He is not the man I thought him to be! Remember that!
Yet each memory came back to her, and she realized it was little wonder she had fallen so much in love with him. The picture he had portrayed was one of a man with a lot of passion and a lot of heart.
She thought of the first moment she saw him as he had torn her away from the thieves in Covent Garden. That simple grasp on her arm as he had pulled her behind him, blocking the thieves’ access to her… From that first moment, he had presented himself as someone to be trusted.
How wrong I was.
It was not only an act of kindness but an act of a man with a good heart. He could have moved on and ignored her. He thought her a boy at the time, and he was a Scotsman in the world of London. He could have quite easily decided it was none of his business and walked on, leaving her to her troubles, but he hadn’t. He had put himself in jeopardy in order to save a stranger.
Her mind flicked through all the conversations and laughter that they had shared, straight up until the kiss by the loch, where he had pushed her against the tree, pressing their bodies together.
She closed her eyes now, blocking out the view beyond the carriage window and absorbing herself in the heartbreak he had caused. Behind the darkness of her eyes, she relived the moment they had made love. The way he had kissed her skin, worshipping her whole body as he rocked the two of them together, with his hand on her hip, bringing her up to meet each of his thrusts. It hadn’t just been excitement or pleasure. It had been about trusting one another, loving one another. Well, that’s what she had thought. She had been misled.
Nothing will ever be the same again.
“Are you crying?” Lord Moore’s voice came from behind her.
She opened her eyes and turned back to look at him, sitting fully in her seat once again. His thin lips were curled back in a sneer.
“I don’t believe it,” he shook his head. “You would actually prefer to live in that Highland hell hole, wouldn’t you?” he shouted the last words so loud that she cowered away from him into the side of the carriage.
She was reminded of the moment in London when Lord Moore had first been introduced as her betrothed. The way he had placed his hand possessively on her back had made her feel so small and powerless. That feeling was back now.
I am doomed to marry him. I will have to live a life at his beck and call and give my body to a man I despise. When he forces me…it will be the worst moment of my life.
This thought brought fresh tears.
“Do shut up,” he sat straight in his seat. “I cannot believe I am to marry a woman who has spent God knows how long in the company of those Highlanders.” His insults grated on her. She covered her face, trying to stop her tears and block out the sound of his cruel voice. “How many of them were you passed between, eh?”
These awful words made her look up from her hands, her eyes darting across his face. He was looking at her with such repulsion that she was trying to push as far away from him as she possibly could, feeling the indent in the soft seat against her back.
“Of all the women in the world,” he shook his head. “I am to marry a Highlander’s whore.”
“Don’t say that.” Her sudden words made his black eyes widen.
“I thought I told you not to speak back to me.”
“And I’ll never follow your orders,” Laura sat forward, determined to lose that sense of powerlessness. She remembered how strong she had felt that day she had bought a weapons belt and placed her flintlock pistol in there.
Oh, if only I had that pistol now!
She knew exactly who she would aim it at.
She wasn’t going to go lightly, though. She would resist Lord Moore all the way. She was tired of this powerless feeling, of just fearing what Lord Moore would do to her. If he didn’t want his wife to shout back, well, he would have to watch out because that was exactly what he was going to get.
He leaned toward her from the seat opposite.
“I am your lord and master now, Laura. Your husband to be. You will do everything I tell you to, or there will be a punishment, and right now, I am telling you to be quiet.” He snapped the words, but she just raised her chin higher.
“And I refuse,” she said calmly.
He moved swiftly. She backed away but being enclosed in the carriage as it lurched back and forth across the track, there was nothing she could do to escape him. He grabbed her arms and gripped her elbows with his fingers, pulling her toward him until she was forced to stare up at him.
“Hold your tongue, or I’ll hold it for you, Highland whore,” his teeth dug into his lips in his effort to intimidate her.
“No,” she said again, “and if it upsets you so much to think that another man has had me, then you should know, you are free to think it.”
His expression darkened even further, causing such a crease in his brow that she thought he would mar his face forever.
