Chapter 7
Emily didn’t need to be told twice that she was allowed back into the study.
She ducked under her mother’s arm and back into the room so fast that her mother almost stumbled over her to follow her inside.
“I have wonderful news, daughter!” Hamish exclaimed as she stepped inside.
Her fists balled at her sides to await the boot to drop. They hadn’t even allowed her to be in the room to discuss the direction that her own future was going to take.
It wasn’t so much the announcement that she knew was coming that vexed her so. It was the fact that, yet again, they hadn’t bothered to think that she might have wanted to at least be in the room as her future was being decided for her.
“I think that ye and I have very different definitions of the word good, Faither,” she started as she crossed her arms over her chest. “If there were going to be negotiations, do ye nae think—”
The look on her father’s face shifted from one of happiness to one of unforgiving sternness. It warned her to stop speaking, or else there would be consequences.
Well, if that was how it was going to be, then perhaps she should just play another game of her own.
She couldn’t pretend that she understood Kaden’s reason for coming here. Sure, the man had some… rather obvious appeal, but she couldn’t imagine that someone who liked to be on his own as much as he seemed to would want to marry her of all people.
They had only spoken twice. It wasn’t as if he was dwelling on those encounters in the same way she was. That would just be silly, wouldn’t it?
Emily shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she wrapped her arms around herself. She refused to look at Kaden as she spoke, directing her words only to her father. Though she could feel his gaze on her.
“Well then,” she sighed. “What a lucky lass I am, hm?” She tried to keep her voice level. “Such a strong, powerful laird will become me husband. How would such a man ken if I am even worthy?”
“Emily,” her father warned.
“Should I make him a blanket? Weave something for him?” she snarked. She could not seem to stop herself.
Only when she glimpsed Kaden’s smirk did she look squarely at him.
“Do ye think that I am so much of a brute that I daenae ken the story of Penelope and her suitors, lass?”
What nerve did he have to tease her? They had been speaking alone.
If he had been so taken with her as to plan this trip all the way here, then he could have said something to her when they had been alone.
He could have hinted at anything that might have warned or prepared her for this conversation.
She turned to fully face him. “Well then, perhaps I could come and redecorate yer castle? Surely ye’d love everything to be… forget-me-nae blue?”
Kaden’s lips pressed together, as if he were attempting to hold back his laughter.
The nerve! A man like him wasn’t supposed to laugh. Every moment that she spent with him, he seemed to be pushing her further and further away from believing the rumors about him.
It shouldn’t be that difficult to hold his gaze, but she got the very distinct impression that somehow he was mocking her.
Well, that would suit her just fine. She knew how to end an engagement, just like the other two. He might seem unfazed by her pestering, but she would wear him down sooner or later.
Then again, she couldn’t exactly do that, could she? If she did, she would have nowhere to go. Her father had made it perfectly clear that he wouldn’t be swayed this time.
“How about a race?” Kaden asked.
The suggestion caught her off guard.
Did he think that she wouldn’t know how to ride a horse?
“If ye win, then ye will be ‘worthy’ of being me wife. If I win, then I’ll have to keep looking,” Kaden added.
There had to be something behind his words that she couldn’t see. It was as if he was giving her the perfect out in the situation. All she would have to do in order to break off this engagement would be to let him win the race.
Was that really what he was saying?
It was too simple. What was the catch?
“Very well, then,” she answered.
It wasn’t like she was going to make it easy for him. Perhaps if she made it look to her father like she was giving it everything that she had, then she would be able to break off the engagement and get away with it, too.
Hamish rose from his seat and clapped his hands together. “It is settled, then! I shall have the servants prepare the horses at once!”
“Now?” Emily protested.
She was hardly ready for such an event.
“Nay time like the present!” Hamish responded with a grin. He paused beside her. “Fewer ways for ye to try to wriggle out of it.”
And with that, her fate was sealed.
Iona offered her a soft smile before following him out of the room.
It wasn’t right to have her alone with one strange man, let alone two, but Emily was certain at this point that if somebody were to say something about them being in the same room, so near to one another, her father would only use that as further fuel to his motives.
“Ye daenae want to marry me,” she said confidently. “Ye daenae ken me.”
Kaden rose from his chair and nodded once to his companion, who promptly left to go stand watch outside. As he came closer, towering over her, it took effort to keep her spine straight and not shrink away from him.
“I ken enough,” he said in that impossibly calm, deep voice.
“Is that right?” Emily sneered.
Perhaps if she were rude enough, he would take it all back.
“I ken that ye’re strong of mind and of heart, that ye arenae afraid to speak yer mind even when doing so is unpopular. I’m confident that ye apply those skills to everything ye’re passionate about,” he answered.
That caught her a little off guard.
But he wasn’t done.
“Ye keep yer head held high, and ye seem the type to make up yer own mind about a thing before jumping to conclusions. Brave. Would ye nae agree?”
Emily’s mouth opened, her jaw going slack as she struggled to find the words, and snapped shut again. She shifted uncomfortably.
Did he have to look at her like that? Peering at her like he could see straight through her?
She was going to get lost in his eyes, so she refused to look at them for a moment longer.
“None of that means that I will marry ye, me Laird.”
Perhaps she was going crazy, but it almost seemed like he was biting back a smile.
“Nay?”
Emily shook her head.
Kaden lifted one shoulder in a shrug as he closed the distance between them.
He was standing almost as close to her as he had been when they had been dancing.
She could feel the warmth radiating from him.
Her skin felt like it was tightening around her limbs, and she was suddenly hyperaware of her body.
What was happening to her?
She pressed her lips together in the hope that it might ground her better. This wasn’t the right moment for her to lose herself.
If he was bothered by her rejection, he made no sign of it.
“We’ll see about that.” Kaden walked a half circle around her, taking her measure. She refused to shrink under his gaze, and he had already seen more than enough of her. “Ye havenae forgotten?”
An involuntary shudder rippled up her spine, and she shook her head. No, she hadn’t forgotten. How could she?
“Find another way to get what ye’re due, me Laird. We would be a terrible match.”
“Is that right?”
Emily hummed in affirmation.
“Ye daenae ken me enough to make a statement like that.”
Her gaze snapped up to him. “I daenae have to. I ken meself just fine. I daenae need to ken ye.”
He leaned down, invading her personal space as her breath caught in her chest. She could see every fleck of yellow and gold in those warm brown eyes.
The way his wavy hair fell over his forehead, and each scar that marred his skin.
She could feel his warm breath tickling her face, close enough that if she moved one inch, his lips would touch her own.
Was that his intention?
It almost… it almost felt like a test.
Wasn’t it?
There was a whisper of movement by her thigh, a slight ruffle of her heavy skirts where Kaden’s fingertips brushed lightly over her dress, then at her elbow, as if he were drawing her closer. Her chin lifted as she looked up at him, the warmth of him lulling her closer.
She should have been afraid of him. A small part of her knew that with the reputation he had, with the rumors that every woman she knew whispered about him, she ought to reject his closeness. But she almost wanted to pull him closer.
“That’s nae true,” he whispered. “We danced well, didnae we?”
Her gaze dropped to his lips, her own parting slightly as she found herself clinging to his every word. When nothing else came, she was almost… disappointed.
A soft knock at the door broke her from the trance that she was in.
“The horses are ready, me Lady,” a maid announced as she stepped into the study. “Everything is ready for the race. Yer faither begged me to come and fetch ye both.”
Kaden took a half step back from her, motioning with a sweeping gesture to the door. “Shall we?”