Page 48 of Hard-Hearted Highlander
“Iama bloody Scot.”
He picked up his tankard, and as he was drinking, Miss Holly said, “She doesn’t want to marry you, you know.”
He slowly lowered his tankard. “You’re no’ even a wee bit bashful, are you?”
“Should I be? I didn’t think you appreciated that trait.”
He tilted his head to one side. “Allow me to explain something to you, Miss Holly. It’s a wee bit too late for your mistress’s doubts.”
“Is it?” she asked, and looked at him directly. He noticed how dark her lashes were against her light hazel eyes. Bonny eyes, she had. Quite bonny. “And yet, you have doubts, too.”
He sighed impatiently. What was the point of speaking of upcoming wedding now? “No, I donna have doubts. Again, it’s too late for them.”
“You dissemble, Mr. Mackenzie. You could scarcely hold her hand.”
He was already regretting this. He moved as if he meant to stand, but she said, “You might give her reason to cry off.”
Now Rabbie looked at her sternly. “What nonsense are you speaking, then? The banns have been posted. The bloody wheels are in motion. Give her reason to cry off?” He gave a rueful bark of laughter.
“You’d not be the first couple to fail to arrive at an altar after posting the banns.” She twisted in her seat to face him. “Youcouldgive her reason to cry off.”
Rabbie frowned at her. He swiped up his ale and drank healthily, then slammed it back down. “If the lass doesna want to wed, then I’ll do the damned crying off.”
“No!”she whispered hotly, and glanced around them to see if anyone noticed them. “You can’t possibly!”
“Aye, Ican.” Could he? No, of course not. He was resigned to his duty. He’d given his father his word. This conversation was nonsense.
“Ifyoucry off, she’d be ruined in England.”
It took a moment for Rabbie to understand her meaning, and when he did, he felt a swell of anger in him so raw that he could scarcely contain his contempt for her.
She calmly returned his gaze, clearly prepared for his contempt. “I know you must think very ill of me in this moment, but you cannot fault me for speaking the truth. Miss Kent came to Scotland to marry a Highlander, everyone knows it,” she said, speaking quickly, as if she understood she had only moments before he lost his composure completely. “If she is rejected and sent back to England, she will be ruined. No one will want to make a match with a woman who was not deemed good enough by a Scotsman, do you see?”
“No’ deemed good enough by a bloody savage, is that it?”
“I didn’t sayIbelieve it is so.”
His anger swelled. He suddenly surged forward in his seat, his face only inches from hers. “Do you believe for even a moment that I give a damn what happens to that cake-headed lass?”
Miss Holly did not back away, and steadily held his gaze. “Yes. I do.”
He glared at her. His eyes moved to her lips and he felt that unwanted stirring again. And for that, he despised her.
“I know you’re not as hard-hearted as that—”
“You donna know a bloody thing about me,” he said, and sank back in his chair, looking away from her.
“She’s young and innocent, and I don’t believe for a moment that you would ruin her life out of spite becauseyourswas ruined. I think you are many things, sir, but I don’t think you are cruelly spiteful. I also know that if she was to cry off...none of the Mackenzies could blame you for failing your end of the agreement.”
The anger in him twisted.Failinghis agreement? He wanted to put his fist through a wall. Toss a table across the room. “So I should spare the English lass because the English did no’ spare me, is that it, then?”
“Yes,” she said firmly.
Rabbie hated her, hated her reasoning, hated everything about this great room. He drummed his fingers against the table. His attention drifted to Miss Kent, who was laughing gaily as she tried some of the steps of the Scotch reel Aulay was attempting to teach her.
As much as he couldn’t bear to admit it, Miss Holly was right. Avaline Kent was a child with no understanding or even awareness of the resentment that simmered in this room. She was utterly blind to the faces of his clan. And she was nothing to him. God knew she was nothing to him. But he couldn’t ruin her to have his revenge—it would be akin to kicking an unsuspecting wee hare off a cliff.
There was something else Miss Holly had said that rang true—if Miss Kent was the one to end the engagement, his father could not blame him. There was still the matter of the need to join forces with the Kents—or somehow blunt the rise of the Buchanans in the Highlands—but Rabbie was so unhappy, he found himself actually considering her preposterous suggestion. He groaned, rubbed his face. “What do I have to do, then?”
