Page 44 of When the Laird Claims
As he spoke, he let his hand trail from the curve of her waist, up to her arm, and then back down to her hip, drawing small shapes that she did not focus on too hard in any sort of attemptto understand what they might mean. She just knew that the contact felt rather nice on her chilled skin.
“As you should,” Victoria agreed. She attempted to adopt her version of his firm, confident manner of speaking, but she did not feel as if she had accomplished it properly. Rather than allow herself to continue being embarrassed, she changed the subject. “Do you have any news at all of the Earl? I was just telling Kristin today that I thought you might not have spread the rumor at all; it has been so long.”
Arran lifted his hand from her waist and pushed up into a seated position. She mourned the loss of his touch almost instantly.
“There has been nothin’ from him, or from the scouts watchin’ his manor,” he said, his body tense. “I think the idea was sage, but the execution was wrong.”
He almost seemed… reluctant to talk to her about this. Was there something else that he was not telling her? Something else that she needed to know? Victoria could not think of a single reason that he would have to keep anything from her, so her gut told her that it must be something very bad if he was attempting to hide it from her.
“What do you mean?” she prompted.
“If he is as possessive as ye say, and I do think that he is, it is my thinkin’ that if someone…” he pointed to himself as he spoke “…else truly had ye, not kidnapped… but as a betrothed… that might lure him out quicker. The death rumors may havesounded too unlikely, but a betrothal? His jealousy would overcome him.” Arran finished speaking, but he would not even glance in her direction.
Victoria could not tell if he was suggesting a false engagement between them out of cunning or if he was reluctant to even truly consider the idea. His face had gone so blank once more that there was not even the slightest hope of attempting to read his true feelings on the matter, nor his opinion.
“Are you suggesting that we be engaged?” The moment the words left her lips, something bristled excitedly inside of her.
She knew that it was a foolish idea even to entertain. It was not even something that she would have considered wanting until this very moment.
But now that he had brought it up… would that even be possible? He was right in thinking that Charles would be more than jealous, certainly enough to want to come and stage a full invasion under the guise of luring her back home with him, where she belonged. He would call it a “rescue” mission. Nothing would be able to stop him. In truth, she felt somewhat foolish for not having been the one to think about it first.
“A false engagement, aye,” Arran amended. “I think that it would also still those waggin’ tongues of my council. All the old men in their stubborn ways. I sometimes think that they are impervious to change, for how stubborn some of them can be.”
Victoria nodded, knowing those sorts of men very well. “Yes… it might work.”
It was an excellent idea. She knew that much at the very least. But the moment that she considered it, Arran seemed to tense up even further. She did not like how the line of his broad shoulders sat now. It made her chest hurt because she felt that there was something about to happen that she could not explain. A sour feeling in her gut.
“Aye, a fake betrothal. Until the Earl arrives,” Arran concluded.
He pushed himself into a standing position with that, clearly done with the conversation. He reached a hand down to her, and she readily accepted it. But even his touch somehow felt more distant than it had before.
Of course, she would not even bother to question the fact that the engagement would be false. Arran could not believe that there was a part of him that had felt… something… at the notion of being engaged to her. Something he didn’t want to name lest it make him even more anxious about the whole thing.
Holding her hand after what they had just done felt wrong now, like it was all part of some scheme he had been plotting. Which could not have been further from the truth.
There were a great many things that he needed to think about now, and he was not going to be able to do a single one of them while still standing beside her.
I should have stayed in the tub.
They moved into the keep in near silence, her having to double her steps in order to keep up with the pace that he had set. What did she even think about him? Nothing in any lasting way, he was sure. They were just using one another as a means to an end. That had to be it. Nothing more, nothing less, all things considered. She had jumped at the possibility of finishing this, and therefore leaving, too quickly for his comfort.
But then again, she had said that from the beginning, had she not? She had claimed from the beginning that she would have to head back to England. Despite the fact that he was looking into the sister’s whereabouts and safety, she would of course want to return to her home and whatever comforts might await her there.
But she fits here so well.
It was his own mistake for daring to think of her in the same breath as his own family. She was just too great a benefit for both Kristin and Ruby. It was the most alive he had seen his sister be since he had returned home, and he didn’t want to lose that either.
“Why are you walking so quickly?” Victoria huffed from behind him, her hand slipping out of his own.
He didn’t have a proper answer to that question, so he chose not to say anything at all. He walked her most of the way to her room before she finally stopped him from moving any further.
She fitsmeso well…
“Have I missed something somehow?” Victoria demanded, clearly no longer intending to move. “I do not need an escort to my bedroom if you are just planning on being surly the whole way there. I can find my way on my own.”
“Ye wish to be rid of me company that bad, do ye?” Arran muttered nearly under his breath.
“What was that?” Victoria asked, but he shook his head. He wasn’t going to repeat himself. When she realized that, she sniffed and hugged her arms around herself. “So then, what comes next?”
