Braden sighed. "You realize that if I continue pursuing her after she told me she's doing this to protect her brothers, she will think I'm a total monkey's a.r.s.e for it."

Sin arched a brow at him. "Are you telling me you've never seduced a woman who thought you were a monkey's a.r.s.e?"

"Nay," Braden said, aghast at the very idea of what Sin intimated. "Women love me."

"Lucky you," Sin said dryly. "Most of us have to work for our bedmates."

Braden gave him a droll look. "I'm not most men and you're not amusing."

"Actually, I am, but that's another conversation. Right now, we must stay focused. You work on seducing Maggie, and I shall see if there's a way to get Lochlan out alive."

"Let me help," Ewan said.

Sin shook his head. "You're too large to skulk about. They'd see you in an instant."

Braden nodded his agreement. "He's right about that. You'd end up b.u.mping your head or if you had to hide, you'd never get all your body parts into a single nook or cranny."

"I'm barely an inch taller than Sin."

"Aye," Sin said, "but I've had a lot more practice at being deceptive than you have."

"Fine, then," Ewan said resignedly. He looked at Sin. "You go skulk, I'll repair the roof, and Braden gets to have all the fun."

"Doesn't this remind you of childhood?" Sin asked sardonically.

Braden snorted. "All except for Lochlan being tied up."

Sin arched both his brows.

"On second thought," Braden said, finally smiling, "we did do that to him a time or two, didn't we?"

"Just a time or two." Sin started away from them.

When Sin reached the door of the kirk, he paused in the doorway and gave Braden a meaningful stare.

"Braden, don't disappoint me."

"Braden, I amso disappointed in you!" Maggie snapped as she glared at him.

Braden's lewd proposition rang in her ears. Surely the man had gone daft.

But worse than his casual invitation to spend the night in his bed was the fact that in her heart she really wanted to accept that which was unacceptable.

How could her heart want something her head knew was wrong and impossible?

Confused and disappointed with herself for her conflicted feelings, she lashed out at the source of it all: Braden.

Why on earth had she thought, for even an instant, that he might be the one to help her?

He'd help her, all right. But only if the helping involved a little tupping. To the devil with that. She didn't care if hewas the most handsome man in the world, or even that she was, if she dared admit it, attracted to him. Physically, at least.

The man was the devil!

Anger and pain mixed inside her. And to think she had actually started liking him again.

He'd been such a dear boy. Her hero. How many times had he come to her rescue back then?

More times than she could count.

In those days, he would scoop her up in his arms and fight or scare off whichever brother was after her.

She had looked to him as her champion.

Why did that dear, precious boy have to grow into such a man? A man who had no soul.

"How can you come back here and try this with me after I told you the reason we're here?" she asked.

"Have you no shame, man?"

Braden sighed inwardly as he wished he were the one tied to the chair, and Lochlan left to woo Maggie.

I am a monkey's a.r.s.e.

This is what I get for listening to Sin. I should have known better. The only advice Sin can give that's worth a d.a.m.n is when it involves war, not women.

The entire day was starting to wear on his nerves. Would it ever end?

Taking a deep breath, he tried again. "Maggie, my love, don't you understand that Lochlan can't just give in to you? If he does that, it'll make him look weak before his men, and what man is going to follow a laird who got led about by a mere la.s.s?"

Maggie glared at him. How could he be as dense as the others?

"d.a.m.n you men for your pride," she said between clenched teeth. " 'Twas that pride that led two of my brothers into their graves. Can any of you ever admit when you're wrong?"

His smile charming, Braden reached out and touched her cheek in a gentle gesture that sent chills the length of her body. "We are complicated beasties, to be sure, but no more so than you women."

Even worse than the touch, the light teasing in those greenish brown eyes reached inside her and made her yearn for a time when they weren't on opposite sides.

It would be so easy to give in to him.

But she couldn't. Not when she had so important a goal. And not when giving in to him would ultimately break her heart.

"This is nothing to jest about, Braden," she said more harshly than she meant. In truth, she wasn't as angry at Braden as she was at herself for letting him affect her this way. "Lives are at stake here."

"Aye, they are. More even than you know."

She frowned at the note in his voice. A shadow pa.s.sed over his face and it was then she knew he was hiding something. "What do you mean?"

Dropping his hand, he hesitated a few minutes before he spoke again. "The clan is ready to shed blood to get you women back home."

Maggie clenched her teeth in exasperation. Men! How insufferable they all were. It seemed to be the eternal plight of women that they were forever drawn to the unreasonable oafs.

"Does everything with you men have to come down to bloodshed? Canna one of you just sit down and have a conversation?"

He tilted his head in a beguiling, attractive manner that showed off those deep dimples. "If we did that, then we'd be women and you wouldn't love us as much as you do."

"Aye, but we mightlike you better."

He arched a questioning brow.

Rolling her eyes, Maggie didn't understand how he could be so nonchalant about the matter.

"How can you make light of this?" she asked. "Are you not worried about dying in battle?"

"Nay, love," he said gently. "None of us are. We're Highlanders. Born to fight and to wench.

Personally, I prefer the wenching part, but as you well know, I've never shirked from a fight."

Irritated by his words, Maggie tried to think her way through this. How could she get Lochlan to end the feud? "Then what am I to do?"

"Surrender," he said simply.

"And nothing changes."

"It will change. Lochlan can negotiate peace with the MacDouglas."

"Butwill he?"

She saw the uncertainty in his eyes. And the debate. She could almost see the workings of his mind and she wondered what lie he would devise to feed her.

Finally he spoke, "Nay, even I am not such a beast that I'd lie to you about this. Not when it's so important to you. Lochlan canna stop the feud so long as the MacDouglas is after Ewan's life."

Which was exactly what she suspected.

Still, she respected Braden for being honest. The man might be a scoundrel and a rogue, but he did draw the line at lying. It was nice to know at least one moral was still intact in his wicked body.

However, that didn't help her for the moment.

How could she end this if...

Maggie paused as an idea occurred to her. It was ludicrous, really, but no more so than the idea of getting the women to withhold themselves from their men. Surely, if she could get the Lady MacDouglas to follow her, she could get Robby MacDouglas to listen to her?

After all, the entire feud had started because of a woman, and now that he was married to another, why would he continue the feud over Isobail?

Perhaps he was even looking for a way to back out without losing face himself.

Aye, 'twas a possibility.

Maggie let the idea loose in her mind. The more she thought it over, the more reasonable it seemed.

It reallywas a possibility. And if it was the truth, then maybe if she got to the MacDouglas, she would be able to make him see the futility of continuing the feud.

Right?

The very least she could do was try.

Making up her mind, she met Braden's gaze levelly. "If I can't get Lochlan to end this, then I'll have to get to the MacDouglas and talk sense into him."

Braden laughed aloud at her words. "Are you insane?"

"Nay, I am serious. If I explain it to him, he'll-"

"Laugh in your face, then cleave your head from your shoulders and hang it from his walls."

"I will make him see reason."

Braden stared at her in numbed disbelief. Never in his life had he met her ilk.

She was something to behold, no doubt about it. Unfortunately, that something wasn't sane.

And by the tilt of her chin, he'd say her mind was as fixed as Fergus's had been. There wasn't going to be any way to talk her out of this.

Still, he felt the need to try. "Is there anything I can say that would sway you from this madness?"

"Nothing at all."

"Not even the fact that the MacDouglas will more than likely rip out your heart and toss it to his dogs?"

"It changes nothing. I have to try."

"I thought you'd say that." Braden sighed. "Can I add another thorn to your bramble bush, then?"

Maggie froze at his words, terrified of what he might say. Every time he got that look on his face, he tossed another formidable obstacle at her. And right now, she was tired of hurdling them. "What?"

"If you women don't give up by the week's end, tire men will kill Lochlan and storm the kirk."

Her jaw dropped at his words. Surely he was jesting, but the sincere light in his eyes told her he spoke the truth. "What?"

"It's true. Lochlan is at the castle even as we speak, tied to a chair."

If the situation weren't so dire, she'd laugh at the image in her head. But this wasn't funny. Not in the least.

"Och, you men!" she snapped, angered over the thought of what they had done.

"Hate us if you must, but I canna let my brother die any more than you can."

"Nay, and I couldn't live with myself if they killed him," she said quietly.

Leaning her head back, Maggie closed her eyes and shook her head. She was weary and tired and frustrated.