Page 45 of The Highlander's Auctioned Wife
Her voice gave him a reason to halt. “That’s all? Ye’re just… goin’?”
Why, lass—would ye like me to lay ye down on this floor, so ye can see the sky through the stained glass, thinkin’ ye’re truly in paradise as I make ye tremble and call out me name?
“I have things to attend to,” he said instead. “Take today to get used to the castle, so ye daenae lose yer way again. Tomorrow, prepare yerself.”
Anna’s throat bobbed, her eyes widening, her fingertips touching her lips as if remembering. “Prepare meself? For what?”
“Our first engagement,” he replied, resuming his exit.
“First?” she called after him. “But I told ye that the meal at the inn counted!”
Striding across the threshold, he didn’t turn or stop as he boomed his reply, “I’ve reconsidered.”
She’d asked for five outings or engagements before she made her choice about marrying him—after today, he’d realized there was no reason to rush through them. As far as he was concerned, the tally had gone back down to nought.
CHAPTER 21
“Yemustwear a cloak, M’Lady,”Jane urged, trying to fasten the heavy garment around Anna’s shoulders as they stood together in Anna’s chambers. “It’s colder here than at Castle MacTorrach. I daenae want ye catchin’ yer death.”
The maid shivered at those last words, shaking her head like she was trying to fend off a fly. Since word had arrived that Anna would be meeting Gordon at noon, by a sycamore tree on the clifftop, Jane had been restless in helping her mistress to dress for the occasion. Indeed, throughout, she’d been coming up with countless excuses as to why Annashouldn’tgo.
“Aye, perhaps it’s best if ye daenae attend,” Jane said for the hundredth time. “It might nae be safe. Ye’re nae used to the terrain. What if ye slip and break yer neck? What if there’s a strong gust and ye topple over the cliff? What if?—”
“I’m goin’ to be late,” Anna interrupted with a reassuring smile, taking hold of Jane’s hands and squeezing them gently. “I’ll be fine, Jane. I promise.”
Jane remained obviously unconvinced. “Well, yeshouldhave a chaperone. I’ll just grab me cloak and join ye, or I can send for that lively lass—that nice cousin of his, to accompany ye.”
“Nay!” Anna blurted out, startling the maid. “What I mean is,” she added, more sedately, “that this is somethin’ I must do on me own. If I’m to get to ken the real Laird Lyall, there cannae be others wanderin’ around, watchin’ intently. He’ll never be his true self with an audience, and I willnae bemeself either.”
Jane pursed her lips. “I daenae like it.”
“I ken, Jane.” Anna chuckled. “But I swear I’ll keep me wits about me.”
Glancing back at the door, as though she feared Gordon might be standing outside it, listening in, Jane hurried to the bed. Pulling open the drawer of the side-table, lifting out the portfolio that was supposed to be secret, the maid withdrew something else. She tucked the unknown thing beneath her apron and ran back, folding it into Anna’s hands.
In an instant, Anna knew what it was.
“Jane!” she gasped. “I daenae think this will be necessary.”
The maid’s expression hardened. “Nevertheless, ye should take it. A lass cannae be too careful, especially in a place she doesnae ken withpeopleshe doesnae ken.”
The bone handle of the dagger was cold in Anna’s hand, and keenly familiar. For three years, Anna had reached under her pillow at night to make sure it was there, and, in fairness, shewasthe one who had packed it for her stay at Castle Lyall.
But I daenaethink he would hurt me. I really daenae.In the solitude of his study, he could have done anything he wanted to her, and he had chosen pleasure not pain. Indeed, any torture he’d inflicted on her had been of the teasing, titillating, thrilling kind—tormenting her with anticipation, with the withdrawal of his talents, not brutality.
“Fine, I’ll take it,” Anna grumbled, hiding the sheathed dagger in the pocket of her gown. If only to be allowed out of the room, and out of the maid’s sight, to see what Gordon had planned for their first proper engagement.
Twenty minutes later, hounded half the way by Jane, Anna found herself beneath the shade of the crooked sycamore. It stood a short distance back from the edge of the cliff, alone in its watch over the sea, making Anna wonder how it had come to be there. Had someone planted it, or it had it grown there by accident? Either way, she admired its tenacity, surviving in such a place, where some might have said it didn’t belong.
The day was surprisingly warm, the blue sky streaked with wispy clouds, the sun shining brightly on the somewhat restless sea.But whether it was perfect weather for Gordon’s plans or not remained to be seen; her betrothed hadn’t arrived yet, althoughshewas at least half an hour late.
Is he nae comin’? Has he gone already?
“Does noon mean somethin’ different to the west of here?” his voice suddenly boomed, as if she’d summoned him out of thin air.
Whipping around, she blinked in confusion as Gordondidseem to emerge out of thin air, rising up from beyond the cliff edge. Sheknewthere was nothing but a sheer drop on the other side of it, and thrashing sea below, so how on earth was he doing that?
“I… couldnae decide what to wear,” she stuttered, frowning at him.
