Page 54 of It’s in his Highland Kiss

Commander Forbes was handsome, Marion supposed, in that careful, refined way that most men like him were, not in the rugged, natural way that Eiric was. She supposed that Commander Forbes was naturally average, neither good-looking nor ugly, but his clothes and the way that he carried himself made him look like the man he did.

Marion despised him immediately.

“I will be ready to go soon, Commander,” Marion assured him. “But first, I must gather my belongings.”

“The servants can do that,” Adaria said. The look on her face was pinched, Marion realised, as though she didn’t approve of anything that was happening before her eyes. “Marion, if ye please, may I speak to ye?”

“I am afraid I have strict orders from her parents to remove her from your presence immediately,” the commander said.

“It’s alright, Commander,” Marion assured him. “It will only take a—”

“No,” the other man insisted. He was nothing but a headache, and Marion wished that she could say a few choice words to him, but they didn’t become a lady like herself. Besides, the last thing that she wanted was for the commander to know that she already hated him. “The servants shall pack your belongings, and we will be on our way. In the meantime, anything that you have to say, Lady MacLeod, you can say to her in front of me.”

Adaria didn’t speak, her lips pursing into a thin line, but that didn’t surprise Marion. She had no doubts that Adaria wanted to ask her to stay, to change her mind, but Marion’s mind was already made up. She would go back to England with the commander, and that was that.

The four of them, along with the commander’s men, remained silent for the entire time that the servants were gathering Marion’s things. She didn’t have much, but whatever she had was coming with her, and it was taking the servants a while, which only made the situation even more uncomfortable for her. None of them even moved, not until the servants had brought the chest down the stairs, and two of the soldiers had carried it out of the castle.

Marion wished with all her heart that Eiric wouldn’t come downstairs and see her leaving, but then again, he still couldn’t manage to get out of bed on his own. It wouldn’t be a problem, she knew.

She couldn’t bring herself to say goodbye, and so she didn’t, neither to the laird and Adaria nor to Eiric. She simply turned around and left without sparing them another look, the commander following close behind, along with all his men.

“I must ask for your forgiveness, my lady, for not coming to rescue you sooner,” the man told her, as he opened the door of the carriage for her, the one he had brought specifically for her, as he informed her. Marion looked at the people in the courtyard, who were all looking at her, some with pity, others with hatred.

Half of them thought of her as a traitor, she thought, and the other half as a poor girl who had no choice but to go back to her terrible family.

What a reputation.

“That is quite alright, Commander,” Marion assured him, as the man slipped into the carriage on the seat across from her.

“Please, call me John,” the man said, and before Marion could protest, he continued, “I insist.”

“If you insist.”

Marion knew precisely what the commander, John, wanted from her from the moment their eyes met. He wanted her, and he wanted her to know that he was the kind of man who always got what he wanted.

Only a few months prior, Marion would have been scared of him. She would have cowered when he talked to her, and she would have done anything to avoid him.

Not now. Now she smiled at him, a small, just playful enough smile that was bound to have him coming for more.

“Well . . . how did you end up here, in the Highlands, if I may ask? You are so far away from home,” said the commander.

“My parents sent me here,” Marion explained. “I’m sure they’ve already told you.”

“They didn’t tell me much, I’m afraid,” the commander said. “Just that I had to come find you and bring you home. They are very worried about you, you know.”

“I’m sure,” Marion said, and was surprised that her lie sounded so sincere to her ears. Her parents hadn’t worried about her a single day in their life; she doubted that they had started worrying now. “I didn’t mean to upset them. As you saw, John, it’s not easy to leave that place. I considered leaving on my own many, many times, but . . . but I must admit that I was afraid. A woman, all alone in the woods, travelling back home? I don’t know if I would have ever made it back unharmed.”

“Of course, I understand,” the commander assured her. “It’s good that you didn’t leave on your own, very good. There are plenty of men lurking out there who would have hurt you. Thieves, murderers, all sorts of bad people who would love to get their hands on a beautiful woman like yourself.”

The commander wasn’t shy about his flirting, Marion noticed, quite the opposite, in fact. She wouldn’t have to work hard for his attention, since he was already giving it to her so generously, and that, at least, made her job a little easier.

“I’ve missed my parents very much,” Marion said. “And I have missed England, and my home most of all. May I ask, how do you know my parents? I don’t think I have seen you at any balls or celebrations.”

“I don’t think I have seen you, either, my lady,” the commander said. “And trust me, if I had seen you, I am sure that I would remember you. I met them recently, through a mutual acquaintance.”

“And you came all the way to the Highlands just for me?”

“Of course,” Commander Forbes said. “I couldn’t possibly leave a young woman in danger.”