Page 103 of Wedded to the Scottish Duke

She realized how this must have looked. It was the same view she’d had when he had left her the day before. She couldn’t tell him what she had been doing now. Not now—it wasn’t the right moment.

“What are you doing here?” She fixed him with a cold stare, trying not to show weakness. She stood tall, her shoulders pulled back. “You left. You made it very clear that you didn’t want to be here anymore. That you wanted nothing to do with this house, or with me. So, what does it matter if I’m leaving now too?”

The footman returned with the driver. The moment they saw Keith, they halted.

“Privacy, please.” Keith raised his hand in silent instruction.

At once, both men nodded and turned away. When a stable boy ran forward with an extra harness, the driver grabbed his shoulder and turned him around.

Alone again, with the sunset bleeding into darkness, Celia shifted her focus back to Keith. The rain was now dampening his hair and making it stick to his forehead. His shirt sleeves were becoming molded to his arms too.

“Well?” she said, determined not to back down or be meek now. “Why are you here, Your Grace?”

“Don’t call me that.” He winced.

“What else should I call my husband, who wants nothing to do with me?”

“Call me Keith.” He stepped toward her urgently. She thought he was trying to reach for her hand. Baffled, she pulled her hand out of his reach. “I am so sorry, Celia.”

She halted, waiting to hear more. She stared at him, watching as his eyes roamed over her. He even looked away, apparently making sure they weren’t going to be disturbed again, but the front door to the house was closed and the curtains had been drawn. No one would see them out here.

“I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I didn’t explain myself. I’m sorry too that I told ye so many times I wanted to marry a woman different from ye.”

She snorted. To her mind, he seemed to have relished telling her such a thing far too much.

“Truly. I am sorry.” He stepped toward her again. This time, she didn’t step back.

“What should you have done?” She folded her arms. “What should you have told me?”

He leaned toward her an inch. “I should have told ye that ever since we met, there has never been another woman. Maybe I wished there was, aye, but it was always ye, Celia. Always ye, from the first moment I saw ye at that lake.” He sighed heavily. “I also should have told ye that I was running because I wanted to keep ye safe. Safe from myself.”

Something in her stomach knotted in fury. She dropped her arms and slapped him on the arm in reprimand. It couldn’t have hurt. In fact, he even smiled in surprise.

“Which bit was that for?” he asked.

“For thinking you are anything like your father!” she snapped. “Oh, I know what you think. I had a very enlightening conversation with your mother. She said you were trying not to be your father. That you were going so we could all be free, so that I could be free of you. When did you become such a fool?”

She pushed him back with her hands. He was so tall and strong, though, that he didn’t even flinch, let alone move back a step.

“You saved me that first night in the lake. You would never hurt me. You never have, and I don’t believe you ever would.”

“Celia, please?—”

“What? What!” she said wildly. “You think because you look like your father, because you have similar mannerisms orcharacteristics, you’d be cruel like him. You haven’t inherited your mother’s cleverness, that much is for sure.”

A flicker of a smile appeared on his lips, though it vanished fast.

“It’s what I’ve been told my whole life, Celia. Aye, it isn’t easy to get the thought out of yer head once someone plants it in there. Trust me.”

“Trust you? Oh God, do you realize how mad that sounds? Two days ago, I made a vow to love and cherish you forever, and the first thing you do is break that vow and run away. Oh, I have never been so angry with anyone in my entire life—Keith, what the hell are you doing?”

She had forgotten to use his title in her shock.

He had dropped down onto his knees in the gravel before her. He didn’t seem to care that he was kneeling in a puddle, nor that the rain was getting worse and was now running off the side of the carriage and onto his shoulders.

“I’m sorry.” His words were even more heartfelt this time, his deep voice more passionate. “I realized something last night. I broke my heart, running away from ye, and I could never be the same again if I made it all the way to Scotland. If I had caused ye the same pain…” He paused, sighing heavily. “Then I was making us both miserable.”

“I could have told you that.” She was still staring down at him.

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