He felt his insides twist.
Damn it, not her, too? It couldn’t be true. Cate wouldn’t do that. She was too honest for such deceit. She wasn’t superficial and conniving like Seonaid and her ilk—even if for a moment she sounded like her. He didn’t much like this spiteful, boastful side of Cate. Still, he didn’t want to believe it.
Don’t overreact, he told himself.Calm down. This was Cate. His Cate.
But her own words seemed to damn her. Why had she managed only one feeble denial and acceded to everything else Seonaid accused her of? Why was she throwing her “win” back in the other woman’s face? And then there was her expression when she turned to him and gave a startled, “Gregor!”
Horror. Guilt. Shame. He saw the mixture of emotions cross her delicate features and felt the doubt inside him begin to harden.
He glanced over to Seonaid, and the satisfied cat-like smile on her face hardened him a little more. He’d be damned if he’d let the she-tiger see how deeply her claws had scratched. “Coup?” he asked lazily.
Seonaid smiled. “Just a figure of speech, my laird. But it is quite an achievement for a girl like Caitrina to secure a proposal from a man of your…repute.”
Gregor’s fists curled in spite of himself. He knew exactly what “repute” she was talking about. “A girl like Caitrina?”
Seonaid flushed, probably realizing how petty she sounded. “I merely referred to her being an orphan, my laird.”
He knew exactly what she meant, and it wasn’t that.
Cate seemed to have been knocked from her shock. She grabbed his arm, “Gregor, I—”
He cut her off, not wanting to hear her explanation—at least not right now. “I see you let Seonaid in on our wee jest,” he said.
Cate looked just as surprised at seeing him smile as she was taken aback by his words. “Jest?”
He turned to Seonaid. “Cate told me all about your conversation. We laughed about the ironic timing of our announcement, but we never thought anyone would actually believe it.” He gave her a slow, deadly smile. “Do I look like the type of a man to be trapped by an innocent lass?”
Seonaid flushed hotly, her cheeks turning a bright scarlet red. “Of course not. We were just surprised by the sudden announcement, that’s all.”
“So you decided to speculate as to the reason?” His gaze hardened. “I hope you have not been spreading lies and rumors about my betrothed, Mistress MacIan.”
The lass’s eyes widened at the none-to-subtle threat in his voice. “Nay, of course not!”
“Good,” Gregor said, not believing her for a moment. “Then I assume I will hear no more of this. And you will correct anyone who repeats such malicious lies?” He leveled a pointed gaze on the venomous blonde, and then turned to Cate, who was looking at him with a relieved expression on her face.
With a frantic nod, Seonaid muttered something unintelligible and excused herself, seemingly unable to escape the corridor fast enough.
“Thank you,” Cate said, putting her hand on his arm.
Noticing his stiffening, she looked up at him questioningly. The guileless set of her adorable features seemed to make it worse.
His expression turned to stone. “For what?”
“For defending me. For trusting in me enough to know that what Seonaid said wasn’t true. I didn’t intend to trap you, Gregor.”
His mouth hardened, the bitterness rising inside him threatening to pour out in hot molten waves. “Didn’t you? And yet that’s exactly what happened. You seem to have talked about the very thing with your friend—or former friend. She seemed to recall your conversation quite well. I heard a lot of boasting on your side, but not many denials.”
He expected a stream of denials, and assurances that it had all been lies. Instead, she flushed guiltily. “If you don’t believe me, why did you tell her what you did?” Suddenly the reason came to her. “Oh.”
Aye, being duped was bad enough. He wasn’t going to confirm it for everyone else to hear. The very idea of him falling prey to that kind of machination—being tricked into marriage and made a prize to be “won”—made his skin crawl. It was what he’d sought to avoid for most of his life.
It was what other women did. Not Cate.
Her hand on his arm tightened. She took a step closer. The warmth of her body and the subtle fragrance of her hair teased his already on-edge senses. He had to steel himself against the desire that even now—when his gut felt like it was being chewed up—raced through him.
“Please, Gregor, listen to me—it’s not what you think.”
She had no idea how much he wanted to believe her. “Then you did not say that you were going to trap the ‘handsomest man in Scotland’ into marrying you? Did you not try to best her and ‘win’ me?”
