She had always been told she was the spitting image of her maternal grandmother, and her mother never bothered to hide how much she despised it. In her twenty-five years, her motherhad only ever complimented her blue eyes—the only striking feature she shared with her and Edmund.
Her eyes watered slightly, and her cheeks burned, pulsing in time with her heartbeat.
“I should never have trusted you, Marian,” Edmund muttered from across the room, then he turned back to look at her, his gaze sharper than before. “Do you know what it cost me to arrange all of this?”
He paused for a moment, his frown deepening as though he had been expecting a response.
“I sent you north so that the Highland brute would be forced to acknowledge you.”
He walked back toward her. His cane hit the floor beside her with a sharp, deliberate tap that made her flinch.
“When you wrote that the MacLeod heir was alive, I made the necessary adjustments,” he continued. “It was the perfect situation. Your marriage is the final piece needed to secure everything.”
Marian stilled at the implication of his words. Cold crept beneath her skin, and she looked up at him, her jaw slack in disbelief.
“You planned this?” The question was a mere whisper.
“Of course.” Edmund let out a dry laugh. “I hoped to avoid… unpleasant measures,” he went on, sounding almost bored now. “Had you cooperated, the land would have been passed on to me, eventually.”
Marian stared at him in shock. She had always known him to be cold-hearted, but everything he had done today had left her doubting reality itself.
Perhaps this is a nightmare.
The sting in her eyes told her it was not, and she blinked, forcing back the tears before they could fall.
Now is not the time.
“Mama…” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Does she… does she know what you are doing?”
Edmund paused to roll his eyes. Then he looked at her as though he wondered if she were mad.
“Mama,” he echoed mockingly. “Even after all these years, you still address her as such.” He paused, his eyes roving over her. “You foolish child.”
Marian’s lips trembled. She closed her eyes, drawing in a slow breath to steady herself before speaking again.
“Does she know?” she asked again, opening her eyes slowly to meet his cold, unrelenting gaze.
He did not answer at once. He stayed quiet for a moment, and so did she, though his eyes only seemed to grow colder as the seconds passed.
“It was her idea,” he revealed.
The words hit her square in the chest. Her heart broke.
“I do not believe you,” she whispered, though she knew from the certainty in his cold gaze that he was speaking the truth. “It is a lie. I cannot believe you without proof.”
Edmund’s eyes gleamed at the challenge. “My dear niece…”
He reached for her hand, but she pulled away sharply, recoiling from his cold, clammy touch.
He laughed softly. “Very well,” he said, shifting his weight onto his cane. “Your mother understands the value of securing property. She was quite practical about this matter.” His gaze sharpened. “In truth, it was she who first proposed sending you north. I only executed the plan.”
Marian gasped in disbelief.
“She was certain that you would give whatever it took to secure your dead father’s land, even your life,” Edmund continued smoothly. “Only then did I decide that you could be trusted.” He slapped his forehead in mock regret. “Foolish, silly, Edmund.”
His eyes narrowed as he continued to ramble, speaking of the many ways he had conspired with her mother to make the situation what it was.
A tear rolled down her cheek before she could stop it.
