She took him to the far end of the bay.
“The seals like to gather here.” She pointed to a huge, flat rock that jutted out of the water a few yards offshore.
They found a dry, sandy area high on the beach and sat down. As she removed her hand from his, her gaze slid over his arm, taking in the golden hairs against his tanned skin. Alex stretched out his long, muscular legs, which were covered with the same golden hair.
“Ye should lie on your stomach,” he said, “so the sun can dry the back of your gown.”
Glynis was tempted. Her stepmother was bound to make unpleasant remarks about Glynis’s slovenly ways if she returned to the castle with her gown soaked. But she couldn’t very well lie down when she was alone with a man.
“I wouldn’t want your father to think I had ye on your back in the sand,” Alex said. “We’d be wed before noon.”
Glynis flopped down on her stomach and leaned on her elbows. They watched in companionable silence as several seals hauled themselves out of the sea to nap on the flat rock.
Alex nudged her with his knee. “What other tricks have ye used to drive away potential husbands?”
“I tell them I’m barren.” She kept her voice flat to cover how much this hurt. “That’s sufficient to discourage most of them.”
“Ye can’t know that for certain, can ye?” Alex asked. “You’re young yet.”
Glynis shrugged. Since she was never going to marry again, it was of no consequence.
“What about the men who already have heirs?” he asked. “How do ye discourage them?”
“I’ve rubbed onions on my clothes and chewed garlic.” She sighed. “If that isn’t enough, I say I dreamed I was wearing widow’s clothes on my next birthday.”
Alex’s laugh rumbled deep in his throat. It was a surprisingly pleasant sound.
“Are ye the one who started the story about stabbing your husband?” he asked.
“I fear that one is true,” she said. “I do find it useful.”
This time, his laughter roused two or three seals, who lifted their heads to look at them before resuming their slumber.
“I doubt your father is trying to marry ye off to make ye suffer,” Alex said. “He needs alliances, just as my chieftain does.”
“And the wrong alliances will bring disaster,” Glynis said. “I told my father not to join this rebellion, but, of course, he wouldn’t listen to me.”
Half the clans in the Western Isles had risen against the Scottish Crown in yet another doomed rebellion.
“The rebellion will fail eventually,” Alex said. “But until it does, any clan that takes the side of the Crown risks being attacked by its neighbors.”
“’Tis clever of your chieftain to let each side court him,” she said.
“Court him?” Alex said. “Connor feels like he’s straddling two sea monsters, while each tries to snap his head off and dump him into the sea.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his colorful description, but she was worried about her clan. “You’re lucky to be a man. Ye can serve your clan without being bought and sold like a cow.”
“I’ve never met a woman with such a low opinion of marriage,” Alex said, then he added something under his breath that sounded very much like “except for my mother.”
“I’d do anything for my clan but wed,” Glynis said.
“Since we are of one mind on that,” Alex said, “we can be friends, aye?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “Do ye mean it?”
“Usually I become friends with women
“Ye are teasing me again,” she said.
“Ye are so serious, I can’t help myself,” Alex said in a soft voice. “But if we should meet again, ye can trust me to be a friend.”
Glynis met his sea-green eyes. “Then I’ll be your friend as well, Alex MacDonald.”
When she shifted her gaze back to the seals, several of them lifted their heads. Then, one by one, they began slipping into the water.
“Get up,” Alex said with steel in his voice.
Before she could move, his hands encircled her waist, and he lifted her to her feet.
“Damn,” Alex said between his teeth, as a war galley glided around the point of the bay.
“They could be friendly,” Glynis said, but her heart was pounding hard in her chest.
“That’s Hugh MacDonald’s ship,” Alex said, his gaze fixed on it. “We’ll try to outrun them and get back to the castle.”
Alex grabbed her hand, and they flew over the sand and rocks. The pirate galley must have been spotted in the castle as well. Across the small bay, two dozen men poured over the causeway from the castle. The pirates were sailing for the beach midway between them and the castle in an attempt to cut them off before her father’s men
