Page 9 of Highland Hero
“Aye.” Neal glared at Rory. “Are ye afraid she might deny it?”
That wasexactlywhat he was afraid of. Juliana had a tendency to say what was on her mind without giving it thought. A denial would make it difficult to proceed, although he supposed he could say they’d had a bit of an argument before she was abducted.Thatwouldn’t be stretching the truth at all. They argued over everything.
“Verra well. Summon her, then.” He glared back at Neal. “It will give me a chance to make sure she has nae been injured by ye.”
Neal narrowed his eyes. “Are ye accusing me—”
“Enough,” his father said.
MacLean nodded to one of his men and then led the way to the library, Neal scowling while Rory held his gaze.
Juliana must have been nearby, because she appeared a moment later, although why she was wearing a cloak he didn’t know.
“Please close the door,” MacLean said. “It seems we have a small problem.”
Juliana looked around. “I would say we have a ratherbigproblem, my lord.”
He nodded his assent. “Is it true that ye are handfasted to MacGregor?”
She frowned. “Handfasted?”
“Aha!” Neal all but shouted. “She kens nae of this.”
“Aye, she does. She is simply nae familiar with the Scottish wording.” Rory moved quickly to stand beside Juliana. “She prefers the term ‘betrothed.’”
For a moment she stared at him, and he prayed she would not deny it, or worse, try to slap him. He grabbed both her hands to make sure she didn’t. For good measure, he squeezed them now, hoping she’d understand and not argue, for once.
She took a deep breath, her eyes sparking, promising a fiery tirade, which he could only hope she’d wait to unleash. He managed to give her a beseeching smile. “Tell them we are betrothed, love, so we may leave and return to Strae Castle.”
Her mouth opened, then closed. She took another deep breath. Her expression changed as understanding dawned, and she smiled sweetly. Something she’d never done before. At least not to him. An odd little jolt shot through his belly. And she wasn’t pulling her hands away, either.
She turned to Neal. “I told you I could not marry you. Now you know why.”
Clever lass. Rory breathed a sigh of relief. “’Tis settled then. We will leave immediately.”
“Yes, of course. I am sure my sisters are quite worried.”
“Nae quite so fast,” Neal said. “I dinna see ye exchange one word with MacGregor at the wedding feast.Nae one word.”
“Well, we’d had a bit of a…disagreement earlier, and I wasn’t quite ready to forgive him.” She gave Rory another smile. “Besides, we were busy celebrating not only a wedding, but also the lifting of the proscription.” Juliana withdrew her hands. “I had duties to attend to.”
“Aye, and so did I,” Rory added, managing not to remind hershewas the one who should be apologizing for their…disagreement. He’d been at the burn first, after all. But that argument could wait.
Neal glowered. “Ye never made an announcement, either.”
“It would not have been appropriate to spoil my sister’s wedding day with an announcement of our own,” Juliana replied.
Rory was beginning to appreciate the way her mind worked. “We had planned to do that the morning after, but ye abducted my woman.”
Juliana shot him a look, and he cringed inwardly at his choice of words. Thankfully, she was keeping in what would be a full-blown tempest later, but the sooner they could leave, the better.
“We will see ourselves out.”
Neal moved to block the door. Rory raised a brow and put this hand on the hilt of his sword. “Make way.”
“Just one more thing,” Neal said, “and then ye can leave.”
Juliana frowned. “What?”
