Page 4 of The Irresistible Warrior
Declan took a slow breath, reining in his temper. “Then we’ll have to tolerate each other. I didn’t ask to come here, but I have been installed as the new chieftain, and I will see my duty done.”
Hamish’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll see, lad. We’ll see.”
He turned and hobbled off, muttering curses beneath his breath.
Declan turned to see the three women hightailing it out of the room.
“Stop!” he called out and the three women froze. “Bring me food and drink and leave it on the table nearest the hearth and tell me where my bedchamber is located.”
Glenna, the overseer of the keep, shooed the other two women away after whispering a few words to them. Then she cautiously approached him.
“Keep two arm’s length from me and you’ll be safe,” he informed her.
Glenna nodded and stopped a safe distance from him. “Second floor up is your bedchamber, first floor is your solar, third floor is for your wife and bairns.”
“I have neither of those,” he said, and might never have them with this cursed wish hanging over him. “Do you have a healer?”
“Aye, sir. Freyda. She’s old?—”
“Then she’s wise,” he said, hopefully. He had spoken to many healers, and they all told him the same thing.
“Only a witch can remove a curse.”
He had asked one healer, “What about a wish?”
She looked at him oddly. “Witches don’t grant wishes.”
But he and his two friends only spoke of wishes. They never, not once, mentioned a curse. So, how had his wish turned into a curse and had the same happened to Raff and Rhodes?
“Get to the dais,” Hamish yelled, waving his walking stick in the air as he hobbled into the Great Hall once again. “Where a true chieftain belongs when a rival clan leader arrives without warning, prepared to make demands.”
Glenna turned to leave and stopped Mira to issue new orders. The servant quickly placed the platter she carried with food onthe dais then instructed the servant lad to do the same with the jug and tankard.
Declan waited until Mira left, then he went to the dais and sat in the high-back chair in the center, two chairs flanking each side of it. His backside barely hit the chair when the door burst open and in strode a man who had more girth to him than height. Two warriors entered with him as well as a pretty, young woman.
“You’ll be stopping right there, Chieftain Crane of Clan MacKinty,” Hamish ordered, raising his walking stick to poke the man in the chest before he got too close to the dais.
“You are not going to be foolish enough to keep old Hamish as your right hand man, are you?” Chieftain Crane asked annoyed.
“I’d say that foolish, old Hamish did a good job of keeping you at a distance from me,” Delcan said. “And let me make it clear now, Chieftain Crane, no man finds favor with me when he has harsh words for anyone in Clan MacCrone.”
A lift of his chin and a puff of his chest told Declan that Hamish was pleased how he hadn’t hesitated to defend the clan.
“My apologies, Chieftain Declan,” Chieftain Crane said begrudgingly.
Declan quickly took charge of the conversation. “What brings you here uninvited?”
“A proposal,” Crane said, not bothering to hide his smirk. “Clan MacCrone is in need—dire need—I propose an alliance between our clans. Wed my beautiful daughter, Irina, and you will have the strength of my clan at your back. Clan MacKinty borders Clan MacCrone. Joined together we could be a formidable force.” He turned and took hold of his daughter’s arm to pull her forward and shove her toward the dais.
“Wait,” Declan urged, his hand out as if he could stop her, but he was too late.
Irina got too close and collapsed right in front of the dais.
Declan got to his feet and peered over the table. The pretty, fair-haired lass smiled up at him.
Crane laughed. “She’ll be spending most of her time on her back anyway to get with child, so your curse is no problem for her.”
“Help your daughter up, Chieftain Crane. NOW!” Declan ordered with a fierce growl that had Crane scurrying to obey him.
