Fiona laughed, but there was an edge to it. “I imagine Baron Liam and Lord Falco just want to be sure you’re available and waiting so that you can protect them when they show up.”

“Protect them from what?” Now that Fiona had said that, she realized Liam did tend to stay close to her when he visited, and when he wasn’t with her, he spent his time with his mother Elinore, who, along with his little sister Brooke, was also living at Old Willowsbrook for the time being, or with her grandmother, Nuala. And Falco tended to head for any group of men if he couldn’t be with her. What would two adult men need protection from that they would behave that way?

Breanna felt laughter bubbling up, threatening to burst free. It was the look on Fiona’s face that made her force the laughter back. “Jean? You think they’re going to that much effort to avoid Jean? Mother’s tits, Fiona, the girl is only sixteen.”

“And flirts outrageously with anything in trousers that has a handsome-enough face.”

“All right,” Breanna said, uncomfortable with the anger rising in Fiona, “she flirts.”

“You make it sound as if she’s too young to think of men and beds,” Fiona said fiercely. “And perhaps she is too young to think of men in that way, but she’s already become a predator where men are concerned. She wants, and expects, male adoration. She wants, and expects, men to fulfill her every wish and whim.”

“Didn’t we all want that at that age?” Breanna asked cautiously. The anger and contempt in Fiona’s voice worried her as much as the word predator. “Didn’t we all want the romance of being special?” Don’t we still want that?

“You were never sixteen in that way. Neither was I. You never would have…” Fiona pressed her lips together until they were a thin, grim line. “She doesn’t always live by the creed when she feels slighted by a man’s lack of attention.”

A chill raced up Breanna’s spine. That spike of fear sharpened her voice. “What are you saying?”

“That Liam and Falco have a good reason to be wary of being alone with Jean—especially when it’s clear to everyone but Jean that neither of them are comfortable with her interest and don’t want to play the ardent lover.”

“You can’t be serious. You actually think she would use magic to harm them because they aren’t interested in her?”

Fiona nodded slowly. “Because they aren’t interested in her…and because they are interested in you.”

Breanna stared at Fiona, too stunned to speak.