Leah sniffed primly. “Nothing at all, as you well know.”
“Oh, do I?” Katie said with a laugh. “I think you might care for his opinion more than you’re letting on.”
“And what gave you that impression?” Leah asked indignantly.
“I have seen the way you look at him.”
Leah shook her head, wanting to distract her friend from her line of questioning. “Imagineswooningin front of my father. He already thinks of me as a weak, silly woman.”
Katie took hold of her shoulders, giving her a long stare. “You, Leah Anderson, are not weak. You are the strongest woman I have ever known. I don’t want to hear that kind of talk from you, do you hear me?”
“Ye should listen to yer friend,” came a voice from the entrance of the room. “She is a wise lass.”
Leah pulled back from Katie in surprise. MacWatt was standing there, watching them with the same expression.
Katie gave him a pointed look, something passing between them that Leah could not read.
A few moments later, Katie rose, brushed down her skirts, and leaned over to hug Leah, giving her shoulders a squeeze for good measure. She curtsied to MacWatt as she left the room, giving Leah a meaningful stare as she did so.
Leah pulled her hair from over her shoulder and began to plait it, separating the strands and lacing each one through the other until she could tie them all together.
She looked up at MacWatt, who had not moved. His good eye roamed over her briefly as though to ascertain if she was really well. She felt a swell of sadness at their predicament, wondering what their relationship might have been like without the weight of their responsibilities under different circumstances.
“I am sorry,” she murmured. “I have dragged you into a mess that is not of your making, My Laird,” she said solemnly, feeling the weight of her guilt as he took a few steps into the room.
“I wish I could help ye, lass, ye ken I do, but I cannae marry ye. Ye wouldnae be happy with a man like me.”
Leah pulled another strand of hair into her fingers and began to plait it obsessively, watching the pieces fit together, grateful that she had control over one thing in her life.
“I would hardly behappywith Grandpa Wellton either,” she replied with a shudder. “But I do understand. You told me you see marriage as a curse, and I would not wish to force you into another union you may despise. Wellton is known to be a kind old man. If I can avoid giving him heirs, then I might?—”
“Ye’ll nae lie with him,” MacWatt barked, his fists clenching as a vein pulsed in his temple.
He looked away, his jaw tight, as though, once again, his mouth had run away with him before his mind had decided on what to say.
Leah scoffed, finally tying her hair into a neat knot at the back of her head and watching him carefully.
She recalled the feel of the weight of his body over hers as she had lain sprawled across his dining table, the intense need and desire in his gaze as he looked down at her, the feel of his fingers gripping her body as though he were about to claim her.
She felt desire spring to life at the memory, but even as the feeling bloomed in her blood, irritation was quick to follow it.
She threw the covers off herself and walked over to the window, grabbing a shawl to ward off the biting draft that blew into the room.
She looked out at the fertile lands below her. Lands that she was neither allowed to remain in nor permitted to leave due to the possessive and obsessive wills of men.
She turned, her eyes narrowing as MacWatt met her gaze.
“You do not want me, yet no other man can have me, is that it?” she spat. “What exactly do you suggest I do then, My Laird? My father will disown me, and no man in Society will want spoiled goods. I shall be a laughing stock, thrown out of my home and my friends?—”
“I didnae hide in that carriage.”
“You are the one who gave me sanctuary. You did not have to. Every action has its consequences.”
“Ye are tellin’ me I should have predicted this outcome.Thismadness from yer faither?—”
“What exactly did you expect, and why help me at all when?—”
“Fine!” Magnus snarled.
