"It tells me all I need to know, Henry Munro."
"Actually, it doesn't. This came from Lachlan's uncle. I promised to deliver it to you but have not even read it yet."
Waving the parchment loose to show her that it had been tightly folded into place, Henry frowned as a word caught his eye. Taking the paper in hand, he scanned the script more carefully.
"What are you doing?" Belle asked, breathing heavily and scowling at him with narrowed eyes.
It was clear that his distraction was angering her, but Henry was boiling with far greater rage.
What is he doing?
"I am planning exactly how I shall make Murdock Hunter eat this agreement before I see you sign it," he snarled.
Belle blinked at the violence in his tone. "What?"
"This is a transfer of lairdship," Henry explained. His eyes were still on the parchment, but they were hardly seeing anything beneath their sheen of red. The voice that came from between his lips was one he had not heard before. Ice cold and cruel. "An agreement that, upon your marriage, Lachlan Hunter claims all rights to the Henderson province. Its land, resources...everything. You would not rule as a pair but under a single lairdship attached to Lachlan's name."
"Is that so bad?"
Henry's eyes snapped up to Belle's. His expression must have reflected his fury because it caused her to take a step back. She bumped into the masonry around the window.
"Excuse me?" He could not believe she had asked that.
"Lachlan is a good man."
The words felt like a deadly poison smoking up the room. Henry wanted to cough with it.
"A good man?"
"He is kind."
She was damn well defending the man!
"He is nice to you because he wants your land!" Henry said, waving the parchment. It rippled like a flag of accusation. Belle, however, was frowning.
"Is it not possible that this is all the uncle's doing? That Lachlan could, in fact, like me with sincerity?"
"No!"
The word shot from Henry's lips on a wave of jealousy. There was nothing he could do to stop it but, the instant it left his tongue, he wanted it back. The hurt in Belle's face was obvious and more than fair. He had basically implied that no man could be interested in her for her own merit, that they would all be seeking her birthright. Not only was that completely untrue, but it was almost laughably hypocritical considering his own love for her.
Because that's what it was.
The natural pull that drew him to her chamber every day. The sweet calm he felt in her presence whenever they conversed. The blazing heat that consumed him with every touch. The way he kept searching for the blue in her eyes and anticipated the curl of her sweetly curved lips when she smiled.
It was love. Pure and simple.
And vibrantly possessive.
That was why every word that should be breezed away had been sticking to him like sand on silk. Why he was irritated by anything and everything.
The woman he loved was being tied to another man.
And there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
Impotent and reduced to thievery, Henry could only steal the opportunities that came upon them when they did. Like beneath the dining table. Like in the woods.
Likenow.
