion.”
    Jamie wasted no time. “I’ve your word on it?”
    “Aye.”
    “Very well, though I doubt you’ll ken a man’s foolishness. I was looking for a wisp of a girl I once saw bathing in the pool there.”
    Color rushed into Niall’s face, turning him bright pink with anger and shame. This man had seen his sister! She would be mortified if she knew. He was in an agony of shame.
    “When did you see her?” Niall croaked.
    “What?”
    “When did you see this girl?”
    “In the spring.”
    “And did you see her this morning?”
    “Nay, the pool was empty.” Jamie leaned forward hopefully. “Do you know the girl? I thought perhaps she was a beggar girl and was long gone.”
    “No Fergusson would be foolish enough to bathe in that glen,” Niall lied stiffly. “She’s likely gone, yes.”
    “Aye, I didna really believe I would see her again,” Jamie agreed wistfully. “She was just passing through this place. Yet…I did hope otherwise.”
    “And what would you have done if you had found her again?”
    Jamie grinned. “I dinna think you’re old enough to know the answer to that.”
    “You’re the savage my sister says you are, James MacKinnion!” Niall snapped furiously. “I’ll no’ be talking to you again!”
    Jamie shrugged. The boy was innocent still. He didn’t have a man’s desires yet, so he couldn’t understand them.
    “Suit yourself, lad,” Jamie said shortly. “But you’ll be keeping your word?”
    “I’ve given it—I’ll keep it!”
    When the trapdoor had closed and the bolt had slid into place, Jamie regretted teasing the boy. He had enjoyed the company and doubted he’d get more very soon.
     
    Niall returned to his room, but he got no sleep. After a while, his anger cooled, and he was able to think about the meeting rationally.
    The laird of the MacKinnions was in their dungeon! Niall would be hard-pressed to keep that news to himself. And the fact that The MacKinnion had seen his sister in the altogether? It galled him that any man would have spied on her, let alone their enemy. But what was done was done, and he could do nothing about it except see to it that Sheena never swam naked there again.
    And the rest of it? Niall was not so young that he hadn’t understood Jamie perfectly well. The MacKinnion desired his sister and might have ravished her if he had found her at the pool. Niall would have been no defense against a full-grown man. Fortunately it hadn’t come to that. The MacKinnion must have come to the pool only minutes after he and Sheena had left. But the man had come looking for her. He must never know that Sheena Fergusson and the girl he lusted after were one and the same.

Chapter 6
    S heena was in the sewing room, dressed in one of her prettiest frocks, a bright yellow gown that contrasted vividly with the dark burnished red of her loose, flowing hair. She was unhappily working on her wedding gown, two of the household servants helping her. The gown was going to be lovely, two shades of blue, in rich velvet and silk, and the darker blue a near match to her eyes. But Sheena felt no pleasure in it. The wearing of that gown would bind her to a stranger and take her away from her home.
    The sewing room was as good a place to hide as any, since her sisters were still abed and she need not be bothered by them yet. Even though her marrying was a certainty, their hostility had not lessened. Margaret’s was worst, for she blamed Sheena for making her wait so long to marry Gilbert MacGuire. And all three of her sisters had always resented Sheena’s resembling their father, who wasquite handsome. While not overly large, he had a strong build, and his hair was the same deep red as hers, though he was