Lachlan looked down at her. 'Is it true? Would you rather sit at his table?' He didn't sound particularly worried by the possibility, but he did look puzzled.
'Would it matter if I did?' He certainly hadn't hesitated to insist she leave Angus's table to join him at the nooning meal.
'No.'
Just as she'd thought. 'So, why bother to ask?'
'I want to know.'
Ulf made a disparaging sound.
Emily leaned around Lachlan to give his brother a good glare. 'Must you always be so rude?'
He surged to his feet and the look he gave her and then his brother made Emily's glare feel like a smile. 'I suppose you expect me to tolerate this insult as well?'
'If you find truth such an insult, perhaps you should change your behavior so you cannot be called to account for it,' she said before Lachlan could open his mouth.
'Are all English women so sharp-tongued?' Lachlan asked while his brother spluttered more displeasure.
Emily's face heated, embarrassed by the accusation inherent in his words. 'No. My stepmother would be appalled at my plain-speaking.' But what bothered her most was knowing Lachlan had the same opinion. How long before he started to see her as an unpleasant nuisance just as Sybil had done? Or did he already? She sighed and met Ulf's glowering gaze. 'I am sorry that my words caused offense.'
He did not acknowledge her apology, but he did return to his seat and proceeded to eat with gusto.
Upset by the confrontation, Emily gave up trying to eat altogether. She let her gaze flit around the great hall, lighting on first one soldier then another. The only place she did not allow it to go was to the man beside her. She did not want to see the same look of disgust on his face that so often marked Sybil's countenance when she talked to Emily. Just as painful would be to see that he was ignoring her altogether.
By not glancing at him, she could avoid both possibilities.
'If I did not know better, I would think you were spying on my men with the intent to report to the Sinclair.' Amusement laced Lachlan's voice.
Emily could not dredge up a corresponding smile as she forced herself to meet his gaze. 'I am a captive, not a spy.'
'Certainly you would find reporting your discoveries to Talorc a great challenge.'
Thinking it would be all too easy to go back to the lake and talk to the wolf as Cait had done, Emily choked on the wine she'd been trying to drink.
Lachlan's eyes narrowed as the man to Emily's left started pounding her back. She coughed and then wheezed in a great breath of air before turning to thank the soldier.
She turned back to Lachlan to find him staring at her speculatively. 'You are innocent. You are not mated to him, I am sure of it. You cannot be his spy.'
'Do we have to have this discussion here?'
'You are skittish for a woman with a tongue as plain-spoken as yours.'
'I may not be as much of a lady as my stepmother would have liked, but I am not totally lacking in decorum. And I do not wish to discuss my most personal business in front of your soldiers.'
'What is your preoccupation with my soldiers?' he demanded.
She could hardly tell him she was trying to figure out if some of them really were werewolves. 'I'm curious about the Balmoral people. That is all.'
'You spent a great deal of time in the bailey today.'
She was not surprised he knew how she'd spent her day. He was the kind of man who would keep a close watch over all things to do with his holding, but especially an English captive. 'It was a pleasure meeting so many of the clan. You were right. No one but Ulf treats me like the enemy.'
'He is fiercely protective of the clan.'
'And I insulted you.'
'Yes.'
'Oh.' She couldn't apologize when she still thought it was wrong for them to have sought their revenge in kidnapping an innocent woman. She and Ulf were simply not destined to be friends, but at least the rest of the clan was nice to her.
'Angus does not hold my words against me.'
Lachlan frowned. 'You have a high opinion of my soldier.'
She shrugged. 'He has been kind.'
'As you feel Ulf and I have not been.'
'I did not mean that. Indeed, your desire to teach me to swim is kindness itself.'
'I am not a kind man, English.'
She did not agree, but she saw that if she argued, he would be insulted. Contrary man. First he was insulted because she thought Angus was kind and not him, and then it annoyed him that she believed he was compassionate. 'I appreciate your generosity all the same.'
'You were not afraid when you went to the loch with Cait?'
That was not a part of her day she wanted to discuss. 'No, but being near the water is not what scares me. I just never go in very deep… or I didn't before this morning.'
'Why did you go? I did not give permission for you two to venture outside the castle walls.'
'You gave us permission to explore the holding… it stretches beyond the walls. And Cait wanted to see the lake.'
He gave her an odd look. 'It is not safe for you to go to the loch unaccompanied.'
'Cait and I were together.'
'With no warrior to guard you.'
'But we did not need one. The lake is close to many of the cottages.'
'Just as you did not need a guard when you ventured outside the Sinclair castle walls?'
'We had a guard, but your warriors overpowered him.'
'I would not be so easy to overpower.'
She did not doubt it. 'But since we've already been kidnapped, what else could happen to us?' she asked logically.
'There are wild animals and, pregnant, Cait has no defense against them.'
'W-wild animals?' she asked, thinking of Talorc and hoping it did not show on her face.
'Wild boar… and wolves.' Was he looking at her more keenly when he said that word? Or was that her imagination?
'Oh.'
'I do not want you going to the loch without me again.'
'All right.'
His brows came together in obvious puzzlement. 'I expected an argument.'
'Did you?'
'Yes.'
'Perhaps I am not as difficult as you believe.'
'Mayhap you have another reason for being so acquiescent. You have already decided I am right.'
Or she did not want to argue and betray what she had seen.
'Did you see any wild animals while you were at the loch today?' he asked, his dark gaze probing.
'Only if you consider a laird a wild animal,' she sidestepped, not wanting to lie and hoping he would assume she was talking about him.
'Sometimes that is exactly what a laird is.'
After Cait's revelations, Lachlan's words hit Emily with the force of a blow. She would drive herself daft trying to determine if everything he said had more than one meaning, but she could not dismiss his intensity when he uttered those words.
Ulf claimed Lachlan's attention again and soon Emily excused herself to go back to the tower. She had had an exhausting day and she intended to go to sleep early, but found herself strangely alert after brushing her hair and
