Page 34 of Highlander's Secret Heiress
She felt him, then, running the fastening of the pendant through his fingers. Alyth tensed, and her heart skipped a beat as she realised what was going to happen next.
“I have never seen you wearing jewellery before,” Lachlan remarked, frowning.
Alyth watched his startled expression when he pulled the chain from under the neckline of her tunic. He stared at the pendant for a moment before he opened it, then he looked up at her again, his eyes dark with anger.
“Where did you get this?” he demanded.
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Lachlan’s blue-green eyes were dark with fury, and he felt as if he might explode with it as he stared at the jewel in his hands, then into the dark grey eyes of the woman he had come to care about so much.
She had deceived him, and he, like the utter fool that he was, had allowed himself to be seduced by a pretty face and a beautiful body. Suddenly, he saw how cruelly she had used him, and how easily he had fallen into her trap.
Not only was he full of rage, but he was infinitely disappointed and deeply hurt. What had he done to deserve this? He had taken Jeannie Dunbar into his home, fed her, clothed her, sheltered her and given her a way to support herself, and this was how she repaid him!
“Was this your whole purpose in coming here?” he asked, his voice throbbing with rage as he held up the pendant. “Was this what you wanted all along?”
Lachlan watched as she stared at the ground for a moment as if trying to collect herself, then she pulled herself together and reached out for the pendant, but he swung it away out of her reach.
“Yes, but please let me explain,” Alyth begged. “This is not the way it seems. I can see what you think, but I swear to you, I meant no harm to you, Davina or anyone else.”
“You can see what I think?” He sneered. “So you are a mind reader now? Donotpresume to know me! You realise that at this moment I could call my guards to come and drag you to the dungeons? They could kill you, or I could kill you myself.”
He raised his large right hand and flexed the fingers, looking at her neck, watching her eyes darken with fear.
“Your name is not Jeannie Dunbar, is it?” Lachlan asked, frowning deeply. “You are not a ladies’ maid, or any other kind of maid, for that matter. Tell me your real name.”
“I am Alyth MacAdams,” Alyth replied resignedly with a deep sigh. “And yes, I have been lying to you all along, but I meant no one any harm. I would have left as soon as I found the pendant, and that’s what I was doing. You have to believe me, Lachlan. I meant no harm to anyone.”
Lachlan had thought himself immune to the wiles of the female sex, but now he felt himself beginning to soften. She looked so vulnerable, still half-lying underneath him on the straw, that he almost yielded to her, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her again. Even now, his weak man’s body, driven by his most primal instincts, was responding to her again.
Almost, but not quite. He reminded himself that this woman was not what she seemed at all. She was not helpless, could handle herself in battle as well as any man, and she had completely defeated him in bed, reducing him to nothing more than her slave. He had been utterly besotted by her—but no more.
“My god,” he said, shaking his head. “How you must have been laughing at me!”
“No!” Alyth cried. “I never laughed at you, Lachlan, and I never will.”
His lip curled in disdain as he looked down at her. “I have to give you credit,Alyth,” he said. “You had me almost twisted around your little finger. You lied to me, seduced me, played me like a puppet on a string. I would have done anything for you.” He shook his head. “But now that I see through your little scheme, all of that is over. There will be no more seduction, no more games. I see you now for what you are—a fraud, and a creature who will use any means to achieve her ends.” His face took on a look of disgust. “You repulse me!”
However, just as Lachlan thought he had thoroughly intimidated her, Alyth retaliated. “I have nothing to do with your clan’s power games,” she snapped. “All I wanted was to recover my mother’s pendant because it is all I have left of her!” She sat up to look him in the eye so suddenly that Lachlan almost fell over.
“I am a victim too, just like you, your wife, Davina, my mother, my father.” She paused for breath. “Do you not see? We are all victims because war has no favourites. It doesn’t matter who is killed!”
They sat staring at each other for a long moment until it became a contest of wills. Alyth looked away first, and Lachlan felt a surge of triumph; now he had her right where he wanted her. He took her by the chin and forced her to look at him again.
“What took you so long?” he demanded.
“I only found it yesterday,” Alyth replied, puzzled.
“Oh, dear.” Lachlan laughed again. “You are so funny. You are very entertaining—it’s a real talent. Yesterday, you say?” Lachlan felt anger begin to boil up inside him again. “Now, why do I find that so hard to believe?”
He stared at Alyth and felt the urge to shake her hard, but he had never harmed a woman in his life and he knew he would not do so now. “So why did it take you so long to find it? Were youwaiting for Davina to do it for you? Did you train her to speak to you?”
This was such a ludicrous question that Alyth almost laughed out loud. “I don’t know why she talks to me,” she replied. “But I am glad for her—and for you because it is good to see her opening up. I wish I could be here when she really does learn to talk properly. She will blossom, Lachlan. She will take up singing—I know she will. She will recite poetry and write stories of her own. She is like a bud waiting to flower. I-I feel it. And she will be a beauty. She will be as lovely as you are handsome, and you will be so proud of her.”
“I’m already proud of her,” Lachlan said angrily. “Tell me, Alyth, why did you not give up? Why were you so determined? Did you want to torture me? Did you want revenge for your mother’s death?” He paused, then asked in a voice that was throbbing with rage, “Did your father send you to spy on us?”
“No!” Alyth refused passionately. “He had no idea. I told you I needed to have that little piece of my mother back.” Alyth’s eyes filled with tears of frustration as she tried to make him understand how she felt. “Would you not try to recover something of your wife’s if it were lost?”
