“Is that a moat?”

“Not really,” Winter said with a chuckle. “It’s the stream that runs off the mountain, and it’s only on this side of the structure. The bridge you have to cross to get to the door does pull up, though, like a drawbridge.”

It seemed Matt couldn’t stop staring at Gù Brath. “It hardly has any windows,” he said. “And that black stone. What is it?”

Winter shrugged, but Matt didn’t see the gesture. He was busy examining her home. “It’s the rock TarStone gets its name from. It runs in fissures through the gray granite of the mountain, as wide as a football field in some places. The stone was brought down the mountain to build our home some thirty-five years ago.”

Matt finally looked at her. “You called it Gù Brath. What does that mean, and how is it spelled?”

“It’s spelled G-U B-R-A-T-H, and it’s Gaelic for ‘forever.’ Our papa and uncles named their home Forever because they said they were never moving again.”

Matt narrowed his eyes at her, apparently suspicious he was getting only the tourist’s version.

He went back to examining her home. “That section on the left side. That looks newer than the rest of the…house,” he observed.

“That’s our family wing, added twenty-six years ago. The wing has nine bedrooms, a swimming pool, a computer lab, and a really big kitchen.”

Matt looked at her again. “Did I hear right yesterday? There are seven of you MacKeage girls?

I mean women,” he quickly amended with an apologetic grin.

“Yes. Though just Megan and I live at home now.”

“Where do you fall in the birth order?”

Winter widened her smile. “I’m the baby girl.” She nodded toward Megan. “We have a sister named Elizabeth between us, and then there’s Megan’s twin, Chelsea, our twin sisters Sarah and Camry, and Heather is the oldest.”

“All are married but you?”

Despite thinking he was being impolitely curious, Winter decided to continue explaining her family to Matt, so he would know what he was getting himself into—just in case he might be thinking of asking her on a date. “Heather is married and living in California with her husband and three bairns. Sarah is married with one bairn, and lives in Scotland. Camry is single and a scientist for NASA in Florida, Chelsea has four boys and is a lawyer in Bangor, and Elizabeth teaches third grade here in Pine Creek.

She has two kids,” she finished with a laugh at his look of awe.

“And when are you and your husband expecting your child?” Matt asked, looking at Megan.

Megan’s face turned three shades of red. “I…I’m not married,” she whispered.

“Forgive me,” Matt murmured. “Seeing your condition, I just assumed—”

“How do you know she’s pregnant?” Winter asked, drawing his attention away from her mortified sister. “She’s not even showing yet.”

Matt shook his head, his smile softening his features, then turned that smile on Megan. “Women have a certain look when they’re expecting,” he softly told Megan. “A beautiful glow.” He reached out and laid a hand on Butterball’s mane, just above where Megan was holding the reins. “I apologize if I’ve embarrassed you. But at the risk of being even more impolite, is the father around?”

Megan, looking down at his hand on Butterball’s mane, merely shook her head.

“Does he know about the child?”

“He knows,” Winter snapped, deciding Matt Gregor was getting much too personal about something that was none of his business. “And Megan is better off without the slimy coward,” she added, using Snowball to crowd Matt’s horse into moving up the trail. “We need to get going or we’ll miss the sunset from Bear Mountain.”

Matt settled Goose back down to a walk, continuing up the forest road just past Gù Brath, and turned to Winter, looking not the least bit apologetic. “I only asked because I have several connections in my business,” he softly told her the moment they were out of Megan’s hearing. “Which allow me to reach people in a multitude of ways. Give me his name, and I can make him show up here tomorrow, vowing his undying love for your sister.”

Winter blinked at him. Was this guy for real? He couldn’t be offering to strong-arm Wayne Ferris.

Matt sighed and shook his head. “Look, I know it’s none of my business. But I hate—” He moved his gaze to the trail ahead. “I had a sister once in the same situation, only at the time there was nothing I could do to help her.” He looked over his shoulder to check on Megan, then back at Winter.

“But I can certainly help your sister, if you want me to.”

“Why would Megan want a slimy coward declaring undying love to her? She’s better off without him.”

Matt grinned. “You have a point. Okay then, give me his name and I’ll make him sorry he ever met Megan.”

Winter found her own smile, thinking of Wayne Ferris getting his comeuppance. “Just like that,”

she said to Matt. “You would go after a man you don’t even know, for a woman you just met?”

“It would be my pleasure,” he said ever so softly, once more checking on Megan before looking back at Winter. “I couldn’t do anything for my sister, but I can help Megan.”

Winter thought about that, about this new facet of the man whose golden eyes she found so compelling. Apparently, he had a personal code of justice he lived by, albeit a tad skewed if he was willing to punish one man for another man’s crime. How interesting. And disturbing.

“I thank you for your offer, but we MacKeages take care of our own.” Winter suddenly spotted Gesader high up in a large oak tree, sprawled on a branch overhanging the tote road, his huge, unblinking yellow eyes locked on the procession making its way toward him. “So,” she said brightly, turning to Matt with a broad smile, “why don’t you tell me what it is you want in a home, so I can begin to picture it in my mind.”

Matt looked at her sharply, and Winter realized she may have sounded a bit too enthused while changing the subject.

“I don’t want a very large home,” he said. “Something more comfortable than showy. I was thinking logs, maybe. A northern lodge, all wood inside and out, with a tall central room that has a large stone hearth.”

Winter nodded. “That would certainly fit nicely on your mountain,” she agreed, canting her head and looking upward, as if she were picturing Matt’s home. “With plenty of windows facing west to catch the sunset,” she added as they slowly rode under her silent, motionless pet. She looked behind her and waved to Megan. “Come on, Meg. Get Butterball moving,” she called back, turning her glare up on Gesader, who had turned his head and was now watching her and Matt riding away.

Gesader gave Winter a panther smile that nicely showed off his fangs, then casually started cleaning one of his paws with his broad pink tongue.

“I was thinking of getting the timber for the house off my land,” Matt continued. Winter turned back around and smiled at him. “I’ve read that a sawmill can be set up right on the site to make dimensional lumber.”

“There are some portable mills around here,” she told him. “But I think the logs have to season before you build with them. You’ll have to ask a contractor.”

Megan finally caught up, giving Winter an amused look while bobbing her eyebrows to say that she had seen Gesader. Megan then took over the conversation with Matt, helping him weigh the pros and cons of cutting his own timber.

Winter only half listened, thinking instead that she was going to kill that black imp for taking such a chance, when it suddenly dawned on her why Matt seemed so familiar.

Matheson Gregor’s eyes were the mirror image of Gesader’s.

Matt sat reclined on the high, flat boulder and slowly savored the last bite of his tart apple pie.

Megan had pulled an entire picnic from her saddlebags about half an hour ago, when they’d stopped on a bluff high up on Bear Mountain. Matt had taken the generous portion of food Megan had handed him and climbed up on the huge boulder to eat while the two sisters opted to sit on a log about twenty feet away. But instead of enjoying the stunning view of Pine Lake over a thousand feet below, Matt found watching Megan and Winter a far more interesting diversion.