“My Lord, Lady Millbrook is betrothed to another,” the advisor muttered in his ear.
“I know that!” he exploded. “But this man… For this man to take her honor, and then?—"
“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to dae?” Arran replied. “When a lady is sullied in such a way?”
Amelia knew that he was right. There was only one way to handle what her father believed had happened between them. It hadn’t even crossed her mind to suggest such a thing, but now that the possibility was being laid out in front of her, she could see that it might just have worked. If she could find a way to convince them that she was sullied and ruined by this brute of a man, there was no way that she would be valuable enough to marry off to her would-be husband. Granted, she didn’t know how to deal with Arran if her father agreed to this, but surely any fate was better than the one he had chosen for her.
“Laird Aitken is known across the land to be a brute!” The advisor cut in, his voice strained with panic. “No outsider who has ever set foot in his Keep has left alive!”
Amelia shivered, and looked at Arran again. His face was impassive, impossible to read. She could still see a few flecks of blood spattered across his knuckles. She could easily believe that he didn’t let anyone step out of his Keep, if he felt as though they had wronged him. He carried himself with the certainty of a man who knew that all debts that were owed to him would be repaid, one way or another.
“This is all your fault, girl!” her father exclaimed, stepping towards her again, though this time, he seemed to know better than to push further than he had before. Though he might not have been willing to admit it, there was clearly some part of him that was fearful of Arran, what he might do if he were given the chance.
“If you hadn’t been so reckless, so foolish,” he continued, venom dripping from every word. “Then you’d never have gotten us into this mess in the first place, you stupid, stupid girl!”
Arran shifted his weight so that he was blocking her father from reaching her. All at once, she was grateful for him. Though she was sure he had performed such cruelties that she could hardly imagine, in that instant, he was the only one on her side, and God only knew how much she needed that.
“Please, father, listen to me,” she begged him. “I… I could not marry that man, you can’t just sell me off as though I’m nothing better than cattle.”
“You’re my daughter,” he snarled back at her. And, though she knew it to be true, when she looked into his eyes, she found it hard to believe that the man looking back at her was truly her father. He was truly the man who had raised her and cared for her and shown her so much love when she had been a young girl. Had he even done all of that? Perhaps she was misremembering.Because surely, a man capable of what he was doing now could never have cared for her or loved her in the way that a father should.
“Aye, and I’m offering to make her my wife,” Arran replied. The words sounded almost surreal coming out of his mouth, making her head spin. After all the chaos of the last few days, the exhaustion was starting to get the better of her, and she didn’t know if she had it in her to fight. Could she leave with this man, this man who seemed so dangerous? This man whom she had seen in the woods, next to the body of a stag? And she was far from the strength of a stag…
“You’ll pay?” her father asked, his voice careful. Arran nodded sharply.
“Aye, I’ll pay.”
Her heart sank. So, that was all she was to him. Another bounty he could conquer, another hunt he could win. She swallowed hard to dim the lump in her throat, glancing over towards her sisters, both of whom were watching her with eyes wide and lips parted.
For them. Do this for them. Protect them from whatever your father would have to do if you denied him…
But could she really dedicate her life to some kind of monster in the process?
5
“You don’t have to do this, Arran,” she told him through gritted teeth. She didn’t want him thinking that she was some object that had been sullied, and now he, as the one who had broken her, needed to pay for what he had done. He shot a look in her direction, his sharp eyes catching her off-guard.
“I dinnae need to,” he agreed. “But I want to.”
Want.That word seemed to contain so much meaning, so much more than she had ever known in her life. Did he want her? And if he did… what exactly did it mean? She clenched her fists at her sides, trying to distill some of the emotion coursing through her body in that moment.
Her father extended his hand to Arran at once, without another word.
“We’ll sort through the details later,” he replied. “As long as you have the money, my daughter will make a doting wife for you.”
“Father!” she exclaimed, her voice twisting in her throat. How could he be so…callouswith her? She heard a gasp, and looked across to see her sisters clutching each other, their eyeswide. She bit back more protest, reminding herself that this was meant to be for their benefit, after all.
“Sir, much as I understand you’re thinking behind this, please, consider the reputation of Laird Aitken,” his advisor muttered urgently. “His violence is well-known throughout the land. Your daughter?—"
“I’ll visit Aitken Keep,” her father replied dismissively, as though it should have been obvious. “At least make certain he has the kind of home to which my daughter has become accustomed.”
Arran jerked his head.
“No, you won’t,” he replied. “Only members of the clan come to the Keep. Everyone else keeps their distance. If they’ve got their wits about them.”
Amelia stared at him, at this wild man who had found her in the forest and ridden with her back to the inn. She hardly knew him, but, if what the advisor said was true, then she knew she had good reason to be afraid of him. Just what exactly was he capable of? And what exactly was her father selling her into, at the cost of her own life? A brute like that, the things he could do to her in a marital bed, though he was so gentle with her before…
A shock of heat coursed through her system, and she did her best to brush it aside, focusing on what was laid out before her.
