The fury in his tone was barely contained, and, even though she knew that she was his wife and he could do little more thanremonstrate her, she still found herself shifting with discomfort where she sat. Suddenly, the seat seemed rather more trouble than it was worth.
“I didnae realize it was yer seat,” she replied casually, with a shrug. “I must have gotten myself mixed up after last night.”
“Ye ken well that ‘tis my seat,” he growled to her as he lowered his face close to hers.
The scent of him filled her senses once more, the earthy, masculine smell that seemed to radiate from every inch of his body.
“Forgive me, my Laird,” she replied, her voice dripping with enough sarcasm to make it clear to him that she did not mean a word of it. “I’m just trying to make myself at home here. Since I am the Lady of this house, after all.”
Anger flashed in his eyes.
“Is that why ye’ve been makin’ such a nuisance of yerself all day?” he snapped back at her.
“A nuisance?” she replied, widening her eyes as though she could not figure out what he meant. “I’ve just been doing what I can to keep this place running a little more?—”
“I’ve heard it from all sides since the moment ye dragged yerself from yer bed today,” he continued. “So dinnae try to convince me otherwise. Ye’ve been from room to room, ordering around my staff, forcing them to work by yer rules when things have been the same way here for a reason.”
“Aye, and ye’re more than welcome for the help in getting them in hand,” she shot back.
He let out a bark of laughter, so annoyed he clearly had no idea how to respond.
“In hand?” he crowed. “Is that what ye think ye’re doing? Because, from where I’m standing, it seems to me like ye’re trying to make as much trouble as ye can.”
“Perhaps if I’d had a little more time last night to get to know the place,” she replied, cocking her head at him. “I wouldnae have found myself so confused about it today.”
He cast his eyes upward and straightened, stepping back from her, as though he was almost done trying to argue with her.
“Out of that seat. Now.”
“I’m quite comfortable here, thank you,” she replied, playing at innocent.
His hands flexed at his sides, trying to contain the fury that was pressing down on him.
“Ye’ll take yer lunch in yer chambers,” he replied steadily, and she shrugged.
“I think the maids are bringing it to me here.”
“I dinnae think ye’re listening to me, lass,” he murmured, shaking his head.
The look in his eyes reminded her of the night before, when he had watched her dance with Archie, that same arrogance, like he got to control everything she did and everyone she did it with.
“I think I’m listening to ye just fine,husband,”she shot back.
His jaw tightened. She stayed put. She dug her feet into the floor, trying to find some purchase there, trying to convince herself that she belonged as much as he did.
“Ye cannae lend yer wife a seat, just for the day?” she asked him.
She knew that she wasn’t being entirely fair to him. This seat, in a place like this, held great power, it was not a matter of just some chair that he wouldn’t give up like an errant child. But she was not going to give him the chance to point that out, not when she was succeeding so sincerely in what she had set out to do that morning.
“Fine,” he replied, and he made his way to one of the seats at the farthest edge of the table, sitting as far from her as he could bring himself to be.
She almost laughed at how stubborn he was, but she sensed that she had pushed her luck as far as it would go today, especially given that it was only her first day as his wife.
She straightened up and cleared her throat, staring straight ahead as the maids began to bring out their food for the meal. A few of them seemed rather baffled as to why there was nobody else with them, but they served up their lunch all the same. Isla made sure to thank everyone, determined not to look like a complete boorish ass to the maids, not when they had done nothing wrong.
And, as she and her husband took their first meal together at opposite ends of the table, a small swell of excitement lifted her mood. Just a few days in the Keep, and she could tell that he was already starting to question just what she was doing here—and just how long he’d be able to put up with her.
Good.Soon enough, he’d be entirely exhausted with her, and she was sure he would want her out just as soon as he had brought her here.
