“Nessa lass, do you no’ even see the wrong you’ve done?” Lachlan said sadly.
It was probably the disapproval in his tone that brought her anger back. “This is the thanks I get, after all I did for you? And you didna even ask me how I got the money for you. I sold myself tae Gavin Kern, that’s how!”
She threw it at him as if she expected it to hurt. It did surprise him. And it did anger him, but not for the reason she’d hoped.
“Then we’ll be having us another wedding,” Lachlan said with cold finality.
“I won’t marry him!” Nessa screamed.
“You slept wi’ him, you’ll marry him, and that’s the MacGregor telling you that, Nessa.”
She paled again. Kimberly realized that his putting it that way apparently made it an indisputable fact. And then Nessa ran from the room.
Into the uncomfortable silence that followed, someone said, “She’ll be going into hiding, I warrant, hating Gavin Kern as she does.”
“He’s asked her tae marry him a dozen times,” another pointed out. “At least he’ll be glad she’s boxed herself into this corner and can no longer refuse him.”
“If he can find her.”
“Go, detain her,” Lachlan ordered abruptly, nodding to the two men nearest the door. “And someone else fetch Gavin here for his wedding. We’ll be having it tonight, or I’ll be knowing why.”
Kimberly, incredibly, actually felt sorry for Nessa after hearing that. She didn’t approve of forcing a woman to marry a man she despised. But she kept her opinion to herself. After all, she didn’t feelthatsorry for the girl.
49
Most everyone enjoyed themselves that night at the banquet, with a few notable exceptions, too few to dampen the high spirits of a homecoming though. And once Lachlan made his announcement concerning Winnifred, that she’d been found at last and his inheritance returned to him, well, that merely doubled the mood of celebration.
Modernization did have its drawbacks, however. With the great hall converted, there wasn’t a room in the castle that was big enough to accommodate so many people for a normal-type banquet, let alone a really large one as was thrown that night. So the food was set up in the dining room, but it was the hallway and parlor that became the eating areas, with chairs and benches aplenty brought in to line the walls and fill in most of the empty spaces.
Nessa was one of those exceptions, of course. She sat in a slump on one of the sofas, her arms crossed, her expression mutinous and occasionally baleful, if anyone tried to speak to her. Not many did.
Kimberly tried to put a good face on it, because that was the proper thing to do. A lady didn’t share her sorrow with the general public. But she was hurting too deeply to manage too many smiles. Lachlan’s assurance, after he’d gone to examine the damage, that it could all be fixed and looking brand-new again, hadn’t helped. For one thing, she doubted it was possible, the damage from the ax too extensive. For another, she didn’t want her things looking new. They were antiques. They were supposed to look old, but well preserved.
But she would wait and see. Her husband was determined to correct this wrong. If it was at all possible, he’d see it done and done right. And that alone lightened the pain a bit—and warmed her heart toward him a little more, not that her heart needed any encouragement whatsoever in that regard.
Gavin Kern, now, was a very happy man tonight. He’d apparently been asking Nessa to marry him for quite a few years now. Kimberly was still bothered that the girl was being forced to marry him, until she found the opportunity to talk with Gavin alone for a few minutes.
Lachlan, who had been staying close to her side all evening, was called away to deal with a disturbance between two quick-tempered brothers before it escalated into physical blows. He’d been speaking with Gavin at the time, so his abrupt departure left Kimberly alone with him, and allowed her to appease her curiosity.
Gavin, she had discovered, belonged to that castle across the lake, or rather, it belonged to him. He’d been born there, so had always been a neighbor, though in his early thirties, he was far enough older than Lachlan and Nessa, that they hadn’t been younger companions together. But he’d been one of the first to notice when Nessa had begun to mature into a little beauty. She’d still been a tomboy, still had no interest in men, but that hadn’t stopped him from courting her from that time on, all to no avail.
Kimberly had learned all of this when she’d asked him, “It doesn’t bother you to marry a woman who—ah—?”
“Despises me?” he helpfully finished for her. “But she doesna. She always says she does, and I used tae believe it, but I know better now. She always comes tae me when she needs help. She always cries on my shoulder when she’s the need tae be doing that. She tells me her dreams. She tells me her desires. And I was sick tae my soul o’ hearing how she loves the MacGregor, until I realized ’twas nae more’n a habit she had since she was a wee bairn.”
He seemed like a really nice man, too nice for the vindictive Nessa. He had blond hair a bit darker than her own, and amiable brown eyes. He was no taller than Kimberly, and he had pleasant features, nothing extraordinary like Lachlan’s, but strong, friendly.
“She went to great lengths for a habit,” Kimberly remarked. “She even came to you—” Again she couldn’t finish, embarrassed by the subject.
But again he understood, replying, “As I said, she always came tae me for help when she was needing it. In this case, she could’ve just asked for the money, and I’d have given it. She knew that. But she’s prideful, you ken, and she knew she’d have nae way tae repay it, sae she offered herself. I should’ve refused, but”—he blushed here—“I’ve wanted her tae long, and I was hoping, praying, that this is what would happen when the MacGregor found out.”
“That he’d force her to marry you?”
“Aye,” he said, then he smiled. “And I dinna doubt she knew this would be his reaction as well. She’d turned me down tae many times, you see. Her pride was in the way o’ her accepting me now.”
Kimberly was amazed. “You’re suggesting she’d changed her mind and wanted to marry you, but couldn’t bring herself to say so?”
He nodded. “I’ve—spent the night wi’ her, you ken. Much was revealed tae me that night o’ her feelings, that even she wasna aware of. She’s protesting now, but ’tis all for show, I’m thinking, for her pride’s sake. She’s a complicated lass, is my Nessa.”
