Claimed by a Laird (21 page)

Rage coursed through Galen like a mid-winter northern wind
rushing through the valley. He climbed the steps to the keep two at a time,
barely aware of Geoffrey’s, Cal’s and Lachlan’s footfalls behind him.

Lachlan and Dan had been smart when they broke the news to
him about the Gowrie’s missive to Anna—they both stood about a dozen feet away
from him to either side. With neither warrior close enough to blindly take out
his anger on in that first moment, he calmed down enough to not throttle either
of them.

Galen threw open the door to the keep, storming into the
center of the hall. Adam arose from the table where he had been speaking in
hushed tones with John and Owen and stepped directly into Galen’s path.

“Where is she?” Galen demanded, his nostrils flaring as he
attempted to skirt around his friend.

Adam moved in front of him again, grabbing Galen by the
arms. “She is resting.”

Galen shook off Adam’s grasp and stepped back, audibly
pushing his breath through his nostrils. “Resting? Did she attend another birth
last night?”

“No, she was simply tired.”

Galen looked at him askance. Leave it to his woman to up and
defy him by tiring herself out to the point of becoming sick again. “Lachlan
mentioned she was ill when he left. She is not still, is she?”

Adam shook his head, his lips curling into a goofy grin.
“She is fine, I promise.”

The bluster fell out of Galen at his friend’s easy-going
manner. The fears that had passed through his mind on the way home were too
terrible, too gut-wrenching for him to recall and he gratefully allowed them to
slip away from his consciousness now that he knew Anna was safe and well.

He nodded, his jaw clenching as his mind turned to the other
piece of business that had dragged him home early. The only reason he stood in
the hall rather than on some battlefield with the Gowrie dangling from his
sword was because he thought Anna was ill. Now that he knew she was not, it was
time to get to the bottom of this message the Gowrie had sent to his woman.

“Where is this letter?” Galen sneered with contempt. “I need
to see it.”

Adam’s eyes widened and shifted to Lachlan. “You did not
tell him?”

Lachlan shrugged. “Would you have if yours was the closest
neck within his reach?”

Galen carefully eyed both men, his temper flaring again.
“What is the matter?”

“Anna threw it into the fire,” Adam admitted after a
moment’s hesitation.

He could have sworn a vein exploded in his neck. “She
what
?”
Galen shouted, taking a menacing step toward Adam.

“It happened too quickly for us to stop her,” Adam
explained. “Something about it frightened her enough she did not want you to
find out about the letter’s contents. She seems to be under the impression she
is protecting us.”

Galen looked at each man in turn as he regained control of
his fury. He clasped his hands behind his back and paced back and forth like a
caged animal. “And what have you learned since Lachlan and Dan left to fetch
me?”

“Not much, unfortunately,” Adam replied. “She will not speak
of it, though I have tried several times.”

“The last time, the lass even began to cry,” John commented
with a nod. “Poor wee thing.”

Galen stopped mid-pace and turned his glare to Adam. “You
made her cry?”

Adam sighed, rolling his eyes heavenward. “Not on purpose.
You have a very stubborn woman, you know.”

Galen snorted.

“I am still not sure she did not start crying on purpose.”
Owen crossed his arms in front of his barrel-like chest. “Women do that.”

Adam shook his head. “No, she had a very good reason.”

Something about the way Adam spoke awakened Galen
suspicions. Did his friend know something about Anna that he did not? Hell, the
more he thought about how Adam had spent more time with Anna than Galen had
since being away for so many weeks, the more the thought pricked his temper. He
approached Adam menacingly as a strange twinge of jealousy unleashed in his
chest.

“What is this reason?” he asked, his voice low.

Adam’s face cracked into a crooked, boyish grin. “That is
for your woman to tell you, not I.”

“She has been very sensitive as of late,” Owen grumbled
thoughtfully. “Why, just last week I asked her if Fergus and Lorna had a boy or
a girl. The lass burst into tears, telling me it was a boy. And then—”

“Owen,” John warned.

“What?” Owen returned with impatience. “It may be normal for
a lass throw up at your feet when you speak to her, but not me.”

A spot between Galen’s brows throbbed and rage coursed
through his blood again. He grabbed Adam by the collar. “You will tell me now
what is wrong with Anna,” he commanded through gritted teeth. “Or, so help me,
God, I’ll—”

“Adam? What is…” An all too wonderfully familiar voice came
from behind him.

He released Adam and whipped around, finding his feet
suddenly frozen to the floor. Anna stood at the top of the stairs, gazing down
at him with wide eyes and parted lips.

“Galen?”

His name barely escaped her lips, but he heard it all the
same in the silence of the great hall. His chest tightened and he exhaled a
long sigh of gratefulness.

“Woman, you had best get down here now or I am coming after
you,” he stated, unable to stop his lips from breaking into a grin.

Relief that Galen was alive and well washed over Anna like a
tidal wave. She had spent most of the morning worrying herself sick over how
the pendant still refused to take her back home and out of this mess, but now
nothing but gratitude swelled within her. The glow of his smile and sparkle in
his eyes caused her face to split into a wide smile of her own. How on earth
she ever thought leaving this man, regardless of the perils, was a good idea
was beyond her. She eagerly picked up her skirt and ran down the stairs toward
him, stumbling as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Careful, Annie.” He moved toward her as if anticipating she
might fall.

For once, she did not make a fool of herself. She gracefully
leapt into Galen’s waiting arms. He stepped back at the force with which she
landed against him, wrapping his arms around her.

He chuckled into her ear. “Give me that pretty little mouth
of yours.”

Her belly tingled at the rough, sexy tone in his voice. She
eased her hold around his neck and planted her palms on either side of his
face, crushing her lips beneath his. A hungry urgency coursed through her and
she thrilled at both the familiarity and foreignness of his kiss.

Galen allowed her to slide down the length of him until her feet
touched the floor, his mouth never leaving hers. He threaded his fingers
through her hair to the back of her head and slipped his other hand around her
waist to plaster her body against his, almost as if he expected her to run
away.

He dragged his lips from hers, drawing kisses along her
cheek to her ear. “God, your body feels so good,” he whispered into her ear.

The sensual promises lacing his voice thrilled her to the
core. She sighed contentedly and kissed his jaw. “I have missed you.”

He pulled his head back and his warm smile faded into a
frown of concern. He cupped her cheek, running the pad of his thumb just under
her eye. “You look thin and entirely too pale.”

Her lips puckered in annoyance as she stared back at him.
Things had been going so well. Of course he had to go and ruin it. Like she
wasn’t more than aware she looked like hell lately. “Well, you look like you
need a good shave and a hot bath,” she retorted.

Galen’s gray eyes traveled around her face almost as if he
had not heard her speak. “Lachlan said you were ill when he left. Are you still
feeling sickly?”

Anna stepped back enough to throw Lachlan a scowl before
turning back to Galen. “I am fine, really. Just tired is all.”

He nodded, apparently satisfied with her answer. Then his
features turned hard and his jaw twitched. “All right then. Tell me what the
Gowrie wanted from you.”

Anna’s heart jumped, her pulse increasing erratically at the
chill in his voice. She opened her mouth to soothe him, but then remembered she
had told Adam and Lachlan not to tell Galen about the letter.

Irritated, she shoved against Galen. “Adam!” she scolded.

“I am sorry, my lady,” Adam offered her a sympathetic smile.
“But I had no other choice.”

Fury throbbed through her and she pointed at him, throwing
him an icy glare. “I will personally make sure there is not a drop of whisky in
all of Scotland the next time you need to be stitched up!”

Adam threw back his head and laughed. “You have a woman with
a mean streak on your hands, Galen. She is perfect for you.”

Galen rolled his eyes and grabbed her jaw, turning her face
back to his. “Tell me what the Gowrie said.”

Her stomach flipped and she shook her head as best as she
could. “I can’t,” she whispered.

He squeezed her jaw. “I cannot protect you if I do not know
what we are up against.”

“Galen, please don’t make me,” she pleaded, anxious over how
rapidly the reins of control were slipping away from her. “I can’t bear the
thought of you getting hurt or killed because of me.”

“You do not have the right to keep this from me,” he stated
with narrowed eyes. “You are my woman and the Gowrie is my enemy.”

She rolled her eyes. “For the love of God, Galen, stop
treating me like I’m some sort of unthinking child,” she whispered fiercely. “I
am my own person with my own thoughts and will.”

“I will get it out of you.” He peered into her eyes as
though trying to pull the truth straight out of her. “You know that.”

Anna paused, staring into his hardened, gray eyes. Hell, who
did she think she was fooling anyway? She did know that. She was a terrible
liar and guilt inundated her any time she kept something from him. But then,
something strange flickered behind the anger in his eyes she could only
describe as fear.

Her bravado melted over the possibility this giant, powerful
man standing before her would be frightened of anything. His trepidation made
no sense unless it meant he felt something more for her than simple lust. She
shook her head, her mind swimming with possibilities and hope.

“Annie,” he warned, drawing her back to the present moment.

Her shoulders slumped and she cast her eyes down to Galen’s
chest. She was fighting a losing battle. “I don’t want to say it in front of
them,” she whispered as tears stung her eyes. It was bad enough she’d had to
tell Galen about her first marriage to a Gowrie. The last thing she wanted was
for that information to become common knowledge to everyone else.

Galen caressed the side of her face and shook his head. “No,
they need to know. If it involves the Gowrie, it involves all of us.”

“Please, I don’t want them to hate me.”

“We could never hate you, my lady,” Adam assured her. “There
is nothing you could say to us that would cause us to turn our backs on you.”

“We are your family,” Lachlan stated with a sharp nod.

“You are sort of stuck with us now,” Geoffrey quipped
somewhere behind Galen. “Like it or not.”

Anna almost smiled. She swallowed hard, fidgeting with
Galen’s shirt. “It was him. The Gowrie man I was…you know.”

She simply couldn’t say it out loud. His muscles tensed
beneath her fingertips and he grabbed her fluttering fingers. When she could no
longer stand his silence, she dared a glance up at him.

His confusion was evident in his wrinkled brow. “The Gowrie
man,” he repeated.

She nodded, silently pleading for him to understand without
her having to say the words.

A wisp of comprehension passed between them and he squeezed
her fingers. “But how? How is that possible unless you have not been—”

Anna glared at him. He’d been about to utter the word
“honest”. Her lower lip trembled as tears fell down her cheeks. “I don’t know,”
she admitted with a shake of her head. Words bubbled within her and spilled
out. “He mentioned the Gowrie warrior I treated and how he described me and the
pendant I wore. Said it sounded like the pendant he used to find me years ago.
He said he knew you were gone and I should tell him where to meet me so he
could come get me.”

“It was
the
Gowrie?” Galen questioned. “James Gowrie?
You are telling me you and he…”

Anna sharply drew in a breath as the sobbing finally overtook
her. “Oh, Galen, I am so sorry! I don’t understand what happened. I really
don’t.”

Galen paused, the lines of his face etched in rage. Panic
arose within her and her legs shook, threatening to give out. Galen was not
going to be able to get past this. How could he? She had just admitted to
having been married to his mortal enemy. Why would he ever forgive her?

And then, he surprised her. He clasped her to his chest,
smoothing her hair down her back. “Shhh, Annie. It will be all right.”

“Galen?” Adam hesitantly said.

Galen pressed a kiss to the top of her head and blood
finally flowed through her veins once again. He wasn’t going to turn his back
on her after all. “About ten years ago, Anna was married. Apparently, to the
Gowrie.”

The sudden stark silence in the room weighed upon her
shoulders. Galen’s soothing caresses calmed her and she sank into him,
reluctant to leave the safety of his warm embrace.

Owen grunted behind her. “Well, the MacAirth has you now,
lass. He will not be returning you to the Gowrie, if that is what he is
expecting.”

“That is right,” Geoffrey chimed in. “Once we take a woman,
she is ours.”

“You are not still married to him, are you, my lady?” Cal
asked.

“No,” she whispered.

Galen rubbed his chin across the top of her head and tightened
his arms around her. “The marriage was annulled. The Gowrie was dishonest about
who he was and treated her cruelly.”