Page 162 of Bride of Fire
He tried to believe his sorrow was because his son would never know his mother, never grow up in his grandfather’s castle that was his birthright.
But deep in his heart, he knew the truth. He knew the source of his anguish. It had hair like honey silk and eyes of fiery emeralds. It went by the name of Jenefer.
At least she would be happy. She was getting what she wanted. What she’d wanted all along.
He sat back down, refusing to look at her. He couldn’t bear to see her smug smile. Not now. Not when he knew it would be the last he saw of her.
“Wait!” Jenefer said.
What she did next shocked them all.
She pushed the document back across the table toward Deirdre.
“I don’t want it. I don’t want Creagor.”
Jenefer had spoken on impulse. But it was true. She didn’t want to win the castle this way. Not at the expense of the clan she’d come to care for. Not if she’d be stealing it from the man she loved.
She was sure she was making the right decision.
Until her mother glared at her, her eyes flickering with dangerous fire. “What do you mean you don’t want it?”
“I mean, Mother, you can tear this up.”
The fire in her mother’s gaze flared even brighter as she leaned toward Jenefer. But Deirdre pushed her back with an arm across her chest.
“What’s happened, Jenefer?” Deirdre demanded.
Jenefer lowered her eyes, lifted her chin, and shrugged.
“Nothing,” she said. “I’ve just changed my mind.”
She wasn’t about to divulge the truth. That she’d fallen in love with the Highlander. That she adored his precious son. That his clan—Bethac, Cicilia, William, Danald, the Campbell brothers, all of them—felt like family to her.
She didn’t have the heart to take the keep from Morgan. Not after everything he’d lost.
Her mother’s temper erupted then. “Changed your mind? Changed yourmind?”She pounded a fist on the table, rattling the ale cups. “Listen, lassie. Your father and I didn’t just traipse the length of Scotland to curry the favor of a king scarce out of his swaddling just to have you change your mind. Your cousin didn’t barter away—”
“Hel,” Deirdre warned. “That’s enough.” She turned to Jenefer and spoke with an air of firm but fair command. “What the king has decreed and set his name to is final. ’Twas negotiated and hard won. You cannot refuse such a gift. Not without incurring the king’s wrath.”
Jenefer knew she was testing her aunt’s patience. Her mother looked ready to carve her up with her eating dagger. Even her normally calm cousin Hallie stared at her with glacial rage.
Feiyan and her mother Miriel, however, murmured together. In unison, they crossed their arms and arched their brows. Then they gave Jenefer secret, knowing smiles.
“Of course, the English could attack again,” Miriel mused. “You’ll need a fighting force to keep Creagor safe.”
Feiyan added, “Servants to set up your household.”
Miriel nodded. “Someone to purchase provisions and livestock.”
“And probably a dozen cooks,” Feiyan said with a smirk, “to keep up withyourappetite.”
Ordinarily, Jenefer would have cuffed her cousin for that remark. But she was beginning to understand their veiled message.
Maybe she didn’t need to send the Highlanders away just yet. She could definitely use their help.
When she turned to Morgan, her heart pounded, belying the casual tone of her words. “What say you? Will you stay on?”
His face was grim. Of course it was. He’d just been told that the castle he’d risked life and limb to defend had been taken away from him.
