Page 63 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
“We’re here,” Hunter said, slowing his horse as they made it down the slope to the bank of the stream.
Mesmerized by the almost mystical surroundings, complemented by the low autumn sun that made everything seem like the stuff of dreams, Grace forgot why they were there for a moment.
Hunter got down and then held out his hands to help her.
She blinked, remembering. With her stomach doing somersaults, she leaned over to brace her hands on his broad shoulders, allowing him to help her down. It was better than falling, injuring herself, andthenreceiving whatever bad news he was about to deliver.
He wouldn’t have sent Ellie and Lilian away if it were good news, after all.
Smoothing the wrinkles out of her skirts, Grace looked up into his gray-blue eyes, which were the color of the stream they stood beside.
“Well?” she said bluntly, waiting.
For what might have been two seconds or two eternities, Hunter didn’t reply; he just looked at her, as if committing her to memory. His long look felt an awful lot like a farewell.
“Sit down,” he said, at last. “And I’ll begin.”
“I’d rather stand,” she replied, dreading what he meant to say next.
If I’m going to marry him at the end of the week, I need to know everything, no matter how hard it might be to hear.
She kept that thought circling in her mind as she waited again. Her nerves rushed through her veins like the glittering stream over the shiny pebbles.
Hunter tilted his head from side to side and began. “Me first marriage wasnae one of affection or convenience, but of alliance—or so I was led to believe. It was meant to guarantee the safety of me people, so I agreed to it, thinkin’ it was the wisest thing to do.
“Her name was Lorna Payne, only daughter, onlychild, to the Laird of Clan MacRannock. Nae the one ye met today, but the one who came before. The one who died at me hand, that I spoke of on the day I met ye.”
Grace thought back to that fateful evening. Her eyes widened as a few missing pieces slotted into place, squeezing the air out of her lungs. “You were atwarwith Ellie’s grandfather?”
She’d assumed he had been at war with someone else, and Ellie had been at her grandfather’s castle for safekeeping. Not once had she suspected that the war and the grandfather and the little girl were part of the same story.
She wanted to smack herself for not putting it together sooner.
“I’ll get to that,” Hunter said evenly. “Ye see, Lorna was also the daughter of me clan’s sworn enemy. Had been foes for centuries, which isnae so unusual, with us being neighbors. But both sides were losin’ more and more people each year, and when word came from Laird MacRannock that he wanted an end to it andthat marryin’ his daughter would be the perfect opportunity, I saw nay reason to doubt the truth of it. Even warring clans grow weary, eventually.Iwas weary of war.”
Grace nodded, hanging on his every word.
“But her faither just wanted to put a fox in the henhouse,” he continued. “She despised me. I didnae realize it at first, thinkin’ it was just the usual anxieties of a new bride in a strange place—formerly enemy territory, nay less. She hid it well for a fair while, too, which I eventually discovered was somethin’ she had been trained to do by her faither. He’d been plannin’ it for some time.”
Searching his face, Grace couldn’t understand why he had seemed so resigned on their way here. Thus far, she hadn’t heard a single thing that might have changed her opinion of him. Far from it.
“It was a ruse?” she asked quietly.
He hesitated. “Aye, it was.”
He put his arm around her, ushering her toward the curved bridge, where he encouraged her to sit. Not wanting to be stubborn, she sat down and let her legs dangle. The toes of her shoes lightly brushed the stream.
“Her hatred started to emerge, bit by bit,” Hunter continued, leaning against the wooden railing. “It began with glares and sly remarks and findin’ me things destroyed, but it grew intosomethin’… wild when she learned she was with child. I think she truly believed that I was the devil himself. I didnae ken that was exactly what her faither had taught her, told her, indoctrinated her into believin’. Nae then, anyway.”
“Why would he think that?” Grace whispered.
Her heart sank as she thought of sweet Ellie, trapped in a castle with someone who despised her father.Of course, she had been left in a tower, isolated and unloved.
Hunter gazed out, shrugging. “He was me enemy; it’s easier to think yer enemy is the devil, than to think of them as human.”
“But if he hated you so much, why would he wed his daughter to you?” She didn’t mean to interrupt, thinking aloud, trying to piece it all together while he was telling it.
A grim smile curved Hunter’s lip. “He believed he could be rid of me and me clan for good. If his plan had worked, that is.” He took a deep breath, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed. “He thought he could remove the evil of me from any bairn that Lorna might have, so long as the bairn wasnae raised by me. He was certain she’d have a boy. An heir. An heir to me clan, and one who could inherit the lairdship of Clan MacRannock, too.
