Chapter 24
“Do ye think that if ye move, the wall will crumble?” Sophie asked her son, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Arran was inclined not to answer her. He knew how it likely looked.
He was standing against the side pillar in the main dining hall, arms folded across his chest, and legs crossed at the ankles.
He had no desire to dance, but he also was not trying to stop anybody else from dancing either.
The whole hall was abuzz with a frivolity that baffled him, when all were aware that this was a deception.
Couples and hopeful eligible clansmen danced with their intended in large rings of people, leaping and jumping to the lively rhythm of the music.
Vigorous reels, moving in and out from one another, expending energy that Arran thought they should have been saving for what might come. The men, at least.
“Ye ken perfectly well that I daenae care for dancing,” Arran groused.
“I went through a lot of trouble to make this happen on such short notice, ye ken?” His mother rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. “I didnae raise ye to be a wallflower. Ye are Laird of this clan and ye ought to act like it.”
“And yet ye presume to sass yer Laird?”
“I am yer maither first and foremost. Ye may nae like it, but I daenae care about that either,” Sophie teased. “Did ye and the lass have some sort of spat? Is that what this is all about? Ye ought to be out there celebratin’ with yer intended.”
“She isnae even here. Besides, ye cannae stand here and tell me that ye think that is anythin’ more than a ploy to lure out the bastard I kidnapped her from,” Arran answered a little too sharply. “What is there to celebrate?”
The dance floor didn’t miss him anyway. He had no business being out there.
“If this is just because of yer bullheaded pride, I shall–” Sophie started, pausing her lecture mid-word because of the pair of women that had just entered the hall.
Kristin, looking incredible with a bright smile on her face. She stood still, arm in arm with Victoria. It marked the very first time that she had been without her baby in her arms since she was born, Arran was willing to bet.
But it was not his sister and her lack of his niece that held his attention.
It was the vision in emerald green that stood at her side, the elegant gown more befitting the Highland style, rather than the somewhat shapeless attire of where Victoria hailed from.
He could see the dramatic curve of her waist, for one thing, conjuring up memories of when he had witnessed her exquisite figure, bare of any clothing at all, with his own eyes.
Given his towering height, she managed to find him over the top of the crowd of people right away.
Her sparkling gaze locked onto his, the weight of so many unspoken words and half-truths hanging between them.
He took half of a step toward her without even meaning to.
He had no right; he felt like a hypocrite every time that she was around him.
It was maddening how much he wanted her.
Yet, Arran knew that if anyone attempted to keep him from his family, he would only resent them.
It was only a moment, nothing longer than the span of a heartbeat, where he hesitated, and she turned away from him.
She linked closer to Kristin and pushed a bright smile onto her face.
She turned her back to him, looking out over the dancers, and he found himself wanting to know what she found more interesting.
“Ye could just go and speak to her,” Sophie added. The cynicism in her voice was very telling of how silly she presently thought her son to be.
“The lass is going to be headin’ back to where she belongs when this is all over. There’s nothin’ to be said.”
“Then ye are even more of a fool than I assumed ye were. I thought that ye had less of yer faither in ye than that.” Sophie placed her hands on her hips as she spoke. “Ye mean to tell me that ye are just fine with her leavin’?”
That wasn’t what he was saying at all, but he knew perfectly well that Victoria wasn’t ever going to look at him the same after he did what he knew that he was going to have to do.
Arran cut his mother a glance and then pushed fully off the wall. “I suppose that ye are right that we need to speak at least. If we are to be passable as a betrothed pair, then I suppose we cannae spend the night avoiding one another.”
Victoria didn’t turn around when he grew closer, but he knew from the way her chin dipped and how she almost glanced over her shoulder that she felt him approaching. Kristin smiled and held her hands out to him.
“It has been such a long time since I’ve had both of me hands free that I almost forgot what it felt like,” Kristin said with a smile.
Arran nodded. She looked happy, as she used to before all of this happened.
“I convinced her to escort me,” Victoria said, concentrating solely on his sister.
Kristin laughed. “It didnae take much, in the end. I could hear the music and… I couldnae resist.”
“Aye, well, I came to see if the lass would honor me with a dance?” Arran said, leaving his intention vague. He meant Victoria, but if Kristin jumped in first, maybe that would be for the better.
He was overly conscious of Victoria’s every movement.
He could see the way her pulse in her slender neck started to race, and the way that her breath hitched ever so slightly.
He never should have indulged in the temptation of her, never should have learned what it was like to give her pleasure, to know her body that intimately; he was far too attuned to her movements and how she reacted to him.
“I think he means ye,” Kristin said, with a wink at her brother.
Victoria turned at last, but would not meet his eyes. She extended her hand out toward him, and he, of course, accepted it. “I thank you for the invitation, but I do not know how to dance like this…” She admitted in a small voice.
“Nay better time to learn than the present.”
“Everyone is moving so quickly, and I fear that I shall not be able to keep up.”
“Do ye nae dance in England?”
“Of course we do, but nothing like this!” Victoria said as her eyes widened slightly.
“Ye daenae have to be perfect. The point of the dance is to have fun. It’s mostly just a lot of jumpin’ around. I’m sure that ye can handle that,” Arran answered. “Besides, I’ll be there with ye. Ye have always been good at takin’ direction.”
Victoria flushed pink in the apples of her cheeks and kept her face focused anywhere other than him. He felt very much as if he were playing with fire.
“Ye look beautiful, by the way. Ye play the bride-to-be very well.”
Victoria shrugged before they started to take their places. “Well, I should hope so. It is not my first experience, after all… though this is markedly more pleasant than the last.”
Anger bristled within him, remembering. “All the more reason to enjoy the dance.”
They moved into position and slowly started to incorporate themselves into the dance.
First on the edges of the dancing rings, and then slowly making their way toward the center, where the clansmen were dancing far more quickly.
A whirlwind of movement that brought a wide-eyed panic to his face, one that made him more determined to keep her safe, whether it was in the midst of a reel or from the hands of her former betrothed.
If they had been speaking, he might have told her that dancing like this exhausted him more than battle ever had.
Though even if he wasn’t speaking to her, he was still enjoying himself a great deal more with her at his side than he would have been if she were not here.
Telling her that would only make things that much more difficult.
“Everybody seems to be very happy for us,” Victoria said after a while.
Arran nodded. “They all have accepted ye after all.”
The words felt bitter on his tongue if he was being honest. They weren’t even a lie. Everybody did seem to welcome her at breakfast now, telling her about the castle gossip and whatnot. Never mind that she was such fast friends with Kristin.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the servants coming back into the room with a fussing Ruby in her arms, searching for Kristin, who was deep in conversation with some other women.
He frowned, certain that his sister was about to explode with fury, for his niece was not supposed to be down here.
“Do you think that the rumors have spread as far as we hoped? Have you heard at all from the men you sent searching for my sister?” Victoria asked as they moved together.
“The rumors will do their job; your idea was a good one,” Arran answered with a soft smile. “Are ye in that much of a hurry to get out of here?”
“I–” Victoria lifted her gaze to look at him better, her eyes softening as she struggled to come up with a proper answer to his question.
It felt like everything, including his very breath, depended on her answer to that question. Time had been suspended for far too long, and all he was aware of was the way that she was breathing.
“I… I miss my sister dearly; she is everything to me,” she said. “I would never be permitted to stay here with you, and I could never ruin her life for the sake of my own. Rumors will abound, and I must be with them—my family—when they do, for it is the only way that Melody will stand a chance.”
Arran nodded. “Yer plan was too good.”
“What do you mean?”
“Those rumors of me stealin’ ye and tryin’ to marry ye against yer will have traveled far, lass, or the Earl wouldnae have heard of them.
Yer society wouldnae trust it if ye suddenly stayed with the man who did that to ye,” he explained, the realization dawning as he spoke.
It was a double-edged sword that would cut them either way.
“Besides, I’ll have me own sister to protect from scrutiny. ”