Page 48 of Dangerous Exile

He nodded, his look grave. “It won’t be hard.”

“I am sorry I panicked.” Her head started to shake. “But you didn’t need to find me. You could have just let me go…disappear. Why didn’t you just let me go? You told me to just turn away—I’ve been nothing but a burden to you.”

His eyes closed for an elongated breath as he attempted once more to temper the anger still speeding through his veins. “I swore I would protect you, Ness, and the last thing I was about to do was leave you to whatever fate it was that tore you out of this house. I didn’t know how you left here—I thought you were taken. I never imagined it was your hare-brained idea to leave on your own volition.”

Her head dropped, her gaze fixed on the floor for a long moment. “I didn’t want to leave you, Talen. And not just because you keep me safe. I didn’t want to leave here…you.” Her chest lifted in a deep sigh as her gaze moved up to him. “But now. Now I truly do have to disappear. My father will find me and I cannot live with being sold to another brutal man. I refuse it.”

The way she stated her refusal—such finality in her voice—made him pause, wondering how very far she would go to avoid a repeat of her fate under her father’s control.

“We’ll figure out another way.” He took a step toward her. “One that doesn’t have you sailing off to a distant land with a hundred people on a ship that could identify you if your father got even a sniff of where you went. One that doesn’t have you taking in laundry in a strange country.”

Her eyes closed. “But there is no other way.”

“There is one that will cut your father off at the knees.”

Her eyes cracked open to him. “What?”

“You could marry.”

“Marry?” Her voice pitched high. “I just rid myself of one brutal husband and I don’t intend to ever take that path again.” Her head shook. “You’re mad to even suggest it.”

“Am I? If you’re married your father cannot touch you.”

Her head tilted to the side, barely restrained panic taking a hold of her voice. “Talen, no. I cannot. I cannot marry—I can never be under another man’s fist again.”

“But I can think of several men that are kind and wealthy enough and would never hurt you.”

She stumbled several steps backward, her hand waving in front of her. “No. Don’t even suggest it. I will never be able to trust a man again. Never enough to marry.”

“Or…”

“Or what?”

“Or you marry one you already trust.”

Shaking her head, her forehead wrinkled. Then her eyes suddenly went wide, her stare locking onto him. “No…no…”

“You trust me, don’t you?”

She gaped at him, frozen.

“Do you trust me?”

Reluctance vibrated in her amber eyes, but she wasn’t about to lie to him, he knew that of her. She nodded.

“Then marry me, Ness. Marry me. I can keep you safe.”

“But…”

“We marry. We marry before your father finds you and he cannot touch you.”

Words he never could have imagined uttering a month ago flew from his mouth. He wasn’t looking for a wife—couldn’t even fathom the thought of one—but his jaw still prattled on, trying to convince this one maddening woman that she should marry him for her own good. “Even better, we marry in Scotland, and should it suit you, you can always exit the marriage well after he is dead and cannot hurt you.”

Her hand flew up between them. “No. No, you cannot possibly think…”

“Do you have a better suggestion?

“No—I—”

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