Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell Page B

same biting tone.
    â€œMy father—or is he my stepuncle, or perhaps no blood relation at all?—has spent much time planning ways to use me. Why should Duncan apologize for doing the same?”
    The Scots Hammer moved uneasily. What Meg said was the truth, but it sounded quite unpleasant spoken aloud.
    â€œMeggie,” he said in a deep voice, “I wouldn’t have you hurt. Surely you know that?”
    â€œIs that why you planned to launch a war while she stood in the center of the battlefield?” Dominic asked sardonically.
    â€œMy men had their orders,” Duncan retorted. “If one of them had so much as jostled Meggie, I would have killed him.”
    â€œAnd my men? What were your orders to them?” Dominic asked savagely. “How were you to prevent them from hacking through a treacherous female to get at my murderer?”
    Duncan paled visibly.
    â€œMeggie,” he protested to her. “It wouldn’t have happened that way. I would have protected you!”
    â€œWhy? Death would have been a blessing.”
    It took a moment for Meg’s bitter words to penetrate the men’s anger. When they did, both men stared at her.
    â€œWhat are you saying, lass?” Duncan whispered, appalled.
    â€œJohn has tried to use me to make war on the Normans since I was eight,” Meg said. “If he had succeeded, I couldn’t have borne knowing I was the cause of my people’s suffering. I would have welcomed the blow that ended my life.”
    â€œYou can’t mean that, Meggie.”
    â€œI can. I do.”
    Dominic had no doubt Meg meant every word. He had seen the green fires of spring burning in hereyes and had felt the unleashed hope of the people of Blackthorne Keep focus on her. To live under that burden of expectation—and then to fail the people’s trust—would have destroyed her.
    Unsettled by Meg’s words, Duncan raked a large hand through his dark brown hair, totally at a loss for words. When she saw his distress, she sighed and touched his arm with gentle fingers.
    â€œI believe you didn’t mean for me to be hurt,” she said.
    â€œThank you,” Duncan said in a low, strained voice. “I…” He shook his head and put his hand over hers. “I wouldn’t want to lose you, Meggie. I never meant to put you at risk.”
    â€œI don’t blame you,” she said, smiling slightly. “You are very much a man. You are doing only what men have always done.”
    â€œAnd what is it that men have always done?” Dominic asked coldly, removing Meg’s hand from the Scots Hammer’s arm.
    â€œSeek land and sons,” she said.
    Dominic shrugged. “That is like saying the sun rises and sets.”
    â€œYes.”
    Oddly, Meg’s agreement didn’t please Dominic. He disliked being put in the same category as John, a man who had outraged Church and king alike in his quest to ensure that his bastard inherited Blackthorne Keep.
    â€œSome things are beneath even ambitious men,” Dominic said.
    â€œTruly?” Meg retorted. “Name just one of them.”
    â€œSpare me the sharp edge of your tongue, wife. I’ve done nothing to earn it save grant mercy to the men who would have murdered me.”
    Meg lowered her eyelashes, screening herself from Dominic’s icy gray stare.
    â€œMy apologies, husband. I fear the events of the day have unsettled me. I would never place you in the company of merely mortal men.”
    â€œYour apologies are sharper than your insults.”
    Duncan snickered, enjoying Dominic’s discomfort. Meg’s lips quirked in a smile she barely managed to stifle.
    â€œIf you will excuse me,” Duncan said to Dominic, “I’ll leave you to the business of getting acquainted with your new wife.”
    â€œI think not,” Dominic said instantly.
    Startled, Duncan turned back.
    â€œYou will go into the great hall with