“Youwhore,” he spat again and gripped her arms even tighter.
She winced against the pain, but she pushed on anyway. She wanted to anger him again. She wanted to know that no matter what he did to her now, she would always be a woman who another had first. She would never truly belong to Lord More.
“I shared a Highlander’s bed, and willingly so,” she seethed up at him.
“What did you do with him?” These words were so shocking, she tried to pull out of his grasp, but he tussled with her, pulling her off her seat until she was on her knees on the floor of the carriage, her head tilted up completely toward him. “Tell me how damaged my bride-to-be is!”
“Oh, I held nothing back,” she said with confidence, keeping her voice clear. “I gave him every part of me.”
She barely noticed one of his hands leaving her arm. She was too busy staring at the blackness of his eyes and the twitch of anger in the muscles of his face. Then the strike came across her cheek again.
She clung to her burning cheek and tried to scramble away from him across the carriage, but he didn’t let her get far. He hauled her back to kneel before him and grabbed her neck, forcing her to look up at him.
“Tell me the Highlander’s name. Was it your abductor?”
“I was never abducted!” she shouted at him. “Tell yourself that if it makes you happy, but whatever was in that letter from Erskine to you was a lie. I ran from you. Willingly.”
“You harlot,” he manhandled her forward again, but she tried to resist, placing her hands against his chest and keeping her body as far back from him as possible.
She wanted him to know everything, to know how she had outsmarted him for so long and escaped to another country. All just to be away from him.
“I despise you,” she said, her voice such a seething whisper that he paused in his tussle with her, staring at her. “Every fiber of your being do I hate. So afraid I was of marrying you that I disguised myself as a boy, and I left London.”
“A boy,” he shook her, making Laura let out a strangled cry against the grasp on her throat.
“Yes, you never thought to look for a boy, did you?” she smirked at the idea. “All those English soldiers you sent searching for me were after a woman. Not a boy.”
“So that’s how you got this far,” he summarized, smiling but with no humor in it.
“I talked my way into a group of traveling Scotsmen, and they brought me here. Did you really think I was abducted? Did you flatter yourself that the reason I was gone was because of somebody else’s will and not my own?”
“Stop talking!” He shook her again, tightening the hold around her neck. She clawed at it with both hands, creating deep scratch marks that cut through his skin. “Ahhh!” he roared and released her, tossing her across the carriage. She moved away and scrambled back onto the seat.
“Quite the little witch, aren’t you?” he sneered. “I don’t think I’ve ever taken a woman with so much fire in her before.”
These words left Laura cold.
“I’ll enjoy this.” Lord Moore moved toward her again. She attempted to lift her foot to kick him away, but he batted it away easily and landed on top of her, pressing her into the seat of the carriage.
“No, release me!” she cried just as his hand went back to her throat, tilting her chin up high, the move domineering and taking control of her.
“Open your eyes!” he ordered. He flexed his fingers, showing just what he would do if she refused, so she obeyed the command. Looking up at those black eyes, she thought they were like empty holes, with nothing behind them. No feeling, no heart, just empty. “Well, if a Highlander has already had you, then it’s time to show you just who your master is.”
“You wouldn’t,” she said slowly, not wanting to believe it was true, but she knew he would not hesitate. Those rumors of him favoring a woman in his bed who did not want to be there had to be based on some truth.
“Let’s find out, shall we?” he reached down to her legs, and she screamed.
* * *
“Can ye see them?” Erskine called to the others.
“Nay! Nae yet,” Tam’s call came back as he rode back to their position. They had stopped at a lookout point on the clifftop road, trying to get a view of the path ahead, but it had done little use. “The trees are too thick at this time of year. I cannae see a thing.”
“On we go then,” Erskine turned the horse, and it lurched forward once more. Beside him rode Tam, with Camden and Aiden behind.
“I daenae understand!” Camden shouted above the clomping of the horses’ hooves on the ground to be heard. “How is her betrothed here now? How did he ken where to find her?”
Erskine had hurried to explain to the others so far on the journey just why Laura had left her home in the first place and decided to disguise herself as a boy. As expected, they were all shocked at the thought of the man they had met in the gambling hall marrying her. Camden had said he wished they had known she was a woman sooner. He still would not have hesitated in taking her away from there.
