Page 42 of Sutherland's Secret
Now he knew.
She was serving his men.
He pushed himself up to stand, his fury masking the pain in his shoulder. He unerringly marched toward her, weaving around the benches and the people and the serving girls. Colin stayed close behind, but he ignored his friend. He grasped Ella’s shoulder and spun her around.
With a gasp, she dropped her tray of food. Her eyes widened. “Brice. What are you doing out of bed?”
“What are ye doing serving in my hall?”
She looked around at the people, who had stopped eating and were watching avidly. “I’m helping.”
“Helping?” he nearly bellowed. “Helping whom? What?”
“Shhh.” She looked around nervously again, then dropped to her knees and began cleaning up the food he had caused her to spill. Brice lowered himself to his knees as well, hissing at the pain.
“You shouldn’t be up,” she said, not looking at him as she picked up the crockery.
“Ye were lying to me. I had to find out why.”
She glanced at him quickly. “I wasn’t lying. I just didn’t tell you.”
“Why?”
She stopped cleaning and looked at him. “Why? Because I knew how you would react.”
“And rightly so.”
She finished cleaning and stood up, lifting her tray with her. Brice stood as well. “Ye’ll put that away and come eat with me.”
She nestled the tray on her hip. “No.”
He raised a brow. “No?”
“I will eat with you if you’d like to wait until the meal is over and everything is cleaned up. In the meantime, I have a job to do.”
She turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm to stop her. She turned back to him with a sigh.
“Ye do no’ have a job to do. Ye’re a guest of mine. Guests don’t serve.”
“Well, this one does. Now go sit down before you topple over.”
“I’m not going to top—”
But she was gone, weaving through the tables faster than he could catch her. He stood there watching her, speechless.
—
Eleanor’s heart was pounding when she slammed her tray down, causing the broken crockery to rattle.
“He’ll no’ be happy,” Hannah said.
“I don’t care.”
“Ye should.”
Eleanor put her hands on her hips and glared at Hannah. It wasn’t Hannah’s fault that she was angry. And it really wasn’t Brice’s. She was just angry at the situation, at the fact that she was here in the Highlands, at the mercy of Brice Sutherland because Blackwood wouldn’t give up his obsession with her.
She swiped a hand over her face. “My apologies, Hannah.”
