The noise in the hall died down, as though her words had struck stone and shattered something beneath it. She watched quietly as his jaw tightened, a muscle jumping near his temple. When he spoke again, his voice was low, controlled, and unmistakably dangerous.
“Ye presume much for a lass who has just crossed me threshold,” he said. “I said nothin’ of loathing ye. I said only what I was told. That ye were sent to me as me bride.”
Her cheeks flushed. “As if that distinction improves matters,” she retorted, straightening her spine. “You speak as though I am some parcel you bartered for.”
His eyes narrowed. “I speak as a man who doesnae appreciate being made a fool of. Nor do I appreciate being accused of deceit when I have offered none.”
She stared at him, her pulse thundering. “Then you accuse my father,” she shot back. “Because either he sent me here to heal the sick, or he sent me here under a lie. And I will not stand idle while you suggest the latter.”
A murmur rippled through the gathered clansmen. The Laird lifted a hand, and the sound died at once. He took a step closer, and Lilliana was keenly aware of how little space remained between them.
“Yer faither kent precisely what he was doing,” he said. “He sent ye north kenning I had agreed to take an English bride. If he chose to soften the truth for ye, that is nae me fault.”
Her breath caught, sharp and indignant. “You imply that he bartered me away as though I were chattel,” she said. “And I assure you, Laird McGill, my father may be many things, but he is not a liar.”
Irritation mixed with disbelief flickered across the Laird’s expression. “Then ye are naïve,” he replied bluntly. “Because nay man sends his daughter into the Highlands alone unless he has secured something in return.”
That cut far deeper than she cared to admit.
Her hands curled into fists at her sides. “I am here by choice,” she said fiercely. “I came because people are suffering, and I believed I could help them. If that offends you, then I regret wasting my time, but I will not be spoken to as though I am either a burden or a bargaining tool.”
For a long moment, he said nothing. He only looked at her, his gaze sharp, assessing, as though she were no longer an unexpected guest, but a problem he had not anticipated.
Then, quietly, he said, “Ye will find, lass, that this is nae a place for assumptions.”
Her chin lifted. “Then perhaps it is a place for propriety, Laird McGill,” she replied. “Would you kindly have Moira meet us in the corridor to show us to our rooms? The journey was tiring, and this welcome has been just as much.”
She turned on her heel, nodding to Betsy to join her, and stormed out of the hall without another word.
2
“She came here to heal me people,” Kayden snorted. “Did ye hear her? So arrogant. So dismissive.”
He paced up and down, hands flexing and then balling into fists, pausing now and then to stare out of the window. He did not know why the notion that she had come here under false assumptions upset him so much, but he was burning with it.
His hands fisted again as he recalled the contempt with which she had spat out her purpose. The bewilderment. The utter horror at the thought of marrying him.
He gritted his teeth as he suppressed a growl.
Does she think she is too good for me?
Jacob leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, and shrugged. “Clearly, there has been a misunderstanding.”
Kayden shook his head, mouth turned down in a sneer. There was no misunderstanding. Just pure arrogance on her part. Such presumption.
Such a typical sassenach.
Even as he thought it, he could not help but recall the light blush that bloomed in her cheeks, the freckles that dotted her nose, the soft blonde hair neatly hidden in a cap, except for the little tendrils that had escaped. Her doe eyes, staring at him with an innocence mixed with distaste that he could hardly bear to look at.
“She has angered ye,” Jacob noted.
Kayden gave him a look. “Of course, she angered me. Who does she think she is, coming here and lording over us as if we answer to her?”
But that was not the only reason why he was so unsettled. There was something about her that had disturbed the ground beneath his feet, and he did not like it one bit.
Jacob gave a small smile. “I daenae think she was lording over us. I think her faither failed to tell her what she truly came here for. Ye didnae help, by the way. Why were ye so rude to her?”
Kayden whirled around to glare at him. “I wasnae rude!” he hissed.
