Page 14 of When the Laird Claims
Something about those light blue eyes, the color of a perfect, clear autumn sky, beautiful despite their puffy redness, called to him, pulled at his heartstrings, until he could not help himself. He grabbed a washcloth from the warming rack positioned close to the fireplace and dabbed at her face gingerly until she took it from him.
“Are we even far enough away?” she whispered. “He will come for me. Like some prized possession that has been stolen, he will chase me, and what if I have to marry him? What if all of this is for nothing? What if I have to… and he…” Her eyes widened, and her chest hiccupped like she might be sick or could not catch a full breath.
I’d rip his hands from his wrists before I’d let him have ye,Arran wanted to say, sick at the very thought of that monstrous man taking her to bed. Such a beast would not be gentle, would not be considerate, would not appreciate the beauty of her, enacting his violence upon her instead. The Earl had already proven that by the injuries on her wrists.
It was not much relief that his sister seemed to have been spared that, for she had suffered in her own way.
Arran shook his head, saying instead, “Nay sense in worrying yer head about tomorrow and things that nay one can guess at with any certainty.” He had no intention of losing to a man like Charles Rowley. So long as Victoria was with him, he would keep her safe. “I will kill him, lass—I promise ye that.”
At those words, a strange thing happened. Victoria’s eyes suddenly squinted up at him as if she had only just realized that he was in the room with her, kneeling beside her while she was bare in the bath. She jerked to the side, her hands hurrying to cover what her hair had already concealed, bringing her legs up to her chest. Water splashed over the far edge of the tub, and Arran quickly withdrew his hand, averting his gaze. He knewthat he had not looked anywhere other than her face, but she did not know that.
“Are ye injured anywhere else, lass?” he asked the floor.
She hesitated in answering him.
“I didnae see anythin’, lass. I have nay ill intention. I heard ye cryin’ and I came in to see that ye were well.” Arran sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Now that he was saying it out loud, he felt silly for coming to check on her. Hearing her in tears should have been a definitive reasonnottocome back into the room, where she probably wanted to weep in peace, not be clumsily comforted by the likes of him. He had said that she could be alone, after all.
“I do not think that I have any other injuries… save for my pride,” Victoria muttered, her arms wrapping around her knees to hug them closer to her chest.
“Well, that’s good that ye’re otherwise unharmed. Now, find comfort in knowing that every injury thathasbeen done to ye will be repaid tenfold,” Arran said and started to push from the floor, rolling upward in a fluid motion. “I’ll leave ye be, then. I have an empty hallway to stare at.”
He nearly made it to the door before she stopped him, her voice little more than a whisper. “Stay, please.”
Heaven help me…
It was the last thing he had expected to hear, and the one thing he had hoped she might ask, despite himself. He turned to look at her, but he could not read her expression. Throughout the day, with her riding in front of him, the swell of her buttocks stirring up a few things by friction alone, he had done his best to keep any feelings from showing. But she was making things very difficult for him by inviting him to keep her company while she was naked.
Is this how they do things here in England?He found that rather hard to believe when he had experienced how stuffy they could be on more than one occasion. Then again, he had also encountered at least one who had pretended to be stuffy and upstanding, andhehad left Arran’s sister with a baby and a broken heart.
“I’m nae that kind of man, lass,” he said tightly, not wanting her to mistake him for a version of Charles.
He would not deny that the thought had crossed his mind. How could it not when she was such a beautiful woman, and her body had been pressed so close to his for most of the day? She was not at all the type that he would have entertained before. Victoria was fair and delicate, tall, and seemed to move with a preternatural sort of grace. She spoke softly; even when she was enraged, she did not seem to raise her voice to him in the slightest. At least, not compared to the fiery tempers of the women back home that he was used to.
But what I am used to has never satisfied me.The thought swept in, reminding him of dalliances that had scratched an itch but never more than that. He had never wanted to protect them the way he wanted to protect Victoria. He had never got on his knees for them to wipe away their tears, not that he had seen any of them cry; they were not the sort who would do that in front of him.
Arran knew that he would have to marry someday. He figured that it would be some clan alliance or another to help secure things as time went on. He certainly had more than a handful of enemies with eligible daughters of marrying age, which would mean one fewer war to think about.
He had always imagined that he would need a heartier woman, somebody who would not shy away from working beside him, carrying out things in the keep while he was away holding to his other duties. The women back home had their charm, and were more than tempting from time to time… but they were nothing compared to the beauty before him.
He ought to have been ashamed of himself for thinking it in the first place, but there was no denying the uncomfortable lurch in his chest when she asked him to stay. But he would not compromise her honor; that would make him no better than the bastard that he had just saved her from.
“No, it is not that… I am just… I do not wish to be alone… please,” Victoria admitted softly.
He glanced at her, the way that she seemed to have folded in on herself with her knees up to her chest, and something inside of him softened as well. He moved to the single stool near the fire and pulled it somewhat close to the tub, his back to her so that he could watch the door. Just in case.
“Talk to me about something, anything,” she said from behind him.
Arran’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“Distract me… please. My body is somewhat relaxed, but my mind will not settle.”
Daenae speak of yer relaxed body,he groaned inwardly, for there were a few things he could think of that would make her even more relaxed. Yet, it did not seem like she was deliberately trying to torment him.
He frowned, thinking.
A distraction meantnotasking her any of the burning questions that he wanted to ask her. How had she come to be in that manor, never mind being engaged to that vile man? Was it customary in England to live with a betrothed before the wedding? Why was she going to marry him when he had obviously treated her so horribly? He could not bear to think of Victoria anywhere near the Earl, not after what he had done to Kristin. Moreover, where washersister, and did they need to bring her with them? He would have been more than happyto keep her safe as well if that would give Victoria some peace. Should he offer such a thing to her, or would that be invasive?
