Lyon's Gift (3 page)

Although Meghan knew her brothers loved her well and
truly, it was a burdensome thing to be the only woman in a
household of men.

Not to mention lonely.

If it weren’t for Alison, the MacLean’s daughter—her
very best friend—Meghan didn’t know what she would have done.

Leith, her eldest brother, was laird of their clan.
He was sweet and good, even if he was entirely too overbearing and
protective. With all his rules, he kept Meghan from living life
just as surely as though he were a wall she could not pass. What he
didn’t seem to realize—thank God—was that she had her own little
tunnel burrowed beneath those bulwarks, and the defiant thought
brought a tiny smile to her lips because what he didn’t know, she
decided, couldn’t possibly hurt him.

Her brother Colin, on the other hand, was much too
unconcerned with anything but women and drink. Blessed as he was
with good looks, Meghan only wished he didn’t give the pursuit of
his own pleasures such import above all else.

Poor, sweet Alison hadn’t a chance with him!

Then there was her dear brother Gavin, the only
brother younger than herself. Gavin held another view entirely from
both Leith and Colin. He was the one who disregarded the mind and
physical beauty altogether, thinking it a sin to worship the temple
of the spirit and a complete waste of one’s time—a woman’s, at
least—to ponder life’s mysteries. Alas, that was something Meghan
was surely wont to do. Her youngest brother encouraged her
incessantly to seek to purify her soul, lest she end like their
mother and grandmother before her—mad and alone.

Och, but Meghan rather relished the thought of being
alone, didn’t he realize! And if people thought her mad... well,
then... She shrugged. They’d simply think her mad and leave her be,
now wouldn’t they? And that was well and good, as far as Meghan was
concerned.

She only wished Gavin would live a little more and
leave off with the preaching, for his own sake, certainly not for
hers. Meghan had absolutely no qualms about boxing his ears when he
carried on too much. She loved each of her brothers dearly—as she
knew they did her—and she’d do anything for them, anything at all,
except listen to Gavin’s accursed sermons! Christ only knew, they
were almost as harrowing as the poor raven’s unrelenting
cawing!

Sweet Mary, she had no notion what to do to help the
accursed bird!

She stood, hands at her hips, before the open
window, frowning after it as it flew amuck about the rafters and
finally lit upon one of the support beams.

There it remained, and she could swear it stared
expectantly down at her.

By the blessed rood!

“
Och now, but I cannot help you
all the way up there, don’t ye know, you silly creature!” Though
she knew it was an absurd thing to do, she extended her hand to the
agitated bird, and demanded, “Come down here now!”

The raven merely flapped its wings, and cawed at
her.

She crooked a finger at it. “Dinna speak to me so
rudely,” she told the bird. “I cannot help you if ye will not let
me!”

The raven quieted and cocked its head. It peered
down at her curiously, but didn’t move.

Had she expected it to? It was ludicrous to be
nettled by the bird’s lack of response, but she was.

“
I’d wager you’d come down for
Minnie Fia! Foolish auld bird!” she scolded it. “Stay, then, if
you—”

“
What are ye doing, lass?” a voice
interrupted at her back.

Meghan shrieked in startle, casting up her hands.
She turned to face Colin. “Och, you scared me, you ill-bred
oaf!”

Her brother merely grinned at her, and cocked his
head, in much the same manner the bird had.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Did no one ever teach
you any manners?”

“
Ye know the answer to that,
Meghan, love,” he said. “I learned my good manners from the same
place you did.” He winked at her and chuckled. “Only it seems to me
you learned a few more lessons from daft auld Fia than I did. What
do ye think you’re doing, talking to that witless bird? You don’t
think it understands, now do ye?”

Meghan’s cheeks flamed. She peered up at the bird,
and then lifted her chin as she faced her brother, her hands going
to her hips. “Of course not! I was only trying to help the silly
thing is all! It flew in through the bluidy window,” she explained,
undaunted by Colin’s amused expression. “And now cannot seem to
find his way back out.”

Her brother smiled benevolently at her. “Meggie,
dearlin’, you have a good heart, lass, but you’re wasting your
sweet breath. That bird does not ken a word you’re speaking and
you’d do better to smack your bonnie head against a wall for all
the good you’re doing.”

“
I suppose you’re right.” Meghan
frowned up at the bird. “Ungrateful creature.”

Colin’s lips curved into a roguish grin. “Of course
I’m right.”

“
Och, but I hate it when you are,
ye wicked gloating knave!”

He lifted a brow at her. “That’s another thing you
learned from auld Fia, and I’m here to tell you, ’tis a foul thing
to hear you speakin’ like a mon. I’ll warrant you’ll never find
yourself a mate with that rotten tongue you bear.”

“
Good, then, you silly oaf! What
would I be wantin’ with a mon, when I’ve my hands full with the
three of ye already?”

Colin’s smile turned ribald and Meghan lifted a brow
at him in censure. He was the only one of her three brothers who
would speak so frankly to her of matters between men and women.

“
I could think of a few things,”
he said plainly, “but if I told you then I’d have to box your ears
for hearing them. And then I’d have to kill the bluidy fool who
fell prey to your curiosity.”

“
Nay, you would not!” Meghan said
with absolute certainty, her cheeks burning with chagrin. “Because
there is not a mon under God’s heaven I’d care to burden myself
with long enough to appease any such curiosity!”

“
Well,” Colin countered, shaking
his head as though she were no more than a wee misbehaving child,
“as I said... you’ll never have to worry over such things,
anyhow—not with that vicious tongue of yours.” He peered up at the
squawking bird, his cheeks turning suddenly pink as he said,
“Anyway... I only came to tell you something...”

Meghan’s brows lifted. “Something?”

“
Aye. Alison awaits you on the
meadow.”

“
Alison?” Meghan’s brows lifted
higher in surprise, and then she narrowed her eyes at him,
scrutinizing his expression. “You saw her?”

He nodded, his hands going to his hips. “I did,
Meghan, and do not look at me like that. I didna say a bluidy thing
to the wench!”

Meghan narrowed her eyes at him. “That is precisely
the trouble,” she enlightened him. “How could it possibly hurt you
to sit and visit with her for a wee bit, Colin? She likes you so
verra much—though for the life of me I cannot see why!”

“
Why thank you!” he said, looking
offended.

“
You’re not verra nice to her,
Colin.”

Colin’s face twisted into a grimace, and his cheeks
turned, if possible, a deeper shade of red. “Och!” he protested.
“She’s sweet, Meghan, if only she didna have those eyes!”

Meghan gave him a disgusted look. “There is naught
wrong with Alison’s eyes. They are merely crossed.”

“
Aye, but it makes me
uncomfortable to look at her.”

“
Arggghhh!” Meghan shook her head
in utter disgust. “To think I share the same blood with you, Colin
Mac Brodie. I cannot believe you would be so cold and cruel to a
poor lass merely because her face does not suit you!”

“
Cruel!” His hand went to his
breast as though affronted.

Meghan pleaded with him. “If you would only sit and
talk with her just once, you would see how verra sweet her heart
is—and how smart she is! Alison would make any mon a fine wife! You
should feel fortunate to have her devotion—even undeserving as you
are!”

“
Och, now!” he objected, meeting
her eyes with his sad soulful ones. “Dinna be so fierce with me,
Meggie.” His gaze lowered unhappily. “I would never hurt the poor
lass. I merely do not wish to wed with her is all, and cannot see
the point in misleading her. I was not mean to her.”

“
Nay?” Meghan eyed him shrewdly.
“Swear it upon your manhood, Colin! May it fall off and rot like a
bluidy worm in the ground if you’ve made her weep
again.”

He cast her a pained glance, grimacing. “Och,
Meghan! You’re bluidy cruel to be sure!”

“
Swear it!” she demanded of her
brother.

“
All right! I swear it! I swear
it,” he declared. “Though I cannot be certain she was not actually
weeping,” he amended quickly.

“
Colin!”

He held up both his hands in protest. “I didna do
anything, Meg, but she came and found me with Suisan. I cannot be
faulted for that!”

His hand went to his groin in a protective
gesture—unconsciously, Meghan knew—and she suppressed a grin. He
did have a point, she was forced to admit. He couldn’t be faulted
for that.

And it would truly serve no one at all—most of all
not Alison—for Colin to lead her astray. Alison was not like
Meghan, after all; her feelings were entirely too tender.

“
Can you not see that I cannot be
false to her?” Colin asked, his brows lifting in supplication. “It
would not be right!”

Meghan frowned. “Aye,” she yielded, though
grudgingly. “I do, ye miserable wretch. I only wish—”

“
I ken what you’re wishin’,
Meggie. And you’re a good soul, to be certain—but och! I dinna want
a wife, anyhow!”

Meghan understood that better than any.

“
And if I did,” he added honestly,
“the MacLean’s daughter is not the one for me.” He made a gesture
at his breast that made Meghan blush. “I’ll be wantin’ more from a
lass,” he informed her. “Not merely a bonnie face, but more if you
know what I mean?” He lifted his brows.

“
Acck!” Meghan shrieked in
protest. “I dinna wish to hear such things!”

“
Well,” he continued, lecturing
her, “you should know that a pretty face is not all a lass needs in
order to win herself a mon. She must have a pleasin’ body,
too.’’

Meghan narrowed her eyes at her brother.

He nodded. “And ready laughter.”

“
And I’m supposing she must know
how to cook and mend and wash and—”

“
And make healthy bairns,” Colin
agreed with another nod.

“
Arggh!” Meghan shrieked once
more, and leapt upon him in a fit of outrage, pummeling his burly
chest.

Colin yelped in protest.

“
You’re incorrigible, Colin Mac
Brodie!” She smacked his arm, and made to go around him. “You’re a
bluidy mon!” she declared, as though that were the worst thing he
could possibly be. “And I’ll not be listening to you any
longer!”

“
God’s truth, and you’re a
bloodthirsty woman!” he returned. “We’ll be having to pay a mon to
take your blasted arse off our hands!”

“
Nay, you will not!” Meghan
argued, swinging about to face him as she reached the chapel door.
“You will not, because I’ll not be a wife to
any
mon! You’re
stuck with me, the lot of ye, don’t you know!” And with that she
pivoted about and made to open the chapel door.

“
Thank God for that!” Colin swore
at her back.

She swung about to face him once more. “What did you
say?”

“
I said God help the bluidy lot of
us, Meghan Brodie!”

She eyed him doubtfully. “God help you is right!”
she agreed, and turned once more, jerking open the door.

From the rafters above, the raven let out a terrible
shriek of protest, and Meghan froze in her step. Frowning, she
turned slowly to look at Colin.

“
What?” he asked, reacting to the
harassed expression upon her face. “What is it I’ve done
now?”

Meghan shook her head as she gazed up into the
rafters. “Not a bluidy damned thing!” she said, and with a harried
sigh, started at once toward the chapel’s single window.

At the window, she threw the shutters wide and
peered down in exasperation. It wasn’t that far a drop to the
ground, but it annoyed her that she should feel compelled to adhere
to some silly bit of superstition only because her grandmother
would have done so. She tossed a leg over the sill, all the while
vexed with herself for succumbing to this silly superstition.

“
Meghan lass?” Colin sounded
bewildered. “What the devil are you doing?”

Meghan turned to look at her brother and snapped,
“What does it appear I am doing, daft mon? I’m climbing out the
bluidy window!”

“
Och, Meggie! I see that you’re
climbing out the bluidy window, but
why
are you climbing out
the bluidy window?”

“
Because I bluidy well feel like
climbin’ out the bluidy rotten window, Colin!” Meghan answered
peevishly. She cast him an annoyed glance. “Doesn’t everybody now
and again?”

He answered with an exasperated shake of his head.
Meghan ignored him.

“
You’re going to be as mad as auld
Minny Fia one day,” he announced with certainty.

Meghan thought it might well be true. Only a mad old
Brodie would feel compelled to climb down a bloody window in order
to revoke a nonexistent curse.

Rotten bird!

Colin came to the window and peered down at her
while she hung by her fingers from the sill. Meghan glowered up at
him as she tried to locate the ground with her toes. He merely
stared at her, unaffected by her threatening look, and watched.