Hannah turned to Slain, tugging at his arm. “I need to speak to you before Nial reaches us.”

“You know him?” Slain asked, annoyed that she was familiar with the man he hated beyond reason.

Hannah nodded. “I have been meaning to tell you since shortly after we wed.”

“Tell me what,” Slain asked sharply, sensing her words were not going to please him.

She prayed her confession would not rob her of the man she had come to love with all her heart. “Ross MacFillan is my father and Nial is my step-brother.”

Slain shot her a glare that sent a nervous tremor racing through her. “I should have—”

“Do not say another word,” Slain ordered gruffly, “and hold your tongue in front of your step-brother.”

“That might be difficult,” she admitted.

He brought his face close to hers. “Obey me on this, wife, or the consequences will be severe.”

His harsh tone alone warned her not to defy him and she bit lightly on her tongue, reminding herself to keep hold of it.

Hannah turned to watch Nial ride toward them as if he had already conquered the clan and it now belonged to him. He had about twenty warriors with him and Melvin rode alongside him. Everyone in the village followed to either side of the troop, carrying swords, axes, picks, whatever would serve as a weapon, letting Nial know they were ready to defend themselves.

When Hannah had met Nial, it had not taken her long to realize he was not to be trusted. It was three years ago when she was just turning ten and six years. Her mum had been dead barely over a year when her father had announced he would wed again. She had been surprised how frail and ill the woman had been that he wed. She died not even a year after they wed. Her father had gotten so angry, screaming viciously at her when she had asked him why he had wed the ill woman, that she never spoke of it again to him.

She came to realize soon enough that her father treated Nial like the son he never had and that she was the daughter who would wed a man who would benefit the clan, ensuring his vision of a powerful and wealthy clan.

Hannah watched her step-brother approach, wondering how he would react when he saw her there beside Slain alive and well. He had his mother’s features, common enough, and dark long hair, wearing one side braided. He was slim and of good height, not as tall and muscled as Slain, though he had strength to him, and he was skilled with a sword.

His smug expression changed as soon as his eyes fell on Hannah and she squeezed her husband’s hand and moved closer to him when she saw the look in her step-brother’s eyes turn murderous.

That his wife leaned against him and took firmer hold of his hand, spoke more loudly to Slain than if she had voiced her fear. Her step-brother frightened her and that made him hate the man all the more.

Nial was off his horse as soon as he brought the animal to a stop. He approached Hannah with quick strides, his eyes blazing with fury. “What are you doing here?”

Slain stepped in front of his wife, not letting go of her hand. “You will address me, not my wife.”

Nial stumbled back as if Slain had struck him. “Your wife? It cannot be.”

“Hannah is my wife and our vows have been sealed.”

Nial shook his head. “No. Impossible. Her father did not consent to this.”

“Consent or not, we are wed and will remain so. I suggest you return home and inform Ross MacFillan that Slain MacKewan is wed to his daughter. “

“This union will never stand. You forced her to wed you,” Nial claimed.

Slain stepped aside for Hannah to stand beside him. “Did I force you to wed me, wife?”

Before Hannah could speak, Nial blurted out, “You beat her. Look at her face. You have taken a hand to her. Ross MacFillan will never stand for this. He will see this farce of a marriage annulled and he will make you pay for what you have done to his daughter.” He stretched out his hand. “Come with me, Hannah.”

“Never!” she said, moving closer to her husband, wrapping her arm around his and clinging to it tightly. “You sold me to a man and told him to make sure that I suffered before seeing me dead. He took me to hell on earth… Warrick’s dungeon.”

The shock of her words sent an angry burst through Slain, though he showed no outward sign of it.

“I did no such thing,” Nial said. “You ran away and got yourself snatched up by some villainous man.”

“Is that what you told my father?” she asked, wondering if her father had worried about her disappearance.

“Your father knows your penchant for disobeying him,” Nial said and looked to Slain. “You must know by now she is not an obedient wife.”

Hannah hated Nial at that moment, since by speaking to her step-brother she was disobeying her husband. But how could she stand there and not defend herself against this man who did nothing but lie?

“Hannah is a courageous wife who does not fear confronting a liar,” Slain said.

Nial’s face flushed with anger. “How dare you call me a liar.”

“I dare speak the truth. Something you never do,” Slain said and took a quick step toward the man, startling him enough to have him take a stumbling step back. “Now be gone from my land and tell Ross MacFillan that if he has an ounce of courage or honor that he will come speak with me.”

“Ross MacFillan will come here that is for sure,” Nial said, waving a raised fist at Slain as he stepped back, not stumbling this time. “But it will be his warriors he comes with to rescue his daughter and lay claim to this land.”

He mounted and turned, his warriors following, though not Melvin. He remained where he was.

“You are well, Hannah,” the older warrior asked concern heavy in his thoughtful expression.

“I am well and happy, Melvin. My husband does not raise a hand to me. He is good to me and I love him,” Hannah said, trying to hold back her tears.

“I am glad to hear that, but you know that your father will come for you,” Melvin warned, a sadness in his eyes for what would come.

“I will see to her father,” Slain said.

Melvin nodded at Slain, then turned to Hannah. “I did not believe you ran away, though I would not have blamed you. Stay safe, Hannah.”

“I will keep Hannah safe,” Slain assured the man.

Melvin gave a nod to Slain, turned, and rode off.

Hannah found her tears difficult to contain and she turned her face to her husband’s chest to hide the ones that slipped out. She did not want to show weakness in front of the clan, but her heart was breaking at the thought that her father would attack the Clan MacKewan because of her, and how, without an army of warriors, would the clan defend themselves?

Slain’s arms wrapped around her and held her close as he spoke to the clan. “Fear not, I will see you all kept safe.”

Hannah kept her face buried against her husband’s chest. She felt ashamed for not revealing her identity sooner, but what if she had? Her father would have been informed and she would have been returned home to what? Her step-brother devising another way to see her dead? But would not one death be better than a whole clan’s death?

But then she had never intended to wed Slain MacKewan let alone fall in love with him.

Slain kept his arm around her as he led her inside the keep and to his solar. After shutting the door behind them, he lifted her head gently and placed a tender kiss on her lips. “You will tell me everything, wife.”

Hannah could not contain her tears any longer, they fell freely down her cheeks, and once again she buried her face against her husband’s chest and cherished the feel of his strong arms wrapping protectively and comfortingly around her.

Slain wanted Nial dead even more so now after hearing what Hannah had said he had done to her. Her tears strengthened his resolve to see it done. He would enjoy taking the man’s life and he would make sure he suffered unimaginably before he did.

He walked his wife over to a chair to sit, but she refused to let go of him, so he stood there holding her until her tears subsided.

A knock at the door had Helice entering with a tankard that she placed on the small table next to the chair. “Chamomile.”

Hannah raised her head when she heard the door close.

“Sit and drink the hot brew, and we will talk.”

She went to wipe her tears away, but his hand brushed hers gently aside and he wiped at her wet cheeks.

“No one will take you from me. I promise you that,” he said and kissed each cheek, then with a firm hand on her shoulder forced her to sit. He picked up the tankard and handed it to her. “Drink.”

Hannah did as he said, her mind awash with where to start, what to say, when it came to her. “Forgive me for not being honest with you from the start.”

“You need not apologize for making a wise, if not difficult, choice and I commend you for doing so. Where else would you be safe from your heartless step-brother but in the home of your enemy. It was not your fault I forced a wedding upon you.”

“I should have told you before we wed.”

“It would not have mattered. I had already hopelessly lost my heart to you whether I wanted to admit it or not. And once I would have learned what your step-brother had done to you, it would have only reinforced my resolve to keep you safe. Now tell me what happened.”

Hannah did not hesitate, she told him all. “I knew Nial was a liar from the moment I met him and I could not understand why my father wed his mother when she was so gravely ill. My mum had been dead barely a year, and my step-mother died not even a year after my father wed her. Nial became like the son my father never had. As for me, I mattered less and less to him, not that I ever mattered that much to begin with, until he began to speak of an arranged marriage that would prove beneficial to the clan. My father and I argued over it, since I wanted to wed someone of my own choosing. Before anything could be arranged or settled, my step-brother sold me to Muir.”

“So that was why you wanted to help free those two women from him,” Slain said.

She nodded. “He would sell them over and over to men until there was nothing left of them and then discard them. Those sold to him for a higher price, women and men alike, were the ones who were meant to suffer before they died. Those he took to Warrick’s dungeon.”

“That is where you were tortured?” Slain asked, knowing too well what was done in Warrick’s dungeon. When she nodded, he had all he could do not to hit something, rage racing through him rapidly. Wise or not, he would confront Warrick about this. A sudden thought came to him. “You escaped Warrick’s dungeon?”

Hannah nodded again.

“How did you ever do that?” he asked, shaking his head. “No one has ever escaped from there.”

Hannah was careful in telling the tale, not wanting to bring harm to the healer. “There was a fire in the dungeon and in the commotion some prisoners escaped.”

Slain held his tongue a moment, then asked, “Do you trust me, Hannah?”

He seemed upset and she was quick to answer. “Aye, I trust you.”

“Then why are you not telling me the truth? The guards would have been too busy saving their own lives in a fire, then to worry about freeing the prisoners that death waited to claim.”

Hannah gave her husband what he wanted—the truth. “You are friends with Warrick, and I will not see the one who helped me escape punished for it.”

“Either will I. I would prefer to reward him for saving your life.”

Hannah hesitated, then said, “A woman saved a few prisoners.”

“It was a woman who saved you?” he asked in disbelief.

“One I will always be grateful to,” Hannah said.

“As will I,” Slain said, more than grateful to the unknown woman.

Hannah continued on, not wanting to say another word about the healer. “Once free, I knew there were no clans who, once learned my identity, would offer me shelter. They would return me to my father, some for coin and others to gain favor from him.”

“You would have been discovered here eventually, what then?” Slain asked, not liking what her fate may have been.

Hannah shrugged. “I was not sure what I would do. I needed a safe place where I could take some time for my arm to heal and think of possibilities. None had included returning home since I feared my step-brother would do me harm. I felt the safest, if not foolish, place was with my father’s fiercest enemy. I suppose I hoped, maybe wished, that someday I might be able to return home.” She smiled softly. “I never dreamed I would find a new home, a more loving home, and one I would never want to leave.”

“And one you never will,” Slain said, reaching out to ease Hannah out of the chair and into his arms. “You are stuck with me wife until one of us no longer takes a breath.”

“I love being stuck with you, husband, and it pains me to think of ever being separated from you.”

“We are one now and can never be separated. You are never without me or I you. I will always be with you wherever you are, remember that. And remember that my love for you is eternal.”

Hannah kissed him without thinking of her injury and winced when a pain shot through her jaw.

“No kissing, wife,” Slain reprimanded gently when he rather would have roared with anger over her suffering. He was going to make certain Potsman worked his fingers to the bone for what he had done.

She poked his chest as she responded. “Need I remind you there are other places on me to kiss?”

“My lips are going to have to roam all over you to discover those places.” He kissed her cheek ever so lightly.

Hannah shivered, his faint kiss a preview of what he would do to her naked body, and she whispered, “Aye, all over me.”

Her whisper not only encouraged, it grew his arousal, but then he grew aroused anytime he held his wife in his arms. Unfortunately, he could not satisfy either of their urgings right now. There were matters that needed his immediate attention.

“Later I will see to it,” he said, not only to her disappointment, but his as well. “Now, I must attend to some important matters.”

“Like gathering an army to defend against my father?” she asked, shaking her head as she stepped away from him. “He will come with his troop of warriors and your clan will be defenseless… and my father will show no mercy.” She waved his response away and continued. “He may come and speak with you, but only to warn you. Our marriage, one he did not sanction, is the perfect excuse for him to attack you.”

Hannah grew annoyed when a knock interrupted them and got even more annoyed that a message had arrived for Slain.

“Where do these messages come from and who brings them to you?” Hannah asked once Helice left the room.

“Worry not about—”

Hannah did not let him finish. “How can I not worry and since I confessed my secret, it is time for you to confess yours. What goes on here that you do not tell me? Why does the east wing remain locked? What do you hide from me?”

“Enough!” Slain snapped and annoyed at himself for raising his voice to her, he reached out to take her in his arms once more. “You say you trust me, then trust me and let it be for now.”

Hannah laid her head on her husband’s chest, not wanting to let him go. “You will be careful?”

“I have good reason to be more careful now than ever before. I have a wife I love and a future I look forward to sharing with her.” He kissed her cheek and reluctantly released her and walked to the door, stopping after he opened it, and turned to her. “I will be awhile. Do not place yourself in any danger or get in trouble while I am gone.”

“What could happen?” Hannah asked with a shrug.

“With you, dear wife, I never know.”

Hannah smiled at her husband’s remark, thinking her mum would have agreed with him. Her mum had often told her that for a wee bairn and a female at that, she could get herself into the most troubling situations.

She remembered one time when she was young and wanted desperately to play with the new kittens in the barn, a place forbidden to her. Naturally, she paid the warning no mind and went anyway, the kittens too much of lure to ignore. She had hidden in the corner of an empty stall when she heard someone coming. It had been her father and mum. They were laughing and dropped down on the mound of hay in an empty stall and made love, not that she had realized it at that time. She had thought they were playing, though she had grown worried when she heard her mum begin to moan. It had been why, later that night, she had asked her mum if she was ill.

Her mum, wise woman that she was, managed to get the truth from her. She had never seen her mum get so angry. It had frightened her so much, she did not go into the barn again until she was older. It was not until she grew a bit wiser that she realized it had not been her mum her da had been playing with.

She had continued to defy orders, finding she discovered and learned so much more when she snuck off on her own. Or had gone places forbidden to her. She supposed her thirst for learning had never abated.

Sneaking off, hearing things she was not supposed to be privy to had actually helped her make the decision to came here to the Clan MacKewan after her escape. Her father disliked Slain, but admired his exceptional warrior skills. She had heard him admit, not that he knew she heard, that Slain might be one warrior he might not be able to conquer. That had been enough for her to believe she would be safe here.

Hannah stretched out her aches as she left the solar. She decided to go to the village and face the people before she lost the courage to do so. She only hoped they still thought her a friend.

She grabbed her cloak off the bench in the Great Hall and approached the open door, the men having returned to work on it.

“We need more wood and stone, Potsman, and do not take all day to fetch it.”

Hannah froze halfway to the door, recognizing the voice. It was the same voice she had heard betraying Slain and the clan that day in the woods.

She stared not believing who it belonged to… Imus.