She took a deep drink from her wine, then said, “So ye wouldn’t want to marry me, of course.”
Alex laughed. “I fear ye went to a good deal of trouble for no purpose, for I have no intention of leaving here with a wife. But does it happen to ye often that men see ye once and want to marry ye?”
“My father says men are fools for beauty, so I couldn’t take the risk.”
The woman said this with utter seriousness. Alex hadn’t been this amused in some time—and he was a man easily amused.
“No matter how lovely ye are beneath the padding and paste,” Alex said, “ye are quite safe from finding wedded bliss with me.”
She searched his face, as if trying to decide if she could believe him. The combination of her sober expression and the globs sliding down her face made it hard not to laugh, but he managed.
“My father was certain your new chieftain would want a marriage between our clans,” she said at last, “to show his goodwill after the trouble caused by the MacDonald pirates.”
“Your father isn’t far wrong,” Alex said. “But my chieftain, who is also my cousin and good friend, knows my feelings about matrimony.”
Alex realized he’d been so caught up in his conversation with this unusual lass that he’d been ignoring her father and the rest of the table. When he turned to join their conversation, however, he found that no one else was speaking. Every member of Glynis’s family was staring at them.
Alex guessed this was the first time Glynis had tried this particular method of thwarting a potential suitor.
Glynis nudged him. When he turned back to her, she nodded toward Duncan, who, as usual, was putting away astonishing quantities of food.
“What about your friend?” she asked in a low voice. “Is he in want of a wife?”
Duncan only wanted one woman. Unfortunately, that particular woman was living in Ireland with her husband.
“No, you’re safe from Duncan as well.”
Glynis dropped her shoulders and closed her eyes, as if he’d just told her that a loved one she’d feared dead had been found alive.
“’Tis a pleasure to talk with a woman who is almost as set against marriage as I am.” Alex lifted his cup to her. “To our escape from that blessed union.”
Apparently Glynis couldn’t spare him a smile, but she did raise her cup to his.
“How could ye tell my gown was padded?” she asked.
“I pinched your behind.”
Her jaw dropped. “Ye wouldn’t dare.”
“Ach, of course I would,” he said, though he hadn’t. “And ye didn’t feel a thing.”
“How did ye know I didn’t feel it?” she asked.
“Well, it’s like this,” he said, leaning forward on his elbows. “A pinch earns a man either a slap or a wink, and ye gave me neither.”
Her laugh was all the more lovely for being unexpected.
“Ye are a devil,” she said and poked his arm with her finger.
That long, slender finger made him wonder what the rest of her looked like without the padding. He was a man of considerable imagination.
“Which do ye get more often, a wink or a slap?” she asked.
“’Tis always a wink, lass.”
Glynis laughed again and missed the startled looks her father and sisters gave her.
“Ye are a vain man, to be sure.” She took a drumstick from the platter as she spoke, and Alex realized he hadn’t taken a bite since she sat down.
“It’s just that I know women,” Alex explained, as he took a slab of roasted mutton with his knife. “So I can tell the ones who would welcome a pinch.”
Glynis pointed her drumstick at him. “Ye pinched me, and I didn’t want ye to.”
“Pinching your padding doesn’t count,” Alex said. “You’d wink if I pinched ye, Mistress Glynis. Ye may not know it yet, but I can tell.”
Instead of laughing and calling him vain again, as he’d hoped, her expression turned tense. “I don’t like the way my father looks.”
“How does he look to ye?” Alex asked.
“Hopeful.”
* * *
Alex and Duncan slept on the floor of the hall with a score of snoring MacNeils. At dawn, Alex awoke to the sound of soft footfalls crossing the floor. He rolled to the side and leaped to his feet, leaving his host kicking the empty space where Alex had been lying.
“You’re quick,” the MacNeil said, with an approving nod. “I only meant to wake ye.”
