“Nay,” he stated, reaching for her. “Donna do this tae us.”
Ida stepped closer to her uncle, who wrapped his arm around her shoulders, surprising her. “Git out,” he seethed.
Ian looked at Ida for one long moment before his jaw hardened. “Is that wot ye want?”
Nay, it wasn’t what she wanted at all! She wanted what he had promised her, what they had realized before her uncle had interrupted them. She wanted that happiness in her life. “Aye,” she said instead, her heart breaking. “I think tis for the best.”
Ian opened his mouth to say something but promptly shut it. “Alright lass,” he bit out. “I’m leaving.”
Ida watched him go, desperate to call him back. She knew she had to do what was right for her uncle, but this didn’t feel right at all. It felt like her heart was breaking, that she had just given up something very precious to her.
Her uncle dropped his arm from around her shoulders. “Good riddance,” he muttered, snatching his cap off the ground that had gotten knocked off his head in the tussle. “Good for nothing Wallaces will do nothing but murder ye in yer bed!”
Ida ignored him, tears blurring her eyes. She wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that Ian was better than anyone she had ever encountered in her own clan but she would be wasting her breath with her uncle.
So instead, she looked at him. “Unless ye are going tae help in the stables, I would like a moment’s peace.”
He eyed her distrustfully, as if she was going to run after Ian and drag him back. That was exactly what she wished to do, but the words had been said between them. He wasn’t coming back. “Fine,” he grumbled. “I dinna want tae be here anyway.”
Ida waited until he had left, the door shutting behind him before she slid down onto the wooden floor, tears flowing down her cheeks. She had done what needed to be done, but it didn’t feel at all like what should have happened.
What if she was wrong to think that her life should revolve around her uncle? What if what he needed was for her to give him an ultimatum to turn his life around or she would leave him to his fate? It was what most would have done in her situation and would have left long ago at that.
Sighing, Ida didn’t even bother to stop the tears as they rolled down her face. It mattered not. She had made her choice and Ian wasn’t going to wait around for her to change her mind. He was a laird, one that needed a wife, a partner and she had turned him down.
She had chosen family over a life of happiness that would have made her more than just what everyone saw her as.
Ida didn’t know how long she sat there, on the floor but after a while, she picked herself up, dusting off her skirts. There were no more tears to release.
15
Ian stormed toward the keep, replaying the events from earlier in his mind. What had happened? He had proposed marriage to Ida, thinking that she would be willing to accept his hand. He was a laird and was offering her more than she had right now.
It would be a good match, yet she hadn’t accepted his hand at all. Somehow, Ian thought that regardless of her uncle interrupting them that she wouldn’t have accepted it.
Blowing out a breath, Ian moved inside the great hall, seeing his sister striding toward him. “Where have ye been?” she asked, eyeing his clothing. “Why are ye soaking wet and dripping all over the stone?”
“I did as ye suggested,” he growled, feeling as if his heart had been torn in two. “And she rejected mah.”
Iris’s eyes widened before she was grabbing his arm and moving Ian into a small alcove away from the lingering people in the great hall. “Wot do ye mean?”
He shoved his hand through his hair, feeling the dampness of his locks. “I asked her tae marry mah and she didna exactly jump at the chance.”
Iris placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “How did ye do it? Did ye tell her how ye feel?”
He hadn’t, Ian realized. He had told her that he wanted more than the alliance but he hadn’t come out and told her that he was in love with her.
The thought hit him out of nowhere, punching him directly in the heart. Love? He had vowed not to love another after his first, knowing that a Scot was horridly vulnerable the moment he admitted what was in his heart.
“See?” Iris said softly, her eyes full of understanding. “Ye do love her.”
“Nay,” he blurted out, shaking his head. “I canna love her. I canna love anyone.” It would be his downfall to fall in love with someone who consumed his every being.
“Och Ian,” she replied. “Ye can and ye do. I can see it all over yer face.”
Ian swallowed. He could deny it all he liked but bleedy hell, he did have strong feelings for the feisty lass that had captured more than his attention.
“Tell mah exactly wot happened,” his sister urged. “Tae see if we can fix this.”
