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women. She led them, all right. Right back into their homes where they could be slaughtered and raped in
the middle of the night by the MacDouglas and his men.
He reached for her. Maggie
Nay, Braden, she said, stepping away from him. Both of us have the same goal to save the life of
our brothers.
She looked up at him, allowing him to see the turmoil in her heart. But tell me this. If I give in to you and
Lochlan and lead the women home, who s to say that in the next battle it isn t you or Ewan who dies?
Will Lochlan still feel victorious then? Or you, if it is he or Ewan who is cut down? Where will your
precious manhood be when you re standing over the grave of your brothers?
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Before he could stop her, she left him standing in the middle of the yard, mulling over her words.
Braden watched her as she entered the refectory.
Damn the wench if she wasn t right. He already knew the pain of losing a brother, and the last thing he
wanted was to bury another.
There had to be some other solution to this madness. Something that would allow both Lochlan and
Maggie to save face.
Clenching his teeth, Braden crossed the yard to slip through the back door of the kirk and return to the
castle. He would go talk to Lochlan. Surely his brother would be more reasonable than Maggie.
If nothing else, he could try and bully Lochlan into a surrender.
After all, he was Braden MacAllister, the unparalleled, sanctified peacekeeper of the family. He d dealt
with his pigheaded brothers all his life. If he could maintain peace between the lot ofthem , then surely he
could settle this petty squabble.
I mean, how hard could it be to bring peace between people who want it?
What of Kieran?
His gut tightened at the memory. Neither Kieran nor Ewan had wanted the fight that Isobail had caused.
They had even tried to work it out peacefully between them before she delivered her ultimatum.
Closing his eyes, Braden tried to blot out the lonely image of the green and black plaid, impaled by
Kieran s family sword, lying on the cliff above the rocks where his brother had jumped into the sea.
He had tried so hard to keep his brothers from fighting. Tried to tell Kieran that there would be another
lady he would love as much.
You know nothing of it, Braden. Hearts don t just stop loving, and when a man finds the woman
he needs, he ll do anything to keep her. Anything!
Aye, that was a truth he d seen firsthand on more than one occasion. Love made a man weak. It made
him do unforgivable things, and in the case of Kieran, it had cost the man his very soul.
It was for that reason Braden would never allow himself to love a woman. He would never be such a
fool.
Never.
His life belonged to him and he would make certain that no woman ever held control over him.
Besides, he enjoyed his carefree life and had no wish for it to change.
At present, the only thing he wanted to change was this stalemate between two obstinate fools.
Somehow, he would get the women back to their families by the morrow. Then Lochlan would have his
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men under control, and Maggie&
Well, he had a different plan for her. One he couldn t wait to get started on.
Chapter 5
Weary and frustrated, Lochlan pushed open the door to his keep expecting an empty hall where he
could sit quietly and brood over the events of the day.
What he found when the heavy door scraped open was about two score hostile men glaring a him as if
he were the sole reason for their misery.
This canna be good, he mumbled under his breath.
Lochlan paused with a frown. Never in his lift had he seen a more sour-looking group. They re minded
him of a gaggle of geese ready to con front the axe-bearing farmer. The only problem with the image was
that Lochlan had no axe.
Nor much of anything else with which to protect himself.
And the geese were restless. They swarmed around him, their voices loud and ringing off the stone walls
as they all shouted at once.
Lochlan held his hands up to quiet them. Instead, they grew louder.
Fergus stepped forward and yelled for the others to quiet down. To Lochlan s amazement, they
complied, and it was then he knew the leader of the irate geese.
What the devil is the meaning of this? Lochlan asked. What are all of you doing here?
We ve come for answers, Fergus said over the murmuring voices. I saw the way you and your
brothers cozied up to the women, and now I m thinking you and them fancy brothers of yours are
wanting to be keeping our women for yourselves.
Lochlan gaped in disbelief. You canna be serious.
What else are we to think? Davis snarled.
At a score and ten years, with a thick mop of tawny hair and a slight build, Davis was normally one of
the more reliable men of the clan. But by the furious look on his face, Lochlan could tell Fergus had
stirred up quite a bit of mischief while Lochlan had been gone.
All of us here know that Braden MacAllister never sleeps alone, Davis continued, and now you ve
left him locked up in the kirk with our women. He s probably in a darkened corner even as we speak
with one of our women wrapped about him. And God help you both if it s my wife he s with.
Davis raked Lochlan with a repugnant glare Where was your head when you decided to leave him in
there? I m thinking it s time we b
Aye! the others shouted in unison.
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Lochlan could feel his blood starting to boil Granted, Braden was a bit rambunctious when it came to
women, but even his scandalous brother knew when to draw the line of propriety.
Most of the time, anyway.
It wasn t Fergus s or Davis s place to reprimand Braden. That was for Lochlan to do.
I left Braden in there to get the women out, Lochlan explained.
About half the men snorted in disgust.
Dermot came forward. Only half an inch shorter than Lochlan, the older man s light gray eyes burned in
anger. I ve spent the better par of a decade guarding my daughters from that randy brother of yours,
and now you expect me to believe he s not in there, right now, lining the women up to choose one or
even more to warn his bed? Whose knotty-pated decision was it to send him in there in the first place?
The word mine faltered on Lochlan s tongue No need to make the matter any worse than it already
was. None of his men were ready to listen to reason.
Silently, Lochlan cursed his brother s raging hormones and good looks. Better he should have had a
brother who looked like a warted troll than one who was forever being pursued by the fairer sex.
The men began shouting at him again.
Lochlan held his hands up to silence them.
Seeking to allay their fears, he explained Braden s plan as best he could and prayed for them to listen.
Braden went inside the kirk to bring Maggie out. She s the only woman he s after; the rest are safe.
Bitter, cruel laughter broke out.
What kind of fools do you take us for? Davis asked. None ofus would have Maggie on her best day.
Now, why would your brother be after her when he could have the best-looking among them?
The coldhearted statement brought a sudden echoing silence to the hall.
All eyes turned slowly to Maggie s four brothers who had come inside with the others. Stephen, Ian,
Duncan and Jamie looked as if they were ready to kill each man standing in the room.
And just what do you be meaning by that, Davis MacDowd? Jamie asked in a low, lethal tone.
Davis stammered as he regarded the four angry brothers united in defense of their baby sister. I didn t
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