A coldly territorial and vengeful one.
“Alec!” Catriona greeted her brother-in-law warmly the moment she entered the parlor.
The two of them had never particularly been friends before Ewan was killed, but Alec had been very supportive since. Even more so in the weeks since she had lost Hugh and Elena.
“I apologize if I have interrupted your evening,” Alec said gruffly.
Catriona took no offense at the gruffness, knowing it was normal for Alec, as was his unsmiling countenance and the permanent scowl between his brown eyes.
Despite being brothers, Ewan and Alec had been nothing alike in looks or nature. Ewan took after his father, being light of mood and temperament, while Alec was more like their dour mother. Ewan’s hair had been fair and lightly tinged with red, again like his father. Alec’s was a dark brown. Ewan’s eyes had been a warm hazel, whereas Alec’s were as dark and fathomless as the night.
As for interrupting her evening…
It was probably as well that something had put an end to the unexpected passion that had burst into flames between Andrew Belgrade and herself. That inferno had threatened to destroy everything in its path. Including Cat’s resistance.
She still feared what might have happened if Alec’s arrival had not interrupted them.
That knowledge was enough to make her smile of welcome even warmer. “I am always pleased to see you, you know that.”
Alec’s expression lightened slightly. “I thought I should let you know as soon as possible that I found some more of your lambs, dead, at the east end of the loch, close to the border of our two lands.”
Cat winced. “How many?”
Life in the harshness of the Highland terrain and weather, where the snow sometimes lingered on the ground in patches until fresh snow fell again the following winter, could often be indiscriminately cruel.
“Half a dozen. All with their throats taken out.” Alec grimaced.
She sighed. “The wild dogs again, do you think?”
It didn’t happen often, but occasionally a pack of dogs from Inverness would leave the city in search of food. This time of year, the ewes and their vulnerable lambs became a banquet to them, the lambs too slow and the ewes too protective of their offspring to avoid being caught. So far this year, they had lost over a dozen ewes and almost two dozen lambs to the dogs’ voracious appetites.
Alec nodded. “Looked like it, yes.”
“And the ewes?” They did not often abandon their lambs for any reason and would usually challenge any danger to their young.
Alec’s scowl darkened. “I had to put two of them down. Their defensive injuries were too severe.”
Cat reached out to squeeze his forearm. “I know you did your best.” She hated even the idea of the ewes suffering longer than they needed to.
He nodded. “I’ve brought the carcasses with me for Mrs. Murray to salvage whatever meat she may. The other ewes are safe in one of our sheds, and my brother Hector is helping them to heal as best he can before we release them back out onto the heather.”
Ewan’s brother Hector was known in the area as being the healer for any sick or injured animals. “Thank Hector for me. I’ll talk to Dougal McGregor in the morning about getting together a hunting party to dispose of the dogs.”
Alec placed one of his hands over hers as it still rested on his forearm. His dark gaze was intense as he gazed at Catriona. “I am sorry to have brought you such sad news, but I cannot complain about the opportunity to visit with you alone before the rush and bustle of the celebrations tomorrow.” He smiled at her warmly.
It wasn’t the first time Alec had made a remark of preference to her. But, as with the previous ones, Cat dearly wished he hadn’t done so.
“I am afraid you were misinformed if you thought Catriona was alone this evening,” Andrew Belgrade spoke abruptly from where, once Cat had turned sharply to look at him, he now stood tall and arrogant in the parlor doorway. “Or that she will be so again for the foreseeable future,” he added in a hard voice as he stepped farther into the room.
His pale green gaze was fixed upon the spot where Cat’s hand was being held in place by Alec’s much larger one.
Cat felt the color warming her cheeks as she quickly pulled her hand free before turning fully to face Andrew. The coldness of his narrowed gaze as it slowly moved up to the top of her head and then down to her feet caused a shiver down the length of her spine.
She straightened. “Andrew, this is my brother-in-law, Alec Munro. Alec, this is our darling Elena’s brother, Andrew Belgrade, the Duke of Essex.” The tension in the room was tangible, uncomfortably so, as Cat introduced the two men.
Andrew felt no more reassured once he knew the younger man was the brother of Catriona’s dead husband. The coldness in Alec Munro’s gaze when he looked at Andrew certainly seemed to imply a previous and proprietary claim on Catriona’s time and affections. Something Andrew found he disliked intensely.
Nor did he care for the manner in which Catriona had introduced him to the Scotsman. Yes, he was Elena’s brother, but having kissed Catriona mere minutes ago, and felt her response to those kisses, he considered himself more lover to her now than merely the brother of her deceased sister-in-law.
He might have succeeded in repressing the carnal side of his nature for many years, but the desire for Catriona that now raged out of control inside him told him he would continue to pursue her until he had claimed her.
That he was, despite his efforts not to be, as much of a Belgrade as his father, mother, and sister had been. The desire he felt for Catriona was far stronger than his years
