Page 6 of Owned by the Scarred Laird

She turned her face away from him.

“This Laird,” her father continued. “He has a castle, land, and a position. He is ken as a hard man, but is that nae how a laird should be? Apart from that, ye’ll want for nothin’.”

He pulled a folded page from his coat and scanned it.

"Four outings a year, it says here. Beyond the castle grounds. His idea, nae mine, some notion about a wife nae being kept like a prisoner." He folded it away again. "More consideration than most husbands trouble themselves with, if ye ask me."

He said the rest of it as if he were reading from the contract itself. "Are ye nae tired of scrubbing people's floors?"

Chloe bolted upright. “I scrubbed people’s floors because ye did nae come for yer own daughter until ye needed me to push yer bargain.” She paused, swallowed, and tried again in a quieter tone. “This laird ye are forcin’ me to marry. Ye daenae even ken him.”

“Shut yer mouth!” He stood up so fast the chair toppled backward and landed hard on the floor.

He straightened his coat. “Ye daenae understand these things, and I daenae want to hear a word of this from ye again. Obey me, or ye regret it. Now get dressed, yer laird is waitin’. We must reach the castle today.” He moved toward the door and knocked twice on it from the inside. The bolt scraped back from the other side.

He left without looking at her again.

A laird’s wife. So this was it.

As they continued their journey, the words kept spinning in her mind, but she did not recognize any of them. She had been in service since she was old enough to be useful. She knew how a grand house operated because she had been part of its day-to-day functions. Capable and completely unnoticed by anyone important. Now she was supposed to matter. She was supposed to be the one they worked for. She sat straight on the horse and tried to imagine it, but she could not.

Am I to be a lady of a castle?

She thought about the contract her father had mentioned. Already signed, he had said, two months ago. Which meant that while she was at Jenny’s, going about her days, this had already been decided. She had already been someone else’s arrangement. She just had not known it yet.

The castle gates were enormous. Dark timber and iron, set into walls that had been standing long enough to grow moss along the upper edges. They swung open as the party rode up, and the sound of them moved through her chest.

Chloe looked around the castle, its pillars and clan banner flapping against the wall, and she felt faint with fear.

How will I ever be a lady of a place so grand?

Panic flowed through her in waves until she was desperate enough to throw all pride to the wind. She pulled her horse alongside the father’s before she could talk herself out of it.

“I am askin’ ye one last time.” She kept her voice low, but she could not control the emotion in her voice. The guards were close enough. “Daenae do this.”

He did not look at her. His eyes stayed on the path ahead.

“The contract is signed, lass. This is yer life now.”

“I daenae care about the contract.” Jenny did not know where she was. That was the thing pressing hardest against her ribs. Not the castle rising in front of her, not the stranger waiting inside it. Jenny and Thomas were sitting somewhere, not knowing where she was; they would be worried. When they went to visit her at her father’s castle, they would find her gone.

She was certain they would search for her, but if this laird was even half as terrible as her father, he could hide her somewhere Jenny and Thomas would never find her.

“Please, I am yer daughter. Does that mean nothing to ye?”

He was quiet for a long moment. The horses moved beneath them.

“It means ye’ll have a better life than the one ye had,” he said.

There was a long moment of silence before Chloe murmured, “Did ye ever think about me?” She said it quietly. “Before ye found out I existed. Did it ever occur to ye to wonder?”

He looked at her, his expression giving nothing away.

“Siobhan kept her own counsel.”

“That isnae what I asked.”

She expected something from him. Even a made-up response. She did not expect the silence that followed her question. The horses kept moving.