Duncan stared back, feeling a mixture of annoyance and amusement, but mostly the latter. He resolutely kept the smile from his face, however; this young woman had piqued his interest, and he wanted to know more about her.
The Earl, however, was not amused. He grabbed Eliza by the wrist and dragged her away from her sisters. “I apologise for my daughter, My Laird,” he said angrily as he glared at Eliza. “She can be very troublesome sometimes.”
Eliza did not look even a tiny bit repentant. If anything, there was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that Duncan found fascinating.
“Come, Juliet, Margot.” The Earl beckoned the other two sisters forward and said grimly to Eliza, “We will talk later. Now, my Laird, these two ladies have much better manners.”
However, at that moment he was interrupted by a maid who came into the room bearing a laden tea tray, which she set down on a table before leaving.
Just then, something wicked awoke in Duncan’s chest. “Miss Eliza, may I have a cup of tea?” he asked. “I have had a long journey, and I am quite thirsty.” His voice was polite, but he knew that she would serve him with very bad grace, which she did.
After half-scoffing, Eliza brought the tea tray over to him and set it on the small table beside him, then picked up the teapot and poured the scalding liquid onto his kilt. Duncan moved quickly and managed to avoid most of it, but even as he jumped to his feet, he felt the sting of the burn biting into his knee and cried out in pain.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Eliza cried, not sounding sorry at all.
The Earl rushed over to them. “My Laird!” His voice was shocked. “Are you hurt? I am so sorry. My daughter is so clearly incompetent. I cannot apologise enough. Let me get the healer?—”
“It’s nothing,” Duncan lied, although his face was screwed up in pain.
He stood up, drawing himself up to his full height as he looked down at Eliza. He reached out for her hand and felt her resistance, but he was too strong for her.
“You are coming with me,” he said firmly as she made one last attempt to shake him off. Duncan held on, however, even as he saw her dark eyes blazing with defiance and fury.
“I am not going anywhere with you!” she cried, reaching out her left hand to scratch his face. She wanted to wipe the smug expression off that too-handsome face, but Duncan was too quick for her.
He caught her hand so that Eliza was well and truly his prisoner, and gave her a slow, triumphant grin.
I’m going to have fun taming you, tigress,he thought.
1
Eliza spent the rest of the afternoon with her sisters, packing for her journey to Scotland. Juliet looked infinitely sad, but Margot was so angry she was shaking. As soon as they were alone in Eliza’s bedroom, she hugged her and said in a voice that trembled with rage, “Do not back down, Lizzie. He is only a man, and you have already shown him that you’re willing and able to stand up for yourself.”
Margot took Eliza by the shoulders and looked straight into her dark eyes. “You are a Tewsbury, and our uncle and father have disgraced our name by treating their daughters like cattle and selling us. I am ashamed of them, but I am proud of all of us, Lizzie, so hold your head up and show this big Scottish savage that you’re not to be toyed with. If he tries to treat you like dirt, remember we are behind you. We may not be big and strong men, but there are other ways of defending yourself besides your fists.”
“Appearances can be deceptive,” Juliet put in soothingly. “Perhaps he is one of those gentle giants who looks fierce on the outside but is secretly very tender inside.”
Margot let out a cynical bark of a laugh. “I somehow doubt it,” she said.
“Look at our cousins,” Juliet pointed out. “Each one of them is now happily married with a child and a loving husband. The same can happen to us.”
“More often when women marry for convenience, it ends up in a lifetime of misery,” Eliza said sadly. “But I am determined to make the best of it.”
“He’s very handsome,” Juliet put in, but that observation caused Margot to laugh even harder.
“That means nothing,” she observed. “A man does not have to be ugly to be evil. Handsome is as handsome does.”
This was true, and a mood of depressing silence settled on the sisters as they helped Eliza to pack her trunks. When they were finished, they ate a quick meal that Margot had ordered to be sent up from the kitchen—from the last servant that had remained in their household—then Eliza donned her travelling clothes.
Eliza had kept her thoughts to herself, but secretly she was vowing to have her revenge on Duncan Sinclair and her father for treating her as though she were a commodity to be bought or sold. Granted, her cousins’ marriages had all turned out to be happy after they had been sold off like cattle, but that was no guarantee that hers would be.
“Write to us as soon as you get there,” Juliet begged as she held both of Eliza’s hands in her own. “And look on the bright side, Lizzie. You may be pleasantly surprised.”
“Always the optimist, Juliet.” Eliza smiled as she kissed her sister, then turned to Margot, whose face was dark with anger.
“If he lays a finger on you, let me know, I’ll come straight to you,” Margot threatened.
“I will,” Eliza promised, even though she wondered what Margot could really do. She was physically a tall woman, though not as tall as this Laird Sinclair, but her personality was huge! Anyone who annoyed her sister did so at their peril.
