Page 20 of The Highlander Who Protected Me

“I recall that you liked to eat even before you got in your present condition.”

For some ridiculous reason, his comment stung more than it should have. “If you’re going to be insulting, please leave now.”

He looked startled that she took his banter so seriously. “Ainsley, I like that you don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Society girls pick at their food, and they must spend a good part of their life on the verge of starvation. You’re far too intelligent for that nonsense.”

She managed a weak smile. Really, it was ridiculous to fight about something as inconsequential as her eating habits when her carefully constructed ruse was crumbling to bits.

“And youshouldhave something to eat,” he added, placing some sandwiches on her plate. “You need to keep up your strength.”

He seemed perfectly sincere. Even when they argued, she always knew Royal worried about her more than himself.

In fact, no one had ever worried about her quite like he did, not even her own family. When he abandoned her after that horrible incident in London, she’d felt astonishingly bereft. Yes, she’d behaved badly by not telling him about Cringlewood, but he’d never given her the chance to explain. When she tried, sending him an apologetic note two days after that disastrous dinner party, he and Lord Arnprior had already departed for Scotland.

Ainsley had done her best to forget Royal Kendrick after that, knowing that her future did not lie with an impecunious younger son from the Highlands. Only when they met again in Glasgow this past Christmas had they been able to reestablish a tentative sort of friendship.

She took a bite of cucumber sandwich, mostly to please him. The baby now took up so much room she felt like her stomach was crowding into her throat.

Royal studied her. “How are you, sweetheart? Really?”

She forced a wobbly smile, resisting the foolish urge to start bawling. “I’m perfectly well.”

He lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “Try again.”

She put down her plate with a sigh. “All right. If you must know, I feel perfectly wretched.”

And she wasn’t just talking about her aching back, or her swollen feet, or how hard it was to get a decent night’s sleep. Her life was a disaster, and she had no idea how to repair the damage.

“I take it that the Marquess of Cringlewood is responsible for your present condition.”

She blinked in dismay that he would take so blunt a tack. Then again,bluntwas Royal Kendrick’s middle name.

“I wouldn’t have expected anything else,” he added as she stewed in silence. “I’m just a bit surprised that it happened in the first place.”

Meaning no decent girl would allow something like this to happen. Or, if she did, she would have the good sense to marry the man responsible.

“You aren’t the only one,” she muttered.

He frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

She grimaced. “I cannot imagine what you must think of me.”

Even though he’d done a very good job of hiding it, he had to be disgusted with her. It made her sick to her stomach to know she’d lost his good opinion.

And it wasn’t even your fault.

But how could she tell him that? Men always blamed women, even good men like Royal Kendrick. Ainsley wouldn’t hold it against him if he did, because her own naïve foolishness had walked her right into the situation in the first place. No one had forced her to go off with Leonard that afternoon, nor had she tried to stop him—at least not at first.

By the time she had, it had been too late to do anything but try to manage the stunning and terrible consequences. Because everyone, from her father on down, would have heldherresponsible, as unfair as that was. They would have said thatshewas the guardian of her virtue, not the man she was supposed to marry. Some might even say she was lucky Leonard still wanted to marry her, given that she was no longer a virgin.

Well,theycould say whatever they wanted, because Ainsley would never let any man treat her like that again, even if it meant spending the rest of her life in a dreary hole in Scotland. She would join a convent before she allowed Leonard to touch her again or get anywhere near her child.

She jumped a bit as Royal’s long fingers wrapped around hers in a comforting hold. She gripped him rather desperately, feeling like a lost child as she stared into his warm gaze.

Apparently, he wasn’t disgusted with her, after all. She sniffled, horrified to find herself blinking back tears.

“Och, tears from Lady Ainsley?” he gently teased. “Does she have a heart, after all?”

“You’re a lout,” she said, trying to scowl. As usual, he understood she hated feeling vulnerable. “And my tears have nothing to do with you. Breeding tends to make one feel mawkish.”

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