Page 13 of Wedded to the Heartless Highlander
Laird MacKinnon tilted his head, his smirk widening as if she’d just issued him a delightful challenge. “I’d be disappointed if ye did, lass.”
Letting her anger get the better of her, she blurted out, “Why do ye even want to marry me?”
“Ah, finally,” he drawled, pushing himself to his feet. “The right question.”
“Ye dinnae ken me or me family, and yet ye are so eager to tie yerself to someone ye have barely spoken to or even ken or like.”
Laird MacKinnon didn’t respond right away, and Erica felt a satisfying awkwardness hang between them. It was short-lived, though, because when he finally spoke, his voice was low and steady.
“Before ye continue on this little tirade, I’ll have ye ken that our families have ties older than even yer faither’s faither.”
What?
That revelation only interrupted Erica’s train of thought for a brief moment before she recovered. “Ye dinnae ken anythin’ about me.”
“Perhaps nae ye, but I ken yer roots just fine,” Laird MacKinnon admitted, throwing his shirt over his head and pushing his arms through the sleeves. “I will figure ye out with time, to be sure.”
Erica opened her mouth, a retort hanging on the tip of her tongue, but then she closed it.
“Ach, dinnae fash, lass. Tomorrow, ye will have plenty of things to say to me, I’m sure of it. Or maybe even tonight.”
Without waiting for her response, he turned and strode away, leaving her standing alone for the second time that morning, stewing in her anger.
Loud, raucous laughter, chatter, and the constant hum of bagpipes echoed throughout the keep. Erica wandered down the hall, overwhelmed by the guests congratulating her with empty smiles. Her mind felt as restless as the crowd; each laughing face, each casual touch reminded her that she was hours away from an irreversible union.
She had gone through the motions of dancing, toasting, and laughing when she could summon the energy, but none of it soothed the anxiety that knotted her stomach. As the night tookover the day, she made her way to the Great Hall, her exhaustion threatening to rear its head.
“Let’s get ye to bed, aye? A tired bride is a useless bride,” Thomas quipped, his voice warm but tight and laced with whiskey. She hadn’t seen him since the announcement earlier.
He guided her toward the stairway with an ease that took her back to simpler days. She glanced up at him, her heart clenching with nostalgia.
“Ye are all grown up now, Thomas. Finally taller than me,” she said, her voice growing thicker.
“Aye, and I said the same when we were bairns. ‘I’ll make them regret hurtin’ ye.’ That applies to Laird MacKinnon as well.” The fierce protectiveness in his eyes surprised her, and pride flooded her chest.
Erica managed a small smile as she wrapped her arm around him and squeezed him tightly to her side. “I’ll nae forget, Thomas. Thank ye.”
After he left, she slipped inside her room, her heart heavy with conflicting emotions. A small fire crackled in the hearth, and she felt the silence settle around her. Kara had already packed her belongings.
How strange that I will be a stranger in me own home…
The thought roiled in her head, sickening and real. Tomorrow, she would get married to a man she barely knew and despised with all of her being.
As she paced her room, she caught sight of a small leather pouch nestled among her things. It was the pouch she had kept hidden for years—the one that only Kara knew about.
Inside were coins she had saved slowly, methodically, from odds and ends, with the dream of one day establishing a school in the village. But tonight, they represented something else entirely. The revelation made her breath hitch in her throat.
An escape!
Before she could think it through, she grabbed the pouch and pulled on her cloak, slipping quietly into the cold corridor. Her heart pounded as she hurried down the back stairway, trying to avoid the servants, her footsteps muffled by the thick rug. She crept through the dimly lit corridors until she was outside. The night air nipped her cheeks as she hastened toward the stables at the edge of the grounds.
I’ll grab a horse and disappear.
Erica took one last look at the keep.
It’s for the best, and nay one will ken until the ceremony.
Pulling her cloak tighter around her shivering body, she smiled and spun around quickly to make a run for it… only to run right into a wall. Confused, she straightened up and put her hands out in front of her tentatively, but she already knew that her fate had been sealed.
