“Let go of me!” Isla insisted as she wrenched her arm free of his grip.
They had walked so fast that they had reached their chambers.
“Inside,” Camron ordered her.
He would not have this fight where anyone could hear it. He was sure that Archie would have all the staff feeding information back to him at any chance he got, making certain that he was up to date with anything unfolding in the Keep that he could use to his advantage.
“Why, so ye can lay claim to what ye think belongs to ye again?” she demanded, though she followed him inside, at least willing to grant him some measure of privacy.
He gritted his teeth.
“Ye dinnae have to say it,” she continued, filling in the blanks of his silence. “I ken well that ye only want me for one thing.”
“And what is that, exactly?” he retorted, rounding on her suddenly.
For a moment, she wavered, as if she had not expected him to stand up to her in such a way, but soon, she gathered herself and continued.
“My body,” she replied, tossing her hair impetuously over one shoulder. “And because you need a wife. You never saw me as an equal, you only ever saw me as a thing to be tamed, like?—”
“And would ye rather Archie had ye instead, is that it?” he hissed back.
He knew it was unfair to toss such an accusation at her, but he could not stop himself. Seeing his cousin speaking with her—his honeyed words no doubt set to undercut Camron entirely—had sparked insecurity in him that he did not want to admit to, let alone want her to see.
“Oh, this is about yer cousin,” she laughed, forcing the mirth from her lips like she needed him to see how little it meant to her. “Of course it is. I cannae have so much as a friend in this place if?—”
“He’s no friend to ye,” he cut her off. “Or anyone here.”
“At least I dinnae have the most ridiculous standards to live up to when I’m with him!” she argued. “I dinnae have to be some dainty, soft-spoken Laird’s wife, like I do wi’ ye.”
“Ye think that’s what I want from ye?”
“Ye heard the way Robert spoke to me,” she pointed out. “And ye just sat there, ye didnae have a thing to say about it. Forgive me if I think ye were rather on his side.”
He shook his head fervently.
“I’ve never been on that old fool’s side as long as I’ve lived,” he muttered. “I only kept my mouth shut because I was trying to find a way to shut his mouth without putting those farmers he was speaking of at risk. I ken how he takes revenge when he feels he has been brushed aside… just like my father did.”
She stared at him for a long moment, as if calculating, trying to make sense of how much she believed him, if at all. He did not break her gaze, did not even try to. He had been too reticent with her before, and he could see the harm it had caused her, the weight she carried as a result. And he would not leave her to bear it alone, not if it meant that she would turn to his cousin, of all people, for help when she needed it most.
“He said yer father would never have stood for me talking the way I did,” she murmured, her eyes searching his, her voice softening.
Whatever fury had been there when her pride had been injured seemed to have eased slightly, giving way to what trulylay beneath. This insecurity, this doubt that she might not be good enough.
“Aye, and he wouldnae have,” he agreed. “But he was a very different man to me.”
“In what way?” she asked.
The candlelight flickered on her face as she stared at him, seeking answers instead of just battling for a change. And, as much as it stung to crack those parts of him open, he knew that he could not ask her to believe and trust in him if he did not expose himself to her.
“He was a cruel man, my father,” he admitted, finally drawing his gaze away from her as he spoke at last. “A cruel and callous man. And he imagined that life took a certain path and that it was up to him to make sure that everyone followed that path, whether it suited them or no’. Including me.”
“What did he…”
“He was rough wi’ me,” he replied, his voice hollowing as the memories flooded him once more. “He taught me lessons with his fists when he could. Robert stood by and encouraged everyone. He thought it was the only way to make a boy into a man, to make an heir into a Laird. And perhaps he was right, but I vowed I would never do the same thing. I would never force my children to endure what my father did to me, even if they turned out soft as a result. A soft child is far better to me than one who cannae speak their mind for fear of taking a blow in answer.”
He was surprised to find the words passing his lips with ease, as though there had been a part of him waiting to get them out for longer than he could imagine. And she pressed her lips together and watched him, her eyes searching his as she took him in, like she was seeing a side of him she had only imagined till that point.
“But Archie…” she murmured, shaking her head. “He said that you were like him. That you carried yer father’s blood in you and that you would be cruel in the same way he was.”
