Page 21 of Her Highland Prophecy
“I’m sorry,” she said, for lack of another response.
“Thank ye,a nighean, but it isnae something that we can change. The crops are gone, but this willnae stop the English from coming to collect the taxes.”
She nodded in understanding. It was awful, but she knew from her studies that collecting taxes was something of an expertise for the British.
“Me father didnae collect the rents. He sent me around to the villages with a group of Clansmen, but for every ten that we collected, he returned five to their owners when they came to the Castle to begging,” he said with fury in his voice.
She winced at his anger. She got the feeling that he didn’t get along with his father very well. There was a hint of resentment in his voice that she was well acquainted with from her tumultuous relationship with her own father.
“He was being merciful. I’m sure that the people who he returned the money to needed it.”
“Ye dinnae understand,” he said, shaking his head at her. “The Clan cannae see him as weak. There is always a reason for them to nae pay rent. This year it was the frost, the next maybe their kin dies or there is sickness in the family. Where does mercy end and foolishness begin?”
“You think they are taking advantage of him?”
“Aye. The tenants dinnae care much for the affairs of the Laird. If they can avoid payment, they will. Me Faither has allowed it to happen so often that our people jest about it. They mock him for it behind his back and he does nothing.”
She grimaced. That did not sound too good, but she was not sure what he had in mind that she could help him with.
“Why are you telling me all this?” she asked.
“I want ye to understand why me Faither is trying to get me to marry a woman of good fortune,” he replied.
“An arranged marriage?” she asked in surprise, though she knew that these sort of things happened often enough, even in her own time. Still, even from the little that she knew him, he did not appear to be the kind of person who would agree to that. She turned around to look at his face and noticed that he looked miserable at the prospect of marrying.
“You don’t want to go through with it?” she said shrewdly.
“She…the woman he wants me to wed…we dinnae get along. I have kent her for many years, and we havenae been able to see eye to eye since we were bairns. She can be unkind and surly, and we quarrel more than we speak.”
She was glad that she was still facing him as he spoke. His face was scrunched up in distaste, his nose puckered and his lips turned down. He looked adorably frustrated. She wanted to reach out and smooth his brow, but restrained herself, not sure if her touch would be welcome.
Oh, she had noticed the way he looked at her. Even through the fog of shock she had felt when he saved her from the attack and when she found out she was in the past, she had felt his eyes following her figure.
It could just be that you are essentially half naked by his standards.
She ignored the sarcastic voice in her head and refocused on his words.
“I cannae marry her. We will both be miserable together.”
“So, what is your plan? You said before that you had an idea to help both of us.”
“Aye, I do. Look, ye need a place to stay for a few weeks and I need some more time to find a different way to save the Clan.”
“Yes, but I don’t see how…”
“We’ll pretend that ye are me betrothed,” he stated.
“I’m sorry. What?” She must have misheard what he said. “I only met you today!”
“The Clan doesnae ken that. I only need a few weeks longer to try and find the money or to find a wealthy wife that I willnae want to strangle every time we are in the same room. Ye need somewhere to stay for a few weeks and protection. It’s perfect.”
Diana could see several problems with his plan, chief of which was the fact that she wasn’t certain she could pretend to be an English lady from the era convincingly enough.
“What exactly do you want to tell them?” she asked.
“I think we can pass ye off as a wealthy gentlewoman from England. We will have to stop in Inverness to get ye some new clothes of course, but ye already speak like a Sassenach and ye seem educated enough. If they find anything odd about ye, they will think it is yer Englishness.”
She scowled at his description though he couldn’t see her.
