They gazed at each other in awkward silence.
“I expect my father sent a missive ahead of my arrival.”
“Aye, how else would we know ye were coming?”
Her cheeks heated at the dim-wittedness of her words. Could it have been any more obvious? “I-I am sorry,” she said, “if I appear unsettled, ’tis only because of the long voyage. I doona have worthy sea legs, I fear.”
“I have yet to meet a lowlander who does.”
Another veiled insult, but she couldn’t blame the stranger for finding her lacking in endurance or whatever else Highlanders prized as superior characteristics in a man or woman. “I was born in the Highlands, sir.”
His eyebrows hitched. “I am familiar with yer family’s history,” he said as he took her arm and ushered her in the opposite direction she had been going. “If I can give ye any advice to protect ye, doona share yer personal story with anyone. ’Tis better to forget the House of Bane.”
What?“Wait!” She shrugged out of his grasp and halted in her tracks. Though his words offended her, there was something appealing about his eyes. Why would she even consider him charming when he had insulted her intelligence, then laughed at her? “What kind of thing is that to say?”
He raised his head heavenward and blew out a breath. “The truth.”
She crossed her arms. “Whose truth?”
He stared at her, obviously wishing he could be anywhere else but here with her. “The only reason ye are here is to pay an old debt my sire owed to yer father. They are verradistantcousins,” he emphasized, “and now that we have taken responsibility for ye, we consider that debt satisfied.”
“What debt, sir? And if ye’d rather not take me in, I am sure I can make me own way. I am good with a needle and can cook better than any maid. I am not unaccustomed to hard work, though small I may be.” Her mother had called her slight and graceful.
His intense gaze took her in. “The only strength I see is in yer mouth, that defiant tongue yer father was sure to warn us about.”
Her jaw dropped open. “Ye know nothing about me. How dare ye make assumptions.” How dare he possess such a tempting mouth—a smirking one at that—that she suddenly wanted to kiss. All men, she feared, were egotistical and self-serving. But she could not deny this one’s physical appeal—arse that he was.
“Are ye calling yer da a liar?”
“My sire ismanythings. And his truth is very different than the facts.”
She had the scars inside to prove it. A shattered heart that she’d barely managed to put back together. What remained was meant for the man she hoped to fall in love with one day. And her future children—of which she wanted a dozen.
“We can stand here all day haggling about what is true or no’,” he said. “Or we can make our way to the horses and ride home.”
She looked over his shoulder in the direction of the water. “What horses?”
He pointed. “A half-mile from here.”
“And what about my trunk?” Everything she valued in the world had been wedged inside it.
“My men already claimed it for ye. When I dinna find ye at the dock, I came here.”
“Is this a MacKay village?”
“’Tis part of our holdings.”
Then nothing in this village would go unnoticed by his clan, including her trying to find a place to work and live. Unfortunately, her mother had been an English noblewoman who’d fallen in love with a bloody Scot. The marriage had not been sanctioned by her maternal grandfather, thus dividing the family forever.
She couldn’t live as a commoner even if she wanted to, for her father would never allow it, even though he hated her. Impressions meant more to him than his daughters. And if she dared venture out in the world on her own, he’d hunt her down and kill her for dishonoring the Bane name.
“Lass,” Adam said. “The choice is yers.”
“What choice?” ’Twas nothing more than a veiled threat! Go with him quiet and compliant or get forcibly carried away. “Ye have a verra underhanded way of presenting me with a choice.”
He blew out a breath, obviously wanting her to notice his frustration. “I am no’ accustomed to being refused, lass. Whatever ye choose: to come willingly or no’, if ye choose the latter, I will throw ye over me shoulder and tie ye to the mare I brought for ye to ride the short distance to our castle.”
She thrust her hand on her hip, staring unblinkingly at the coarse warrior standing before her. All her life men had forced their will upon her. Telling her where to go, who to speak with, what to wear… It made Kali want to lash out and free herself from all the pent-up frustrations she held inside. Adam’s arrogance should cool her reaction to him immediately. But it didn’t, it made her only more determined to deny any attraction to him.
