“Laird Knox is old enough to be yer father, perhaps even yer grandfather. He is a filthy man who does horrible things to anyone he pleases. He is cruel and violent. Ye can nae marry him.”
She sighed. Alec had only said all of the things she had been thinking for the last two days, but he didn’t understand the position she was in.
“I dinnae have a choice,” she told him, her words low and soft.
“Ye did nae even try to fight this.” His tone had shifted into something harsh and accusatory. “Ye did nae bother to tell yer father that ye will nae marry Knox. Ye just went along with what everyone else wanted the way ye always do.”
“That is nae fair, Alec. If I had argued—”
“If ye had argued,” he cut in, “then perhaps yer father might have seen reason. Perhaps he would have realized there are other ways to get what he wants than sending his only daughter to such a wicked man.”
“Ye dinnae ken him the way I do. I ken when my father has made up his mind and he was clearly nae in the mood to be challenged. There was nothing I could have said to make him think about things any differently.”
Alec scoffed and turned his back to her, rubbing a dirt-covered hand over his face. She knew there would be streaks of mud left from his palms. Had they been in the middle of any other conversation, she would have pulled out her handkerchief and wiped it off, but she had no desire to be any closer to him than she already was.
“Well, now we will never ken how things might have gone because ye did nae bother to stand up for yerself, to stand up for us. What is going to happen now? Am I just supposed to let ye walk out of here like ye have nae been mine for the last two years?”
He spun around to look at her, his eyes full of something that looked a lot like rage. It was a side of Alec that so rarely came out, she hardly knew what to do with it. But she couldn’t blame him for being so upset. He was right—they had spent two years as so much more than just friends and all of that was being thrown away without any notice, without a second thought. She still felt helpless, caught between what her father wanted and what Alec wanted.
“I dinnae ken,” she whispered, looking down at the tips of her shoes.
She thought briefly that the maids were going to give her flack for going to the stables so late the night before she was set to leave. Her shoes and the hem of her gown would both need to be cleaned before they were packed away, giving everyone more work to do tonight. Charlotte would surely need a bath if she was to arrive at the Knox castle without smelling like a barn.
Alec shifted and her thoughts jumped back to the situation at hand.
“Och, dinnae fash. We will figure something out.”
“How?”
“I will go with ye. I have nothing keeping me here but ye. And I cannae let ye marry Laird Knox. So if ye must be in the carriage when day breaks, then I will be in my saddle, waiting right beside it.”
“Alec, ye cannae be serious. Laird Knox is nae going to let me bring my own stable man to his castle. He will suspect something is amiss. He will ken that ye are more than a groomsman to me. And when that happens, there is nae telling what will happen to either of us.”
“Ye are overthinking this, Charlotte. Dinnae fash. I will take care of everything. I dinnae need to be a stable man in his castle for me to accompany ye there. I will find some other way to earn a living. Ye will see. It will all be all right.”
He had barely finished trying to assure her of his plans when one of her maids started calling for her from the courtyard. She needed to leave the stables as soon as possible. There was still a long list of things that needed to be done for her to be ready to leave in the morning so she did not bother arguing with Alec anymore.
True to his word, Alec had been waiting for her when she walked out of her home for the last time. His saddle was laden with his few worldly possessions and he looked absolutely determined to see things through. No one from the castle had noticed his presence and many of the soldiers traveling with them assumed that Alec had been sent to see to the horses since it was a long ride. Alec hadn’t bothered to correct anyone’s thinking.
Charlotte braved a glance out of the window on the side where Alec rode. It was the first time in hours she had looked over, but he noticed right away. He sent her a smile that she guessed was supposed to be reassuring, but it only made her stomach turn. There was no way that him coming with her was going to end well. Someone was going to get hurt, it was only a matter of time.
“What time is it?”
The question came from her maid, all but taking the words out of Charlotte’s mind.
“It is almost time for the evening meal. Will we be stopping to eat or to make camp?”
“Och, nay. We are almost there now.”
Elizabeth had been her mother’s maid and had taken on the role of caring for Charlotte when her mother had died all those years ago. The woman was old and withered by age now, but she had still insisted on traveling with Charlotte. It was a small mercy Charlotte was immensely grateful for. Elizabeth had never had any kids of her own and had promised that she wouldn’t know what to do with herself if Charlotte left without her. And even with their difference in station, Elizabeth never failed to carry an important air that would not be trifled with. As a child, it had irked Charlotte, but now it brought her great comfort.
“I did nae realize we would be arriving so soon,” Charlotte confessed, peering out of the window once more, noticing more houses were starting to appear.
“Soon? Are ye daft, lass? We have been traveling all day. I can nae wait to get out of this blasted things so I can stretch me legs.”
Charlotte let out a smile and a small huff of a laugh, but even that wasn’t enough to fend off her building nerves.
A few minutes rolled by and the tops of the castle came into view. Charlotte busied herself with smoothing her skirts and patting her hair to make sure it was all still in place. She pinched her cheeks and adjusted her pearl necklace to lay just so on her collarbone. Laird Knox might be an old, twisted man, but she still wanted to make a good first impression.
