Page 85 of The Make-Believe Marriage
The fun was over.
It was time for him to defend Syd’s honor.
He simply was not sure how to manage it and stay alive. Twelve to one odds did not look promising. “Syd, is this true? Did any of them touch you in an inappropriate way?”
She glowered at a big, redheaded lad who was holding his hands protectively over his male parts. “That oaf tried, but I set him straight.”
Gad, she must have kicked him in the bollocks and doubled him over. That man was not going to be standingstraightany time soon.
But why quibble?
She turned to another man who had a bleeding lip. “He tried, too. Shameful! Where is your mother? I am going to tell her what you did.”
“Me ma’s dead,” the man retorted.
Syd’s expression turned sympathetic. “Oh, I am truly sorry.” She then walked over and kicked him in the shin. “All the more shameful of you! She must be weeping for your soul in heaven.”
Octavian turned upon hearing a burst of laughter from behind him, and recognized Laird Armstrong’s son, Angus, and his loutish friends as they now approached the other Scots. “What’s the problem, MacGregor?”
“This Sassenach witch insulted my men.”
Angus inspected the two injured men. “Looks like she did more than insult them. What did they attempt to do to her?”
“They did not set a hand on her,” MacGregor replied.
Syd gasped. “But they tried! Do not pass them off as innocent. They ought to be praising the saints that I fended them off because my husband would be tearing them limb from limb right now if they had succeeded in setting a finger on me.” She cast the Armstrong lad a look of reproof and curled her hands into fists. “Are you going to defend them?”
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “No, I’m here to defend you.”
Her eyes widened. “You are?”
She glanced at Octavian, obviously surprised and seeking his assurance before returning her attention to the laird’s son. “Truly, Angus?”
He nodded. “Yes, ye little troublemaker. Ye may be a Sassenach witch, but ye’reourSassenach witch, and my father will no’ let anyone harm ye in our territory.”
The MacGregor laird scoffed. “Ye’re well outside of yer territory here in Melrose.”
“It is close enough, and I say ye are not to harm her or her husband. Ye ought to be grateful I’ve stopped ye before ye attacked him. That man is Captain Octavian Thorne, brother of the Duke of Huntsford.”
“ThatCaptain Thorne of the Royal Navy?” asked the man with the bleeding lip. “My brother sailed under yer command. Ye should have told us who ye were.”
“I did.” Obviously, the man had been too busy nursing his cuts and bruises to pay attention when he introduced himself.
“Is this really yer wife, Captain Thorne?”
Syd gasped again. “Of course, I am! Did you think I made it up? Or that my husband would go along with the ruse if he wasn’t really my husband? Of all the inconceivable gall!”
Laird Armstrong’s son burst out laughing again. “Ye know, Thorne, it is not difficult to divorce her. Are ye certain ye wish to stay married to the little harpy?”
Octavian grinned, realizing the situation was no longer dire. The arrival of the Armstrong men, and the fact that a MacGregor’s brother had served under him, had cooled their bloodlust. Still, he wanted to get Syd back inside the inn as soon as possible. He also meant to let them all know this was a love match and he would kill any man who harmed his wife. “I’m certain. I would marry her a thousand times over.”
The MacGregor lord eyed him dubiously. “Well then, I’m thinking ye need to marry the lass once more. Here and now. Any objections?”
Syd was getting angry again. “Are you doubting my word? Or my husband’s? Are you calling us liars? Are you calling theArmstrongs liars? Their laird witnessed our ceremony. Just ask any of these men and they will answer truthfully,” she said, pointing to the laird’s son and his friends.
“Well, lass,” the laird’s son said with a rather smug look on his face. “I saw ye and Captain Thorne in Gretna Green. I saw ye enter the blacksmith’s shop. But I did not actually see the ceremony.”
“What ceremony?” Syd said in a huff. “It was nothing more than an exchange of names and a paper to sign. Your father was a witness. You know he was. Why are you being so difficult? If you wished for revenge, well now you’ve had it. If you are not going to tell the MacGregors the truth, then just go away.”
