As soon as the door clicked shut, Flora turned to him. Fists clenched at her side, she took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. “What does it say?”
His jaw clenched forbiddingly. “We will discuss it later.”
There could be only one explanation for his anger. “Hector refused?”
The look he shot her made her take a step back. His expression was as fierce as she’d ever seen it. He’d never looked at her with something akin to…resentment. “I said not now. Return to your chamber”—his hard gaze fell to her breasts and then lowered—“unless you’d care to resume where we left off?”
She flinched, his words as effective as a slap. The crude taunt after the intimacies they’d just shared stung. Something was wrong. Why was he lashing out at her like this? She’d thought him hard and forbidding, perhaps even ruthless, but never cruel. Was it something Hector had said? A lump settled low in her belly. Or had she done something wrong?
Mouth trembling, she stood her ground. “Why are you treating me like this? I deserve to know. Tell me what the letter says.”
Hard blue eyes bored into her. There was something raw in his gaze that made her heart tug. She made a movement toward him and then stopped self-consciously. His shoulders were so stiff, she yearned to put her hands on him and rub away the tension from the thick slabs of muscle. Only moments ago she’d been in his arms, and now he seemed untouchable. An insurmountable fortress had sprung up between them; she wondered if she’d only imagined the moments of intimacy.
“Please,” she urged.
He stared at her for a long moment, looking as if he were going to explode in rage; then, inexplicably, the fight seemed to leave him. “Damn you,” he swore.
She reached for him then, placing her hand on his chest, feeling the tension under her palm. “What did he say?”
“I don’t know.” His voice sounded oddly hollow.
Her brows furrowed. She didn’t understand. She’d seen him open it. “But why…?”
All of a sudden, it hit her.He couldn’t read it. She nearly sighed with relief. He wasn’t angry with her. But he’d wanted to hide it from her. God, did he think she would ridicule him? She cringed inwardly, realizing that she might have—at one time. But not now. Not since she’d grown to know him. And respect him.
Having to fight for his clan rather than attend Tounis College in Edinburgh, as most of the Highland chiefs’ sons now did, including her brothers, in no way diminished her opinion of him. Though she couldn’t deny that many would feel differently. Her mother, for one. One of the things Janet Campbell had deplored in the men she’d married had been their lack of education. Learning had always been important to Flora as well. But Lachlan had made her realize that schooling did not necessarily equate with intelligence. Any man who could defend himself against attack from her powerful brother for so many years had more than proved himself in that regard.
“You didn’t attend Tounis?”
He held her gaze stiffly, as if bracing himself for her scorn. “No, there was not the opportunity or the means. I can read Erse, but not Scots. A fact of which your brother is well aware.”
Flora frowned, not liking what that said about Hector. “May I see it?”
He hesitated. For some reason, he still seemed reluctant to give it to her. Then he slipped it out of his sporran and placed it in her hand. The stiff piece of wrinkled parchment crackled as Flora unfolded it carefully. She read it over quickly, trying to prevent her relief from showing.
Lifting her gaze to him, she saw the harsh flex of his jaw. “Shall I read it?”
He nodded.
“‘Release my sister or suffer the consequences. Consider this a warning. The only one you shall receive.’”
“Strange,” she said, her gaze narrowing on the piece of parchment. “He doesn’t address your demands at all.”
His expression went blank. “I think we can assume a refusal.”
Ignoring the stab of hurt, Flora schooled her features into a mask of indifference. “I feared as much. Perhaps you will believe me now. Hector will never willingly relinquish the castle. Not for me, anyway.”
This time, he didn’t argue with her.
There was no reason to hold her now. “You will release me, then?”
“No.”
The flat refusal reverberated through her, shaking her to the core. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how important it was to her. She needed him to let her go so she could make her own choice on whether to stay. “But there is no other reason to keep me here.”
He didn’t say anything, just stared at her. Ruthless and determined.
Apprehension coiled inside her. There was only one reason to keep her. One that would confirm her worst fears. “You’ve changed your mind,” she said dully, barely able to get out the words. “You’ll force me to marry you.”
