He met Argyll’s gaze. “You heard Flora for yourself. She has agreed of her own volition. I’ve done my part, do not try your games with me.”
The other man quirked his brow. “Are you threatening me?”
“Take it how you will. I kept my side of the bargain, and you will keep yours. My brother will be released today, as you promised.” This time, there was no mistaking the threat.
Despite Lachlan’s much larger size, Argyll didn’t appear overly concerned. Though perhaps he’d impressed him, because he stopped his pretense. From inside his doublet he withdrew a roll of parchment. Even from a few feet away, Lachlan recognized the royal seal. He stilled, knowing what it was: Argyll held John’s freedom in his hands.
“I have a writ ordering the release of your brother. After the ceremony, it is yours.”
Lachlan felt as though an enormous weight had been lifted from him. “And the rest of our bargain?”
“That will take awhile longer. The king must be assured of your cooperation before he decides on the disposition of your castle.”
He’d been patient long enough. Nor was he confident in the king’s justice. Once he and Flora were wed, he would seek Rory’s help—in the form of fighting men—to recover his castle. Argyll could smooth things over with the king…later.
Argyll was watching him, a calculated gleam in his eye. “I must say you’ve impressed me, Coll. I didn’t think you could do it.”
Flora heard her cousin’s voice, and something made her stop outside the door without alerting them of her presence.
“My little cousin has been resistant to any man I’ve brought before her, but you managed to persuade her. How did you do it?”
“It’s none of your damn business,” Lachlan replied. “I did it. Without force. That’s all you need to know.”
“Does she know of our bargain?”
Bargain? Flora froze.
“Of course not. But she will, as soon as my brother is safe.”
“Are you sure that is wise? Flora will resent being manipulated; perhaps it would be better if you kept the details of our arrangement to yourself.”
Blood drained from her face, and her heart faltered.
“She loves me. She’ll understand.”
Her cousin laughed. “You have an overabundance of confidence. I hope it serves you well—you’ll need it.”
Hearing the sound of a chair scooting back and steps moving toward the door, Flora slipped around the corner out of sight just as her cousin left the room.
She couldn’t breathe. Her chest constricted, and her breath strangled in her throat. Taking large gulps of air, she forced herself to stay calm. There had to be an explanation for what she’d just heard. Please let there be an explanation.
Her hands were shaking as she slipped the folded piece of parchment she’d so summarily dismissed into the folds of her skirt. There has to be an explanation, she repeated, though it lacked conviction. Taking a deep breath, she walked through the door and closed it firmly behind her.
“Flora, what—”
He must have seen her face, because he stopped mid-sentence. She drank in the sight of him, wanting to hold on to what she knew. The rugged lines of his handsome face, the hard-muscled body, the dazzling blue eyes, the soft wave of his dark hair—so powerful and unabashedly masculine. He was dressed for the ceremony, she realized with a pang. Wearing a fresh linen shirt and a plaid belted at his waist and secured at his shoulder with his chieftain’s brooch. A jewel-encrusted dagger that she’d never seen before hung at his side. Her chest squeezed just looking at him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked uneasily.
“What were you talking about with my cousin?” He looked at her blankly. “What bargain did you make with him?”
His eyes shot to hers. “You heard,” he said flatly.
“Tell me what I heard was wrong. Tell me our marriage has nothing to do with this bargain. Tell me you did not plan this with Argyll.”
He met her gaze unflinchingly.
Say something. Deny it! her heart cried. But he didn’t say a word, not one single word.
Emotion balled in her throat. “What have you done?” He took a step toward her, but she jerked away. “I don’t need your comfort, I need the truth.”
He swore and then dragged his fingers through his hair. “Hell, Flora, it’s not what you think. Don’t jump to conclusions before you hear me out.”
“Then tell me. Explain to me what I heard was wrong.”
“You only heard part of it. The least important part. Argyll has nothing to do with how I feel about you.” He searched her face, hoping for any sign of yielding, but she looked as hard as ice. “A few months ago, the king ordered me to Edinburgh to appear before the Privy Council. I knew that as soon as I left Breacachadh, Hector would attempt to take the castle, so I sent my brother to court in my stead.” His jaw hardened. “But instead of hearing the merits of the case, the king had John tossed in prison to try to force me to accede to the will of the Privy Council.”
That stopped her. “But you said that John was—” She stopped herself. Another lie. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought you would ask too many questions, questions I wasn’t ready to answer. I figured you would realize that because of our bond of manrent I would go to your cousin for help.”
“Which you apparently did.”
He nodded. “I sought his influence with the king to release my brother. I happened to be there when word of your elopement with Lord Murray arrived. As you can imagine, he was furious. He agreed to help free my brother and use his influence in getting my castle back if I put a stop to the elopement and convinced you to marry me instead.”
His words spun in her head. She felt dizzy, trying to sort through the damning words of his betrayal. “So I was a bargaining chip. You and my cousin planned all of this from the start. The kidnapping, the wooing, everything.” Her chest squeezed. “Why didn’t you just force me? It would have been easier than going through this whole charade.”
He gave her a stark look as if he couldn’t believe she would think that of him.
“Argyll knew Rory would never force you to wed. And your cousin cares for you; he did not want to see you hurt.”
“Cares for me? Surely you jest. Neither of you thought of me at all. I was just a means to an end. Argyll wanted to get rid of me, and you wanted his influence. I’m sure a rich wife only sweetened the pot.”
He’d never wanted me. It wasn’t what she thought…it was worse. She’d been bartered and sold like a prized heifer. Flora felt as though her heart had been ripped from her chest and everything that she thought was good and beautiful had been twisted into something black and ugly.
She didn’t want to believe it. How could she have been such a fool? How could she have forgotten the one truth that had defined her life since the day she was born—she would always be seen as a prize. Always.
His eyes narrowed, and she could see the muscle in his jaw start to tic. “You’ve got it all wrong. The bargain with your cousin has nothing to do with the way I feel about you. It might have started out as a means to free my brother and help my clan, but I fell in love with you along the way.”
“Isn’t that convenient? Of course you’d say that, your plan was to make me fall in love with you.” He took a step toward her, but again she flinched away. She didn’t want to listen to anything he had to say. Just looking at him hurt. The hard square jaw, the wide mouth, the gorgeous blue eyes that had once held the promise of a future set in the darkly handsome face. “My cousin chose well.” Too well. How easily she’d succumbed to his rugged masculinity. Flora felt her heart shatter at her feet like a dropped pane of glass. “God, how could you lie to me like that? How could you be so cruel?”
His face darkened. “I didn’t lie.”
“You didn’t tell me the truth, it’s the same thing.”
“I told you everything that matters. My feelings for you are the truth; the bargai
n with your cousin does not change that.”
“But the two are inexorably tied together. How could I possibly believe anything you say?”
He gripped her arm, not letting go when she tried to wrench away. “Listen to me,” he said in a low voice. “I needed your cousin’s help. I did what I had to do for my brother and my clan. But that does not change how I feel about you or how you feel about me.”
It changed everything. Lachlan had used her. Manipulated her in the worst way and made her love him. She’d been his pawn and nothing more. Even after he must have realized how much he would hurt her, he hadn’t told her the truth. “You could have told me.”
“I wasn’t sure you would listen.” She heard the censure in his voice, but nothing he could say would change the fact that he’d used her. “Would you have agreed to marry me if I had?” he challenged.
“I guess we’ll never know, since you never gave me the chance to decide.”
“I always intended to tell you the truth.”
“When it was too late for me to change my mind?”
“I couldn’t take the chance that you would.” He gave her a long, penetrating look. “I know how you feel about arranged marriages, and I didn’t want to lose you.”
She laughed, a sharp sound bereft of humor. “How unfortunate that your plan didn’t quite work out.”
“But it did,” he said quietly.
“You’re an even bigger fool than I am if you think I will marry you now.”
She didn’t like his expression. It made her feel he knew something she didn’t. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he said with a note of warning. “We can go through with the ceremony—”
“No! I won’t marry you.”
His mouth tightened. “It’s too late.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. The ceremony hasn’t even begun.”
“The ceremony isn’t necessary.”
Flora felt a prickle of alarm. “What do you mean?”
He took a deep breath. “The contracts have been signed, and last night we agreed to marry.”
She blanched. His strange pronouncement of their intention to marry before her cousin and brother suddenly became clear. “You tricked me,” she whispered, though why she was surprised, she didn’t know. Hadn’t he done so from the start? Her next thought cut her to the quick. Raw emotion tore at her throat, making her voice ragged and tight. “Is that why you came to me last night?” Not to make love, but to consummate their agreement. Consummation following their words of intent to marry would be all he needed to make a valid claim of marriage.
“I would have come to you anyway.”
“Yes, but this time there was another purpose.” She could feel the pain erupting in her chest. “Wasn’t there?”
“I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary, but I could take no chances in case Rory tried to put a stop to the wedding. I did it for your protection as much as mine.”
Flora made a sharp sound of disbelief. “My protection? You can’t really expect me to believe that.”
“It’s the truth.”
“No, the truth is that you’ve lied to me since the day we met. The truth is that you stood before my cousin and brother and proclaimed our intent to marry, and then you sealed your treachery by using my body.” God, the thought that he could hold her so tenderly, make love to her like that, all the while knowing how he was betraying her—it made her ill.
He seemed to be fighting to control his patience. “I have never used your body. You gave yourself to me willingly, Flora. More than once.” He pulled her a little closer and lowered his voice dangerously. “Bargain or not, I would never let you go. We belong together, don’t you see that?”
Tears burned in her throat as she looked at the man she’d thought she loved. At the man she’d given her heart. She couldn’t stand it. It hurt so much. The walls closed in around her. She felt as if she were being backed into a corner. Her darkest fear had come true: She was being forced into marriage.
“Don’t do this,” she pleaded.
He looked at her stonily. “It’s done.”
“It doesn’t need to be. Not if you don’t say anything.” They were the only people who knew of this irregular marriage. If neither of them chose to press the claim, no one would ever know. “Please, let me go.”
His eyes softened. “Flora, I…” He hesitated, but only for an instant. “I can’t. I want this marriage, and not just to free my brother. I love you. I know you are hurt, but it will pass—and you will see that this is for the best.”
His face was racked with torment, but she was immune. It was all an act. He was every bit as ruthless as she’d first thought. A coldhearted chief who would do anything to win his prize.
She took a step away from him, seeing him clearly for the first time. His betrayal cut like a knife, eviscerating her love for him as cleanly as if it had never been.
She was killing him. Lachlan felt as though he’d taken a whip and lashed it across her back. He’d hurt her, splayed her open, and made her bleed. Even knowing that this was how it had to be did not lessen his feeling of responsibility. The pain that swam in her eyes and trembled in her voice was infinitely worse than he’d imagined. He knew how much she hated being forced into anything, but he’d hoped that she would at least try to understand his predicament.
He’d tried to stay calm in the face of her wild accusations, but it was becoming increasingly difficult since she stubbornly refused to listen. His instincts not to tell her of his bargain with her cousin because of her reaction had proved correct, but knowing that he was right didn’t make this conversation any easier.
“Please,” she begged. The soft plea tugged at his heart. “If you care for me at all, don’t—”
“Care for you?” he exploded, wanting to grab her and shake the truth into her. “Have you been listening to anything I’ve said? I love you. Do you think I want to hurt you? This is tearing me apart. Since the day you slipped the dirk into my side, nothing else has been more important than making you mine.”
“That’s possession,” she said dully. “Not love.”
“You’re wrong. I’ve done nothing but try to prove my love to you since the moment I realized what you meant to me.”
“You’ve proved nothing except that you are an accomplished liar.”
His mouth tightened as he fought to keep a tight rein on his control when he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and force her to listen to him—in the way she could not deny. She was slipping away from him, and he’d never felt so damn helpless. He had to make her understand. He grasped her by the shoulders and stared deep into her eyes, forcing her to listen. “I love you. I’ve never said those words to another woman in my life. I’m not one of your eloquent courtiers—if that isn’t enough for you, I don’t know what more I can say. I did what I had to do to save my brother and my clan. I wish that you had not been involved, but you were, and I can’t change that.”
“You didn’t love me enough to give me the truth. I thought I’d found someone who wanted me for myself—not for what I could bring them.”
“I do want you, Flora.”
“But I can never be sure.” She looked at him, her heart breaking in her eyes. “God, I trusted you. I thought you were different.”
He was tired of her inability to see past her own blind fears. It wasn’t simply her happiness that was at stake here. “Do you think I wanted to lie to you? You don’t know how badly I wanted to tell you the truth.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Damn it, Flora. You are so stuck in the past and caught up in your own romantic fantasies that you can’t see the real world. You see everything as black and white, but it’s not so simple. Sometimes you have to make hard decisions, that’s what I do—I’m chief. But you have no concept of duty or what it means to be in charge and responsible. My brother’s life is at stake. What would you have me do?” She looked at him
blankly, and he continued, “John is in the pit prison now because I was so damn scared of losing you that I tried to make a last-ditch effort to free him—just so I wouldn’t need your cousin’s help. So you couldn’t accuse me of ulterior motives like you are doing right now. But the rescue failed, John was tossed in the pit, and I had no choice but to rely on your cousin. Don’t you see that my brother is suffering? Every minute John spends in that hellhole could be his last. Argyll has the writ that will set him free. Would you see him die for your pride?”
She flinched as if he’d struck her. His brother’s plight had penetrated her hurt and anger in a way his declarations of love could not. He knew her compassion and her tender heart. She would not jeopardize his brother’s life, not even if it tied her to a man she despised.
He knew he’d won, but there was no satisfaction, only despair, in his victory.
She stood stiffly before him, her face a waxen mask. But it was the hollow look in her eyes that sent a trickle of alarm running through his veins.
“You will have your writ,” she said dully.
Relief swept over him…for only a moment.
“But I’ll never forgive you for this.”
The cold certainty in her voice chilled him to the bone. She’d cut him off. He reached for her, but she recoiled from his touch. His chest twisted at her rejection, and he dropped his hand to his side. He would make it up to her. She just needed time.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She didn’t look at him again, but turned on her heel and left him—alone and emptier than he’d ever felt in his life.
The ceremony and feast passed in a haze. Sitting at the dais that had been set up for the celebration, Flora watched the festivities taking place before her, but they sped by in a blurred whirl of color.
She was detached, an observer. She felt cold and empty, like a marble statue on display.
Not once did she give a hint of the bitterness and heartbreak churning inside. She’d plastered a serene smile on her face and weathered the storm of congratulations from the seemingly endless stream of well-wishers that passed before the table. Only Rory and Mary had sensed there might be something wrong. But she’d dismissed their concerns with a plea of exhaustion—from all the excitement.
Highlander Unchained Page 29