Page 59 of Trapped with the Vicious Highlander
“The one ye intended to marry.”
“I neverintendedto marry him.”
Brodrick narrowed his eyes at her. “Ye said it at the dining hall.”
“Yes. I said I was to marry a viscount. I never said it was my intention to marry him. It was my father’s intention.”
“Ye enjoy doing this to me, do ye nae?”
“You have not the faintest idea,” Ava responded.
Another moment of silence passed between them, one that Brodrick wasn’t sure he could break this time.
“My mother, like I said, was Scottish,” Ava murmured, much to his relief.
“I am certain ye have mentioned that before.”
“She was my father’s worst nightmare. She was a free woman. A wildling who wanted to experience life without having to submit herself to the tight constraints of Society. She lived life as it came. She was happy, and my father was not.”
Brodrick nodded, listening attentively.
“Then, she died,” Ava whispered.
He swallowed, almost like he had not been expecting her to drop that on him again for some reason. Of course when she’d told him the first time, he had shared sympathy with her. But this time, he could hear it in her voice, the regret. The feeling that she could have learned more from her mother if she stayed alive long enough to mentor her
“Me condolences.”
“Natural causes,” she continued, but he didn’t react.
She must have had to say it every time anyone asked how her mother died. Something about that caused a wave of sympathy to wash over him.
“I wanted to be like my mother. I wanted to live like no one cared. I wanted to ride horses across the meadows and eat as many wild berries as I could. I wanted to do things women weren’t allowed to do.”
“Like opening an orphanage,” Brodrick supplied.
“Like opening an orphanage,” Ava echoed, her voice soft. “My father, on the other hand, had completely different plans. He wanted me to marry as soon as possible. You see, my grandmother left me an estate. One I was unable to receive unless I was betrothed to a man. So, of course, I agreed with him. Not because I wanted to get married. Not even because I was in love with the viscount—I wasn’t. But I saw protection in him. He was kind, gentle and caring. He spoke to me like he would speak to people he respected. He believed I was truly intelligent and sought my opinion on things rather than disregard them—at least I thought so.”
They stepped towards the staircase, the dancing candlelight accompanying their shadows across the floors and adding more eeriness to the thick silence that surrounded them. Nothing could be heard except the insects, the birds, and the occasional snoring from certain rooms.
Brodrick turned to look at Ava. This was the first time she was being vulnerable with him. The last thing he wanted to do was take it, or her, for granted.
“He would have been the perfect man, as well, had I been in love with him. But I suppose I should thank my lucky stars that I wasn’t.”
“Aye. I remember ye said he didnae show up at the wedding,” Brodrick noted.
“My father took me to the chapel that morning,” Ava continued as they walked down the corridor that led straight to her room. “We waited for hours, and it only dawned on us when the sun was at its peak that the viscount was not coming. And something told me that it hadn’t been unintentional. We left the chapel in utter shame.
“I still remember some of the women running over to me to hand me flowers and fruits, telling me that it was not the end of the world. Some even went as far as sharing their experiences with such an event. One woman, in particular, informed me that out of her six weddings in that very same chapel, only two of her grooms had showed up, and one of them had died before she could give birth to their first child.”
They stopped right before Ava’s door. Normally, Brodrick would have pushed the door in and waited for her to step into the room. But not now. He couldn’t interrupt her story.
He did not mind having to wait till dawn. He was going to listen for as long as she was going to speak.
“I met him a week later—the viscount,” Ava went on, almost like she was not aware of her surroundings. “At a tavern on the outskirts of town. He told me it was a bet.”
Brodrick swallowed. “What?”
“He said it was a bet he had made with his friends to see how long he was going to pretend to care for me. He was never in love with me. He never even liked me. So, of course, he was never going to marry me. Not when I look like… this,” Ava whispered, gesturing to her body. The same body Brodrick had worshipped under the moonlight just a few moments ago.
