“Indifferent!”
“She is mine, my lord. As is her dowry. Do not ask me again or I will be forced to toss you unceremoniously from my land. And my lady wife would not like that.”
Aaron folded his arms and sighed. “You love her. Or you think you do.” His tone made it sound like he’d just been bitten by a poisonous snake. Which was an odd sentiment from a man who professed to be blissfully in love with Miss Rees.
Nevertheless, the words gave Liam pause. Among Scotsmen, he was considered a thoughtful man who planned, but all Scotsman had a passion that burned through their blood. His father’s was fucking, no better way to say it. If it settled the fire in his loins, then he pursued it. Mairi’s passion was for organizing everything to her liking. The kitchen, the people, even the weather seemed to bend to her command. Perhaps that was why he had a fondness for Clara. Her passion for learning often controlled her, but without purpose, her passion would burn uselessly to the detriment of everyone. Like his father’s did.
Liam’s one failing was that he had no passion and no purpose beyond what he had set for himself at a very young age. He meant to see his people prosper. And to that end, he had gone to school, made influential friends, and spent many nights ferreting out the best way to bring education to this remote corner of Scotland. With education came ideas, and good ideas made money. Plus, it gave everyone something else to do beyond rutting or fighting.
A woman who genuinely enjoyed learning would, of course, be attractive to him. Make her an heiress, and he had spent the better part of a year in pursuit of her. To attach an emotion such as love or even passion to that pursuit was beside the point. He wanted her. He caught her. And now, he needed to use her to bring about the future he’d planned for since the day—at seven years old—that he’d seen the body of a child who’d died of starvation.
“Call it love if you want,” he said brusquely as he shouldered his way past Aaron. “She’s staying with me.”
Aaron grabbed his arm. “Do you honestly think you can make her happy? That either of you can be happy?”
He would be happy if no one in the county ever died of starvation again. “Clara will be happy because I will see to it,” he said. “And if you and Lilah leave.”
“What?”
“She needs to accept her new life here, and she won’t do it if you’re constantly offering to take her away.”
“I am—”
He rounded on Aaron. “Do you really want to make me—her husband—the villain in all this? She has agreed to try. You have to let her do it without constantly offering her something else.” He lifted his chin. “Now do I throw you out or do you respect her and leave as she asked?”
“She didn’t ask me to leave,” Aaron huffed.
“A fact that makes no difference.”
He could see Aaron struggle with his thoughts. The desire to protect his sister warred with the certain knowledge that this was the best future for her. A place where her educational passion would be valued, even if it was in the wilds of Scotland. At least that’s what he told himself.
He knew he’d won when Aaron fell back on the most ridiculous reason to stay behind.
“I cannot travel with Miss Rees alone. We’re not yet married.”
“You have a maid and valet with you.”
“It’s not enough.”
The hell it wasn’t. Especially since Miss Rees was an acknowledged bastard who ran an employment registry office. Her reputation was already ruined among the elite. Traveling alone with her fiancé would do nothing to harm it one way or another.
“If you cannot think of a way around that, then you are the stupidest man alive.”
