Page 58 of Married to the Icy Highlander
“It willnae be long, I promise.”
Ceana stood up before her love for Jeanie overwhelmed her. She pulled the girl’s arms from around her waist and finished packing her meager belongings back into her trunk. She wasn’t taking anything Neil had bought for her, so there was no guilt on that end. Everything would remain in this room if she decided to ever reoccupy it.
She hated hiding the truth from Jeanie, but what choice did she truly have?
Fiona appeared in the doorway a moment later. She clearly had been looking for Jeanie for a while, going by the red flush on her cheeks and the look of pure relief on her face.
“Have me things sent down to the village, please. I want to leave while it’s still early,” Ceana instructed.
Fiona gave her a confused look but nodded.
Ceana didn’t allow herself to say goodbye to Jeanie and tried her very best to block out the sounds of her soft cries as she leftthe room, refusing to look back. Soon her own tears would start falling, and she didn’t need a sweet girl like Jeanie to see them. At least one of them should be happy.
26
Arthur seemed to be waiting for Neil when he arrived at his castle. No guards were there to disarm him, nor did Arthur seem to care that he had company.
The whole place was eerily quiet, despite how quickly Neil was moving through the space. He found Arthur in the main hall, slouched in his chair and lazily picking at the meat on his plate. Sipping on his wine, he chewed as if he didn’t have a single care in the world.
Arthur didn’t bother standing up to greet him. “Neil! Me friend! To what do I owe this intrusive pleasure?”
His friend, he called him.
“What right do ye have to call me that after what yer men have done?” Neil demanded, cutting right to the heart of the matter.
Arthur affected an innocent look that Neil would have believed had he not known him as well as he did. Not only was it exaggerated, but it was almost insulting.
“Why? What do ye mean? I’ve done nothing that I can recall… but everything is a little bit fuzzy at the moment. Why do ye nae remind me what ye are accusin’ me of?”
“Dinnae take me for a fool,” Neil retorted, his voice rising despite his attempts to keep his temper in check.
He didn’t think this was going to go well, and he wasn’t opposed to getting his hands dirty either.
“Och, but Laird MacTristan, yearea fool. A blind, pathetic fool,” Arthur sneered from his table.
And he was right. Neil had been a blind fool. He hadn’t wanted to think that his friend and ally would do something like that to him. But no more. After witnessing the covetous way Arthur had eyed Ceana at the feast the other night, Neil couldn’t deny that the pieces fell right into place.
His hand moved to the pommel of his sword, and he knew that Arthur was tracking it. “Why did ye do it?”
Arthur shrugged. “Why nae?”
There was no telling if he meant what he said, or if he was just looking to rile Neil. Either way, it was working.
Neil could feel the precarious hold he had on his anger starting to thin and stretch. He didn’t know how long he would be able to keep his composure if he was being honest with himself. There was far too much at risk.
“Why did ye bother stickin’ around? Why bother pretendin’ to want to uphold our alliance if this was the plan that ye had all along?”
“It wasnae,” Arthur sighed, finishing off his wine and slamming the goblet back down on the table. “It wasnae always the plan, but I just didnae ken why I should play nice any longer.”
“Play nice?” Neil was outraged, his hands trembling with the urge to strike him. “Ye think that destroyin’ lives and reputations would… cure ye of yer boredom?”
“And it did.” Arthur chuckled. “Hungry? There’s plenty to go around. Though I suppose I could say the same thing about yer first wife… maybe even yer current wife if I have a mind to it.”
Neil’s lip curled, a growl that was more beastly than human rumbling in his chest.
“Which one do ye like better? I am very curious to ken which cunny ye prefer? Hm? Would ye like to ken me answer?” Arthur sneered. “Would ye like to ken how it all started? What Jessica truly thought of ye?”
Neil knew that Arthur hadn’t so much as touched Ceana. The history that he had with Jessica might speak for itself, but Ceana would have told him. He knew that she wouldn’t have allowed such a thing. Unless Arthur was saying that he took her by force—in which case, Neil was going to make him suffer for a very, very long time before he allowed him to beg for death.
