Page 40 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
The flush on Ava’s cheek deepened. “It does not matter.”
“It is evidently a matter if ye are refusin’ to take it,” Brodrick pressed.
Every part of her was screaming at her to counter his words with one of her snarky remarks, but she couldn’t. Not here, not now, and most certainly not in front of his people.
“I… do not feel like eating them,” she finally said. “They are sweets, and… I fear if I eat any more of them, I might just break this chair.”
The table erupted in mild laughter. The kind she was used to.
“No man wants to marry a lady on the heavier side, My Laird. The last man I was supposed to wed most certainly did not,” she joked.
Another wave of laughter swept across the table. Brodrick, on the other hand, refused to even smile. There was an unreadable expression on his face. It wasn’t pity or even any form of sympathy. It wasn’t the one she always noticed on the faces of people who intended to mock her either.
He looked away from her, and she watched as he beckoned to one of the maids passing around a jug of water. “Ye. Come.”
Ava furrowed her brow as the maid made her way towards him.
“Get all the tablets ye can find in the castle and bring them here.”
The maid frowned. “M’Laird?—”
“I didnae stutter, did I?”
The maid swallowed audibly and nodded. Soon, she disappeared from the dining hall.
Ava raised a questioning eyebrow at Brodrick, as if to ask what he was up to. But all he did was give her a curt nod.
Almost as soon as she had left, the maid returned with a giant tray in her hands, filled to the brim with tablets. Brodrick ordered her to place it in front of Ava.
“There,” he said. “All the tablets ye can eat.”
“My Laird…” Ava trailed off, a bewildered look on her face as she stared at the tray before her.
“Dinnae castigate yerself ever again, do ye hear me?”
Silence.
But Brodrick continued, undeterred. “It isnae yer fault if nay Englishman could handle ye.”
Even harder silence.
Ava could see it, the mild regret on the faces of those who had chuckled at her self-deprecating joke earlier.
“Eat,” Brodrick said again, his voice firm and clear.
Ava nodded, feeling the heat spreading down her neck. She resisted the urge to fan herself as she reached for one of the tablets on the tray and bit into it.
For the briefest of moments, she couldn’t help but wonder if she had misjudged Brodrick too fast too soon.
CHAPTER13
The day had rushed on just asfast as it had started, and Brodrick remained in his study for most of it, only taking a few breaks to train his men and let them show him just how much better they had gotten at sword fighting.
When he was in the courtyard, watching his men train, he stole brief glances at the window in Ava’s room, hoping to see her looking down at them, like she had done the previous day. Except she wasn’t. His eyes returned to his men.
“If ye keep holdin’ yer sword like that, ye might as well be beggin’ yer opponent to kill ye,” he said to the soldier before him, his words eliciting laughter from the group.
On his way to his study right after, he stole a glance at Ava’s door, wondering if she was standing on the other side, waiting for him to pass by. But it did not open.
