Page 39 of The Highlander's Auctioned Wife
In truth, he couldn’t have sounded less interested, but it wasn’t as if she had a choice to ignore him. This washiscastle, this washisfamily, and she was there athisinvitation. She didn’t want anyone thinking she was rude, despite the sensitive subject.
She stared at him, willing him to look at her. “Because of our… blessin’ .” When he still wouldn’t look her way, her desire to be polite vanished, her words coming out through gritted teeth: “For her, for me dear sister, it goes without sayin’ that it has been naught but a curse.”
Feeling a prickle in her eyes, worried that tears might not be far off, she stood in haste and bowed her head to the rest of the table. “Excuse me, I just remembered that there’s somethin’ I must remove from one of me trunks before it creases. I willnae be long.”
Not knowing if she was meant to wait for permission, and not at all caring if she was, she hurried down the side of the table and out of the room before anyone could say a word.
This was a mistake. It was all a mistake.
Holding the tears at bay, determined to keep them from falling, she headed down the hallway with her hands balled into fists, digging her fingernails into her palms. But she had barely gone more than twenty paces before she realized she had no idea where she was going; she couldn’t remember the way back to her chambers, and every cavernous hallway, hollowed out from the cliff, looked identical to the next.
“This way,” a deep voice rumbled, like the pounding of the waves against the cliffside, echoing the sudden thundering of her heart.
CHAPTER 19
“I daenae need yer help,”Anna said, holding a hand to her chest to try and steady her breathing.
She couldfeelGordon’s presence behind her, uncertain of how close he might be. She hadn’t even realized that he had followed her, forgetting just how catfooted he was for someone so imposing in stature.
“I was just stoppin’ to catch me breath,” she added, refusing to turn.
She didn’t want him to see her eyes shimmering with held-back tears, didn’t want him to think she was weak or that she missed her home so soon after departing it.
“This way,” he repeated simply, his hand closing around her arm, just above her elbow.
Not roughly, but not gently either, he steered her around and walked her in the opposite direction, past the closed doors of the Sea Hall. Anna wondered what they were saying about her within, embarrassed that she had left so abruptly, and now had to be guided back to her chambers like a dolt with no sense of direction.
They had been walking for a few minutes before the silence grew too uncomfortable for Anna to bear, and all the words she’d swallowed down earlier rose up like a geyser.
“I suppose I forgot that ye picked me for the same reason that me sister’s husband ‘grabbed’ her,” she said curtly, wrestling her arm free of Gordon’s grip.
He showed no irritation at her bristling anger, his arm curving around behind her instead, though he didn’t touch her. His arm was merely there, the presence of it ushering her onward through the labyrinth of stony tunnels and passageways. None of which were familiar to her.
“Tell me honestly,” she muttered, proceeding regardless. “If ye hadnae heard of the blessin’ I supposedly possess, would ye have come to me faither’s castle? Would ye have attended that auction? If I was just a lass without that legacy of fertility, would ye have come?”
She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear him say it. She wanted him to prove her right. She wanted a reason to be furious, for it was the only way she’d rid herself of the prickling,straining frustration that twisted her veins into knots: an outlet for the unfair situation she’d been born into.
“Nay,” he replied.
Yet, it offered no satisfaction, no reprieve, no validation. His answer wasn’t unkind, just truthful. As he’d promised, he wouldn’t be false with her.
“Exactly. Ye’re nay different to Elinor’s husband, Moira’s husband—nay different to any of the Lairds that arrived for the auction,” she muttered, not paying much attention as he led her through a doorway… into a room that wasn’t at all her bedchamber.
It looked like a study, a fire crackling in the grate, the windows wide open to let in the salty air, the scent mingling with the woodsmoke.
The door slammed shut, making her jump.
“Do ye truly believe that?” Gordon demanded to know, his eye narrowing.
“How can I think to the contrary when the evidence is right there?” she retorted, knowing she ought to feel scared, but feeling nothing of the sort.
In truth, she felt like she’d come to precisely the right place, where she could vent her frustrations, cursing her blessing,ranting at the injustice of it, and no one would hear her. A room for releasing everything that had been pent up inside her for longer than she cared to guess.
“I willnae deny why I went to the auction,” he said gruffly, pushing away from the door.
She sniffed, folding her arms across her chest. “I havenae asked ye to.”
Moving forward, he continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “But Iwillask ye to look me in me eye and tell me if ye truly think that’s the only reason ye’re herenow.”
