“You will likely be happier at Dunfermline than you would be seeing me in your father’s place. There is no role for you here. Audrey will have little sympathy for you when she learns of your…circumstances.”
“You mean the circumstances that I am rightful lady? That a bastard’s come in and stolen my home?” she croaked, unable to prevent the sob that was building in her throat.
“It will be an easy journey,” he said, no longer looking at her. “I will have word sent to you regularly until…” His words trailed away.
Glenna flew across the floor, and he raised his hands to catch her before she threw herself upon him.
“Stop, Miss Douglas,” he warned quietly. “Don’t make this harder than it must be.”
But she didn’t fight him—it was pointless. He was so much stronger than her, and Glenna knew it would take very little effort to have her removed from Roscraig. “You can’t do this,” she repeated, and felt the tears at last course down her cheeks, but she was unable to care as her humiliation was now complete. She had no pride left, no home, nothing. “Please, please. Tavish—laird—please, don’t send me from him. He’s all I have left.”
“Don’t cry,” he whispered, looking away from her face.
“Why?” she demanded. “Doesn’t it please you to hurt me? To wound one of your betters? Aren’t I to pay for what your father did to you?”
“You’re not my better,” he said in a gravelly voice, and yet he still would not look at her.
“I am,” she insisted on a hiccough and pounded once on his chest with her fists. “I amyour better, Tavish Cameron. I was born at Roscraig a lady. And I am lady here still. Last night you wanted me.” She sniffed and jerked her hands free and then reached up with both palms and laid them alongside his face to turn his gaze toward her. “You kissed me, and you wanted me last night. Do you want me still?” She raised up on her toes and pressed her mouth to his.
He turned his head away. “Glenna, stop,” he whispered.
“You do,” she insisted, turning his face back, forcing him to look at her. “You do want me—a lady. Something fine that would otherwise be out of your reach.” She kissed him again, with such force that he fell back a step, and Glenna felt his hands come to her waist. She pulled away and looked into his eyes, even as angry tears that still trickled from hers. “I’m not some ha’penny shopkeep’s brat who’s in awe of you. I’m better than you. And more than you. And—”
Her words were cut off as Tavish kissed her this time. Glenna poured her anger into returning his kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her trembling body into his. When at last he pulled away, he was breathing hard and glaring down into her face.
“I do want you,” he admitted. “But I won’t marry you.”
“Then keep me,” she challenged, the words out of her mouth before she fully realized the idea. “Keep me here, as your mistress. Live up to your reputation and now your status. I dare you.” Her heart was galloping in her chest like a runaway horse—she couldn’t think about what she was suggesting, the meaning behind it.
And so she stood up taller on her bravado, pressing him, goading him intentionally. “Or are you too afraid? Afraid to handle a possession so far above you? Afraid that I would outplay your Miss Keane?”
She should have been humiliated, pitting herself against a common wench like Audrey Keane for the attentions of a lying, bastard Edinburgh merchant; a man who was willingly destroying what was left of her life. And yet, she found her stomach clenching in anticipation now that Tavish Cameron was holding her even closer.
“You don’t know the rules of the game in which you are entering, princess,” he said, even as his hands roved her back and his desire pressed into her stomach. “I need not promise you anything. Should you not please me, I’ll have you moved to Dunfermline and there’ll be no arguing.”
“Or perhaps you’ll not please me. Perhaps I shall go on my own,” she retorted in a shaking whisper against his mouth.
“It will serve you well, I think,” he said between his teeth, “to be taken down a notch while in myemployment. And so I agree to your offer.” He stepped away from her abruptly, bringing a chill of air to wrap around her shoulders and replace his warmth. “Miss Keane settled into my chamber last night; the servants are even now moving my things into yours.”
“Very well,” Glenna said, lifting her chin and trying to project an air of triumph. “I’ll bring my belongings here.”
“You shall leave your belongings where they are,” he corrected, his eyes burning a fiery path across her collarbone before meeting her gaze once more. “Your employment begins immediately. I will require you to entertain my guests as part of your duties, so perhaps try a bit with the way you dress, hmm? Your other tasks will not require so many clothes.”
He left her then, her cheeks still flaming, dizzy with what she had agreed to.
Glenna had sold herself to Tavish Cameron.
* * * *
Tavish wasted no time in leaving the Tower, crossing the tall, narrow bridge and clomping down the mud-slicked path toward the village. He was eager to escape without catching sight of either Audrey Keane or his mother, and luckily the tasks before him distracted his fuzzied mind away from the memory of Glenna Douglas in his arms, pressing her hips—
He turned toward the path and made his way around the village to where the track began to snake up the cliff. He passed the round stone doocot and decided he liked the look of it very much, ducking inside it for a moment to admire the cubbies and the fecund quiet of it. It didn’t seem a place that would provide a poisoned medium.
His doocot.
He reached inside one of the indentations and felt a small, warm oval nestled in the prickly grass. He withdrew the egg and tossed it slightly in the air before catching it in his palm and carrying it from the shelter with him. An offering, of sorts, from a pilgrim. Of sorts.
Tavish continued up the path until the trees disappeared from the edge, and the path widened into a hilltop meadow, punctuated with stone obelisks and crosses. A small cottage was set back against the treeline, its chimney releasing a wispy column of sweetly spicy smoke.
