Matt held his hands out from his sides. “You may try,”he said softly. “Though making Winter raise your grandchild without a father might not be your wisest decision.”
That stopped his father-in-law’s advance much more abruptly than his sword could have. “She’
s pregnant?” Greylen said, his face paling.
“If you believe in miracles, then yes, Winter’s with child,” Matt told him. He tucked his hands behind his back again. “It’s done, Laird MacKeage. I’m sorry I didn’t ask you for Winter’s hand in marriage, but I think you understand my position.” Matt inclined his head. “You have my word as a warrior and guardian that I will do all in my power to keep her safe and happy.”
“She was already safe and happy, Gregor! Why in hell are ye here?”
Matt glanced at Robbie, then settled his gaze back on Greylen. “I’m here to right a thousand-year-old wrong,” he said softly, “and then simply live out what time is left with my wife and child.”
“According to Daar, there is no time left because of yer arrogance and treachery.”
“I’m well aware what I’ve put into motion,” Matt agreed. “But Winter is capable of even more than Pendaär can know. She can certainly buy us enough time for you to build a relationship with your brother.”
“Ye leave Morgan out of this!”
“I’m referring to your other brother, Michael MacBain,” Matt said, deciding he needed to shift the laird’s anger.
Grey took a step back, paling again.
“Ye know about my father?” Robbie asked, stepping forward.
Matt nodded, still keeping his hands behind his back. “I’ve known since the day Michael was conceived.” He looked at Greylen to explain. “Your mother, Judy MacKinnon, had an identical twin sister named Blair. When your mother died, Blair came to help Duncan MacKeage raise you, even though she was promised by contract to wed Angus MacBain. But when she went to Angus a year and a half later, she was already carrying Michael. Which means you and Michael are true brothers, both of you having the same father and identical twin mothers.”
Greylen turned his appalled gaze on Robbie. “You’ve known about this? For how long?”
“For two and a half years,” Robbie admitted. “From when I went back to your old village to get the tree root. But I kept it a secret because of Cùram,” he said, nodding toward Matt. “I didn’t know what he was up to, and I didn’t want him to find out there was another lineage that shared Winter’s calling. Protecting my brother and sisters was more important than telling ye, Grey. Ye made peace with my father over thirty years ago and have had a good friendship since then.” Robbie looked at Matt. “If ye knew about Blair, why did ye fight Pendaär so hard back then for Judy MacKinnon?”
Matt shrugged. “I only fought hard enough to let the old fool think he’d won, so he wouldn’t suspect that it was Winter I wanted all along.”
“But why?” Greylen whispered. “What in hell do ye want from my daughter?”
“Her compassion,” Matt said. “It’s Winter’s only weakness.”
“Ye think that’s a weakness?” Grey asked in surprise.
Instead of answering him, Matt decided it was again time to redirect the conversation. “She’s right, you know. There’s another entity here who’s messing with the magic. I didn’t cut the top off Winter
’s pine, and like you, I haven’t been able to discover who did.”
Both men frowned. Greylen suddenly ran a hand over his face with a weary sigh, turned and sat down in the chair beside the hearth. But MacBain, it seemed, wasn’t yet ready to drop either his anger or his guard, and continued to stand facing Matt.
“If you didn’t cut it, and we certainly didn’t cut it, then it likely was only a logger wanting the seeds,” Robbie said.
Matt mimicked Winter’s cousin by folding his arms over his chest, and shook his head. “Would a thief have wasted the time it took to climb the tree? And through your guardianship, have you not sensed a strange energy humming through the air? Even with my own power, I haven’t been able to pinpoint where it’s coming from, nor could I recognize its vibration.”
“Aye,” Robbie admitted, also giving a weary sigh as he sat down in the chair opposite Greylen.
“I’ve felt it, but I thought it was you I was sensing.”
Matt nearly burst into laughter when he suddenly realized what MacKeage and MacBain were just realizing themselves, that the three of them were going to have to be allies instead of enemies if they hoped to help Winter fight this unknown threat. Talk about irony. His compassionate little wife, he suspected, had known for two days that this moment would come, and had laughed her pretty little head off all the way to Utah and back. Hell, she was probably upstairs right now, bragging to her mother and sister how she’d managed to bring three lethal warriors to their collective knees.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Y ou knew he was Cùram de Gairn,and you married him anyway?” Megan whispered, hugging Winter’s old rag doll as she leaned against the headboard of her sister’s bed, looking small and lost amid the pile of pillows. “But why? Why would you knowingly marry an evil drùidh?”
Winter turned from her closet with a sweater in her hand and frowned at her pale and sincerely confused sister. “There’s not an evil bone in Matt’s body,” she softly scolded. “He’s just…he’s merely lost his way, is all.”
“And you intend to help him find it again?” Grace asked, coming back into the room with a small cloth package in her hand. “Winter, since humans have lived in caves, women have been trying to help men find their way, and in all this time we still haven’t come close to civilizing them.”
Grace set the small bundle on the end of the bed, walked up to Winter and took hold of her shoulders. “If you’ve entered this marriage with the notion you can change Matt, I’m afraid you’re in for a big disappointment. The best you can hope for is to smooth out his rough edges, but you can’t ever change a man’s true nature.”
“But his true nature is good,Mama. Matt is noble and honorable and compassionate, and he’s only trying to fix the mess he’s made.” Winter dropped the sweater and took hold of her mother’s hands.
“And I will fight even Providence if I have to, to prove to Matt that his soul is not lost. He’s given up, Mama,” she whispered, tightening her grip. “And I don’t care what it takes, I’m going to give him back the gift of hope.”
“You love him that much? So much that you’d risk your own soul to save his?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I love him more than life itself.”
“You’ve known him two weeks,” Megan said from right beside them. “You can’t fall in love in only two weeks.”
Grace MacKeage pulled free with a laugh and turned to face Megan. “I fell in love with your father in less than nine days,” she said as she led them both back to the bed. “If Winter says she loves Matt, that’s all I need to know to give her my full support.”
“But does Matt love her?” Megan asked, climbing back on the bed and grabbing up the doll again to clutch to her chest. She looked at Winter with turbulent, worried green eyes. “What if he’s only using you?”
It was Grace who responded before Winter could. “Of course Matt doesn’t love her, Meg.
Men don’t think in terms of love at first. They only think of possessing.”
Both girls frowned at their mama, and Grace smiled warmly and patted Winter’s arm. “Matt Gregor won’t be able to help himself from falling in love with you, baby girl, but you’ll need to be patient with him.” She turned to include Megan. “It seemed like forever for your father to figure out that he loved me.” She looked at Winter and lifted one pretty arched brow. “What did Matt say when you asked him if he loved you?”