Page 23 of Captured By the Highland Devil
He could already see the revulsion and pain in her eyes when he did approach her consummate the marriage. The lass wouldnot want him to touch her, she would be rigid as a board, still as death itself. She despised him.
How much were these gentleladies so very different from the sort of females he’d known in his past? In the past, his sexual exchanges had one purpose, to sate his needs.
A laird has many duties. Fighting and defending his land was one that Ruben excelled in. But there was another duty he had been able to ignore while his brother lived. Securing the line of succession.
Begetting heirs was to some minds the most important duty of a laird. Afterall, what could be more crucial than securing the future of the clan for another generation?
The best he could do was to treat it as a quick and necessary duty and not make her feel too awful about what he had to do to her.
“It has to be done…” he sighed, rubbing his face. “Sooner than later.”
Maybe it was a good thing the archbishop hasn’t sent his seal yet. They had a little more time yet.
Paige loathed Laird Ruben McKinnon with every fiber of her being but even knowing the vile things he did to her clan years ago… she couldn’t help but question herself.
“He ordered the caretakers to teach the orphans to read,” she muttered to herself. “How much of an animal can he be if he can do such a kind thing?”
She could not make heads or tails about the man. All she knew was that the man gave orders but did not deign to answer question.
“Me lady,” Maisie knocked on the door. “The lads are comin’ with yer bath water.”
As she waited, she wrapped her arms around her middle. “Maisie, ye’ve lived in these lands for a while, correct?”
“Aye, I did,” Maisie said. “From I was ten summers after me maither moved here.”
Slumping to a seat, Paige grasped the skirts of her dress in numb fingers. “How…how was Laird McKinnon?”
Frowning, Maisie asked, “What do ye mean?”
“Was he always this…” Paige was not sure how to frame her words. “… stiff-necked?”
Maisie sighed, “I wouldnae say he was such, but his maither died when he was a boy and then, when he was seven-and-ten, his father fell ill.
He had to take on the lairdship because his father’s cripplin’ sickness of the knees took him away from the front lines,” Maisie said. “He was a young man thrown into a sea of older lairds, more experienced and more cunnin’ than he.”
Paige was starting to understand, “He had to make sure they dinnae take advantage of him.”
“Aye,” Maisie said. “He pushed himself to excel at everythin’. He grew excel at strategy and he became a true warrior, trainin’ day and night, and nary a soul could best him. But then, his sister was abducted.”
Paige’s mouth twisted. “I asked him about that. He wouldnae tell me what happened. I daenae think he ever will.”
“She was abducted one night returnin’ from the orphanage where she used to volunteer to help.” Maisie said. “She’d been taken for six months, and his lairdship was frantic to find her alive. He’d turned ruthless in those days, vowin’ to raze the world to the ground to find her.
Little by little, Paige began to understand the situation and the underlying reasons for why the laird was how he was. She shook her head. “What happened with his sister?”
“Nay one really kens,” Maisie shrugged. “The poor girl was taken and held for half a year, then she was found alone and bound in a field. I am afraid I daenae ken any more about that.”
Paige could not help but feel some sympathy for the young woman, surely that had to be heartbreaking and horrible. She could not imagine what such a thing could feel.
Maybe that encounter with the laird who had taken advantage of him had turned him into another vile monster who took advantage of others.
Shaking her head, Paige vowed to show sympathy to the girl when she met her, but she would keep her distance from the laird. She knew she would never like the man, much less love him. The best she could hope was for some variation of civility.
Even that is dubious.
Paige waited for Maisie to leave before she went to the doorway leading to Ruben’s chambers. She did not hear anything coming from them so perhaps he was not inside.
She still did not understand the flutter in her belly when Ruben touched her, but as she disrobed and sunk into the waiting tub with a sigh, she couldn’t help but want to experience it again. The warm water was heavenly, but the knowledge of what was coming made it hard to fully relax.
