Page 43 of The Wrong Bride
“So ye’d like to stroll by our loch,” he said as he came abreast of her. “’Tis a rainy day, but the beauty of our mountains framing the water cannot be denied. Shall we go?”
Silent in defeat, she trudged at his side, going ever downward toward the water. She looked wistfully to the east, wondering if she would ever leave this place again.
“Samuel, are you the mysterious bodyguard Hugh told me about?” she asked, when they reached level ground near the water’s edge.
There was a log on its side, perfectly placed as if for sitting and admiring the view. Samuel gestured, and she sat down, grabbed a stone, and heaved it into the calm water. The splash and the widening circles didn’t make her feel better.
“The guards knew to contact me if ye left,” he said, not exactly answering her question. “Hugh made sure they believed he was only worried for your safety in our wild, dangerous land, that ye needed an escort into the village. But ye weren’t going to the village.”
“Of course I was.”
With a faint smile, he shook his head. “Nay, Lady Riona, that will not work with me. What did ye think ye’d accomplish like this?”
“I knew I would not have freedom,” she whispered, lowering her head to her folded arms and trying desperately not to cry.
Samuel said nothing for several long minutes as she got herself under control. She heard birds, and the faint plop of something landing in the water, but whether it was a fish jumping or not, she didn’t care.
“Will it be so bad to be the McCallum’s wife?”
“I’m not his wife,” she said fiercely, raising her head to glare at him. “I’m his prisoner. And I wasn’t foolish enough to risk being alone in this savage country, but I had to know if I was constantly under watch.”
Samuel’s expression remained mild. “I understand that among the nobility, arranged marriages are common.”
“I’m not the child of a nobleman,” she insisted. “My father was the child of an earl, but I am not. Thisisn’t a fairy tale I’ve invented, but the truth. Why do you not send word to the earl’s castle and confirm that there are two cousins named Catriona?”
“As if we speak often to each other, ye mean?” he teased.
“Well, shouldn’t you all be civil, with a marriage erasing a feud?”
“’Tis not that simple, my lady,” Samuel said, his smile fading. “There are hundreds of years of warfare, with cattle reiving by Duffs that risked our very survival through terrible winters.”
“And McCallums sat innocent on their lands and didn’t respond or initiate any of these raids? Surely there are two sides to this feud.”
“My clansmen haven’t forgotten that one hundred and thirty-two years ago, a McCallum chief was a guest of a Duff, and he and his wife were found murdered in the bed provided by their host.”
Riona sighed. “That is a terrible story, and I’m sorry for it. But that was one hundred and thirty-two years ago, Samuel. Shouldn’t it be left in the past?”
“And hence, to make that happen, a marriage between a McCallum and a Duff, and the sharing of ancient land.”
“And the obtaining of Duff money,” she said skeptically.
Samuel shrugged. “A dowry is typical for weddings, Lady Riona. In the contract, ye’ll be givenample dower land and money should ye someday be widowed.”
She shrugged. “What care I? I will never marry Hugh.”
“He aims to change your mind, my lady. Is it so difficult to imagine that he can do so?”
She felt herself blush and wondered if Hugh had spoken of their private business. How many men knew that Hugh tied her up to keep her in bed? But she couldn’t ask that. She stood up. “I’m ready to go back.”
Samuel rose as well and gestured for her to start up the narrow path ahead of him. “If it helps, my lady, Hugh has already sent an escort to his mother and sister in Edinburgh to tell them that ye’ve arrived. They’ll come soon, and then ye’ll not feel so lonely.”
Riona gritted her teeth and said nothing. The news didn’t make her feel any better. There’d be two more women in the castle on Hugh’s side, women who wouldn’t understand why she didn’t want to marry their precious Hugh.
HUGHand his small party returned to Larig Castle before dinner the next day, and he was in a foul mood. Dermot had infuriated him, the tenants had been obstinate and—he’d missed Riona, which annoyed the hell out of him.
As he’d lain wrapped in his plaid on the hillside, the horses hobbled nearby, he’d thought of her lounging in her cozy box-bed, alone and gleeful at his absence. Every time he’d almost fallen asleep, he’d imagined that she’d shed her dressing gown, and her thin nightshift would be translucent in the firelight. While he’d shivered in the damp chill, she’d been warm beneath the bedclothes, relaxed in sleep.
And just the thought had given him a cock-stand and further ruined his night.
