“You think I came here to be cruel?”
“That is how you are perceived,” she told him. “You took our home by force. You crushed us, swiftly and brutally. You left me no choice but to rebel.”
His eyes had a burning, impassioned look in them. “Is this explanation supposed to make me overlook your treachery?”
She considered the question carefully, then lifted her chin. “Aye, it is. I admit that I violated our agreement, but I was frightened, and you can hardly blame me. You are an intimidating man. It seemed my only option at the time.”
He strode forward with narrowed eyes. “At the time…”
“Aye.”
“You were frightened…”
“Aye.”
“Are you frightened now?” His eyes were forbidding, his voice husky, as he ran a rough knuckle across her cheek.
Gwendolen backed away and bumped into the bed. “Very much so.”
“So you’d do it again if you had the chance? You’d call on some other army to come and remove me by force? Or kill me?”
Her body trembled as she strove to get air into her lungs. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On what army it was. I wouldn’t call in the French. They’d probably take your side over mine.”
Angus held the tiny rolled dispatch in front of her face. “I should beat you senseless for this betrayal, and teach you a lesson you would not soon forget.”
He stood before her, waiting for her to speak.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Angus’s chest was heaving. He wet his lips.
“Will you at least tell me what Colonel Worthington said?” she asked.
“What are you hoping to hear? That he threatened me and ordered me to leave Kinloch? That if I disobey, King George will return with an army of redcoats and drop an anvil on my head?”
“Now you’re mocking me.”
He backed away. “It was pointless to send this message, lass. The English have more important matters to contend with than a disagreement between two clans. Colonel Worthington said so himself. He doesn’t wish to become involved. What were you thinking? That they’d come and defend your dead father’s claim to this territory?”
She moved away from the bed. “I don’t know. I thought that our loyalty would mean something to him. We are Hanoverians and we defeated an army of Jacobites two years ago. I thought the King would defend our lawful possession of these lands, which we earned in defense of his Crown.”
Angus palmed the hilt of his sword. “You know nothing of politics and war, lass. The Whigs wanted my father dead, and your father took care of it for his own personal gain. He was offered Kinloch as a prize, and that’s why he invaded. It had nothing to do with honor or loyalty to any Crown. It was about land and power, nothing more. That’s what it’s always about, when one man tries to take another man’s home.” He crumpled the dispatch in a fist and walked to the window. For a long time he looked out at the surrounding countryside. “I have taken back what belongs to me, and Colonel Worthington has no interest in challenging my rule here. He made it clear it’s a clan issue, nothing more.”
“He’s not worried that you will try to raise another rebellion?”
“I gave him my word that I will live here in peace.”
“And he believed you?”
Angus swung around to face her. “You seem to take promises very lightly, lass. Does a man’s word mean so little to you? And do you have no care for your own?”
She was overcome suddenly with shame. She walked slowly to a chair and sat down. “My honor means everything to me.”
“But you broke the promise you made to me when you negotiated terms of surrender. You promised to be loyal.”
