Page 30 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
Ava finally lowered her head and then turned around and made her way back to the castle. She could hear loud snorts andoinkscome from the men she had left behind, but she didn’t turn around to acknowledge them. She didn’t even stop. She’d had enough.
As the somewhat safe and familiar smell of the castle infiltrated her nostrils, she made her way up the steps, blinking back tears. She wondered if the men hadn’t come up to her room only because of the Laird. Because she was taking care of Margaret.
As she continued to walk, she found the tears even harder to hold back.
“Ava!” His sharp voice cut into her thoughts like a hot knife on a block of butter.
Ava whirled in the direction of the voice and saw Brodrick standing near a door, a look of utter irritation and mild anger on his face.
“Come here,” he ordered, in the same sharp voice.
For a second, Ava froze and said nothing. There was only a brief exchange of looks between them, although tense and unrelenting.
“Dinnae make me repeat meself. I dinnae like doin’ that, lass.”
Ava swallowed and took a step towards him, then another and another, until she was walking as fast as she could.
Brodrick opened the door wider and stepped aside. She walked in, her eyes scanning the room as he shut the door briskly behind him.
“I told ye nae to wander, did I nae?” he asked, his nostrils flaring as he walked over to her.
Ava scoffed. “Is that what this is about? Because I was speaking with some men at the courtyard?”
“What were ye speakin’ about?”
“None of your business.” Her voice was sharper than she had intended.
The last thing she wanted was to anger the man under whose roof she was staying, but something about the way he stood before her provoked her. She simply could not keep quiet about the entire thing.
“If ye only listened when I told ye?—”
“Listened? What is this? Do you think you are speaking to one of the children in the castle?”
“Well, seein’ as I gave ye an order and ye didnae exactly follow it, I would have to assume so, would I nae?”
“Yes, except I am not one of your people.”
Now it was Ava’s turn to take a step forward—something she rarely did whenever she was speaking to Brodrick.
“Ye are inmecastle.”
“Because you asked me to come here.”
Brodrick mirrored her step, the gap between them shrinking slowly.
Ava could feel his eyes burning holes into her.
“What did they tell ye? I need ye to tell me exactly what they said.”
“Why? So you can draw your sword once again? I don’t have to inform you about every trouble I have, you know.”
“If the so-called trouble is with one of me men, then ye do.”
“I don’t see it that way. You know the way I see it?” Ava continued, unable to resist the urge to move even closer to him.
Now, their faces were merely inches apart, and it was taking every ounce of her will to focus on Brodrick’s face and his face only.
“The way I see it, I am a grown woman who can handle her business well enough and doesn’t have to run to the Laird of the castle at the first sign of trouble.”
