“Enough.” Wedderburn’s voice caused both boys to snap their attention to him.
Evidently he ruled his young brothers with an iron hand. Alison prayed that if she married him, he would ignore her daughters as their father had.
If she married him?
She was startled to realize she had begun to believe it might actually happen. Unless help arrived quickly, she would, indeed, become the fearsome Beast of Wedderburn’s wife.
Alison could not find her voice to introduce her daughters, who had scrambled to her side and were gawking at the boys. Robbie took a step back, as if the girls’ blatant interest made him uneasy.
“These wee lassies are Beatrix and Margaret,” Wedderburn said, and gave the girls a smile, not the cold one she had seen before, but a flash of warmth that she could almost swear held a trace of affection.
Was it possible that this warrior who broke down doors and threatened to dishonor her had a soft spot for her daughters? In that brief moment when the smile reached his eyes, he was not so frightening, and she was able to see that he was a remarkably handsome man.
When the girls made pretty curtsies, the older boy looked over his shoulder toward the door, evidently wishing to escape.
“I brought you girls a gift,” the younger boy said as he lifted the leather bag off his shoulder and dropped to one knee.
Wedderburn cast a questioning look at Robbie, who made a face and shrugged. When Will reached inside the bag, Beatrix and Margaret crowded around him, blocking Alison’s view. A moment later, their squeals and shrieks pierced her ears. Before she could move, Wedderburn had picked up both girls and stood with one dangling from each arm.
“’Tis only a puppy, David,” the boy said, looking up at Wedderburn. “I promise he won’t hurt them.”
From this, Alison drew two startling conclusions. Wedderburn must have believed the girls screamed out of fear and acted instinctively to protect them.
And his name was David. She tried it on her tongue.David. A strong name, but not one that suited a harsh man.
“Mind your hands,” he commanded the girls. “A pup’s teeth are razor sharp.”
As soon as he set the girls on their feet, they began petting and cooing over the wiggling bundle of black and white fur in Will’s arms.
“I know ye lost your da,” Will said, “so I brought Jasper here to cheer ye up.”
Alison bit her lip. What a thoughtful boy.
“Take them all outside,” Wedderburn told Robbie, who gave him a pained expression.
“We can’t go,” Margaret said, her bottom lip coming out. “Mama says it’s not safe for us.”
Beatrix glared at her sister.
“Your mother needn’t worry,” Wedderburn said, placing his large hands on top of her daughters’ heads. “Remember what I told ye?”
“That we’re your responsibility now,” Beatrix said, smiling up at him, “and you’ll protect us.”
“Aye,” he said, shifting his gaze to Alison, “as will my brothers and every one of my men.”
Questions swirled in Alison’s head. How in heaven’s name had he won over Beatrix? Could she trust his word? Could he ensure her daughters would be safe with his men?
She drew in a sharp breath as Wedderburn stepped next to her.
“Do ye believe,” he said next to her ear, “that the women of this castle would have been left untouched if I had not ordered it?”
Her hand went to her throat as she considered what could have happened—what she, in fact, had expected to happen—when the castle fell. As a highborn lady, she would have been spared violent rape by the common men, but the serving women surely would have suffered that harsh fate if Wedderburn had not commanded his men not to harm them.
“May we go?” Beatrix pleaded.
Alison nodded her assent, and her daughters ran down the stairs, laughter and barks echoing behind them.
In the end, it was not Wedderburn’s words that persuaded her to entrust her daughters’ safety to their captor as much as his instinctive act to protect them when they screamed. Her daughters would suffer no harm while Wedderburn held the castle.