Page 55 of The Highlander's Auctioned Virgin
“The bastard wasnae just awful,” Elinor continued, her fingers tightening around the stick in her hand. “He was one of the most monstrous beings to ever walk God’s green earth.”
The stick snapped in her hand, jolting her out of her reverie.
Ciaran narrowed his eyes at her. He had expected her to recount her experience with tears and loud sobs. Instead, she was angry, immensely frustrated, and it was written all over her face. She was his bride, after all.
“He tried every possible way to control me. Forbidding me to leave the castle, forcing our maids nae to talk to me. He always read the letters me sisters sent me first, and he always checked what I wrote back. If he wasnae happy with it, heburned it. When he found out Anna and I had created a code, he forbade me to write for months. Wanted to drive me crazy with loneliness, hoping I’d seek him out. When he realized those methods didnae work, he got more… creative.”
Ciaran could tell she was trying to keep her voice steady.
He wanted to move closer and hold her. Tell her that she could scream if she wanted because she had earned it after enduring such hardship for three whole years.
“His latest success was withholding me meals. He would deliberately starve me, hoping that it would force me to invite him to me bed. The bastard really thought that hunger would make me want to sleep with him.”
Ciaran shuffled his feet again, his anger bubbling beneath the surface. He didn’t even know he had balled his hands into fists until much later when he looked down and saw his veins bulging in his arms. A part of him felt like he absorbed some of the anger with her. That was why she was able to speak as calmly and gracefully as she did now.
“When I found out he died, I smiled,” she admitted. “And it was probably the first smile I had in years. I was free of him. I could now escape. Sometimes it is hard for me mind to process it, so I leave me room and go outside. Like I did earlier.”
Ciaran clenched his jaw, each word landing like a blow, one after the other. She had been through a lot, and it was clear from theway she tried to avoid going into too much detail that it was overwhelming. He understood Jackson’s words now.
This is the first time she has felt safe in years.
“Let’s hope history willnae repeat itself, M’Laird.”
Silence fell over the study for a minute. Ciaran’s eyes darted to the far side, where the shelves stretched out to no end.
His respect for Elinor had suddenly grown tenfold. He admired her even more, not for what she had gone through but how she had handled what happened after. Not only did she gain her freedom, but she also became the sole leader of her clan. She was also able to do it with such grace and elegance.
Ciaran could tell the servants loved her. He saw it when they had both returned from the cabin after the storm. He saw the relief on their faces when they realized she was still alive. And here.
But what she had been through…
“I wish I could have killed him for ye, lass. I wish I could have set ye free before ye suffered all of this. I’ll kill anyone who tries to steal the light from yer eyes again,” he promised.
Elinor blinked, as if snapping out of a memory, and gave him a nod, but offered no reply. She cleared her throat and shifted her attention back to the task at hand.
“What about this patch of land here?” Elinor asked, taking the broken stick and placing it on a stretch of land just a few miles ahead of Castle MacAdair. “Nay clan has been able to claim it because they were afraid of him. Now that the clan answers to me, I can do whatever I want with it.”
Ciaran looked at it. It was close enough to the castle and wasn’t far from running water.
“Are those trees?” he asked, gesturing at a wave of sticky drawings by the edge of the water.
Elinor looked down at it and then looked back up at him. “Ye’ll have to see it with yer own eyes. I cannae tell.”
It was perfect.
“And ye daenae have to worry about what happens when yer clan grows. The land is much bigger when ye see it in person,” Elinor assured him.
Ciaran nodded, a grateful smile spreading across his face.
“I suppose all that searching has tired me. I shall retire to me room now, if ye daenae mind,” Elinor said, looking less lively than he had ever seen her. One might think she was just tired, but he knew it was more than that.
“I meant what I said, lass. Iwouldhave killed him for ye,” Ciaran muttered, just as she rose to her feet.
Elinor shot him a curious look.
“Nay woman should go through what happened to ye.”
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then met his gaze with a determined look.
