Page 36 of The Laird’s Wrong Wife

The door opened before Ceana could answer. Oscar entered in a dark coat fitted neatly across his shoulders, with his sword secured at his side. Nothing in his bearing resembled the man whose mouth had opened over hers hours ago. Ceana’s gaze landed on his lips before she forced it away, yet her fingers could almost feel the fabric she had crushed in her fist.

Oscar greeted her parents, then met David’s stare directly. “I imagine ye’ve already heard enough to ken how Ceana came here.”

“I heard she was taken from the festival,” David replied.

“Aye. Me men believed she was Daphne. I gave the order.”

David’s jaw tightened. “Ye ordered me daughter kidnapped?”

“I did.”

David stepped closer.

“And he kept me afterward,” Ceana added. Both men turned toward her. “The bargain came later, and the decision was mine.”

Oscar allowed the correction to stand. His gaze slid over her face while carefully avoiding her mouth.

When David mentioned Bryce’s riders again, Oscar’s attention sharpened.

“How many were seen, and did they cross yer border?”

“Six. They remained outside it.”

Oscar moved until he stood close to Ceana. Anyone addressing her now had to look past him. “Neither Ceana nor Daphne will be handed to Bryce as payment for peace. Any demand concernin’ Ceana comes through MacKane.”

The certainty in his voice seemed to calm her father much more effectively than courtesy would have.

“Oscar has already promised to protect Daphne,” Ceana said.

At the sound of his name, Oscar looked back at her. Her mother’s gaze shifted between them, though she said nothing.

Ceana glanced again at the lips she could still feel against her own, but Oscar quickly broke eye contact.

“The alliance will extend me protection to Morrag,” he said. “The marriage proceeds only if Ceana’s consent still stands.” He turned fully toward her. “Does it?”

Her parents waited for her answer with bated breath.

Daphne had asked her to choose a life that belonged to her, and Oscar had offered one through Tommy and Paisley. His retreat frightened her because she now wanted something from him that their bargain had never promised. Even so, it changed nothing.

“It does,” she confirmed.

“As does mine.” Oscar summoned Lennan from the passage. “Send a rider for the priest. He is to be here tomorrow.”

Lennan’s gaze flicked toward Ceana before he bowed. “Aye, me Laird.”

He left to carry out the order while Oscar restored the distance he had kept since entering.

Ceana had one day before he became her husband, and still no answer for why he had kissed her as though he wanted everything before apologizing for taking anything.

She wasn’t certain if she was ever going to get it.

CHAPTER 10

Someone had seated Ceana beside the solar window for the light. She kept looking through the glass while Heather discussed ceremony ribbons with Mairi across the room. Below, two men carried benches toward the garden, and a kitchen boy followed with an armful of folded cloth.

“Should the greenery be brought inside if it rains?” a maid asked.

“The garden,” Ceana answered.