“Ye will find it useful,” he said. “It’s nae as though ye’re betrothed.”
The word hit harder than the rest. She hated just how helpless she must look to this grubby old man. She hated that at the end of the day, if this didn’t work, she might just have to consider marrying him.
Nay.
No, she needed to do something. It didn’t matter if it was something harsh or solid. She needed to find a way to make him stay away from her. Once and for all.
He gestured with his chin, a small circle that took in the lights while she struggled to keep her face calm when what she was feeling inside was, in fact, anything but.
“Nay one here will stand up for ye,” he said, his voice easy. “Nay one here will take that stain and wear it. Leave with me, and I will speak for yer house. I will keep the walls whole, and I will set men at yer gate. Ye will see sense in the morning.”
She felt the trap close, and it was clear she wouldn’t escape this just easily. He had found her, he had drawn a circle around her, and he would not let her walk out of it. The rules of the place held his fist open, yet they did not hold his shadow back from her path. She could leave and be followed, or she could bend and be kept.
The choice narrowed until it was a point she could stand on.
Only one drastic thought settled at the back of her mind. It was reckless. Hell, it was thoughtless, but it was her one final shot. Her way of finally escaping him.
“I am,” she said.
He blinked once. “What?”
“I am betrothed.”
He scoffed. “To whom?”
“A laird.”
“Which laird?”
Panic touched the back of her throat and then steadied into focus. She couldn’t think of a name.
Why can’t I think of a name?
Her eyes shifted, and she scanned the nearest ring, then the next, with nothing but aim. She just needed to find someone to point to. Someone who looked powerful enough to intimidate Laird MacGee.
Her eyes eventually settled on a man who seemed to draw space without asking. He was tall and broad and looked dangerous even with his mask.
Good. He would have to do.
She stepped to the side, out of MacGee’s grip. He let her go, certain she would return. She raised her hand, palm open, the way the stewards had shown at the rope, and pointed through the firelight to the man at the ring.
“That man,” she said.
The words fell like a blade, and the silence terrified her more than anything.
“That man?” MacGee asked, the fearful inflection in his voice making it clear that she had made the right choice.
A smile spread across her lips as she doubled down.
“Aye,” she responded, her eyes sharp. “That’s me betrothed.”
CHAPTER 3
Alex stood with Calum,his man-at-arms, near the edge of the main fire. Noise rolled across the meadow in steady bands, and he kept half his attention on the ring, and the other half on the man at his side.
“The east wall needs stone,” Calum said. “Frost took the seam by the gate. If we daenae pack it right before winter, it will split.”
“We will strip the fallen croft at Dal,” Alex said. “Shift six men from the north path to the quarry tomorrow.”
