AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You bring out the worst in me,” he answered in kind.
A half-chuckle huffed out of her. That he could make her laugh in all this caused her to be even more attracted to him.
He stared at her with an amused glint in his beautiful eyes, the moment lengthening into a communication that dispensed with words. His intent eyes infused her with a renewed energy that led her to forget her flitting hopelessness.
“You know what he’s doing,” he emitted gravely.
He being her uncle, no doubt.
“He's doing what every man in history has done with a female opponent, attacking her reputation to invalidate her claims.” Certainty and disgust mingled in her melodious voice.
Lachlan understood her answer as accurate, but it did not change the fact that her uncle had played a strong card.
The sight of her so helpless a moment ago caused him to want to fight the entire world for her. She had endured this for longer than any legendary warrior would have and still found the wherewithal to keep up to it. She was simply amazing!
“By the looks of it, he was spot on,” he commented.
At that, she sprang up from the armchair and paced back and forth along the fireplace.
“Perhaps, but I won’t fall for it.” Single-mindedness spelled in her tone and straight spine.
“You might not, but your clan will,” he insisted.
He himself had acquired a reputation that, real or not, had glued to him like a poster wherever he went. Had not she accused him of being a womaniser based on it?
At a halt, she glared at him. “Gossip fades away, and besides, my clan trust me.” The woma
n could not be more headstrong.
He glared back, arms crossed. “Probably, but old habits are hard to die and a woman's reputation standards are among them.” Sad as it may be, no one could deny the fact.
Her leadership would be in tethers merely because of a suspicion of what she chose or not to do with her own body. Which was no one’s business, but everybody made it their business anyway.
“If you leave, they’ll have nothing to talk and I’ll be able to carry on as I’ve been doing for more than a year,” Moira reiterated.
“I’ve told you I’m not leaving, especially when you are in more danger than I imagined.”
“The bad news is you’ll have to,” she continued implacable. “If I don’t regain my reputation, I’ll not have enough credibility to stand up to Hamish.”
It was his turn to pace, raking his hair with both hands. “Do you imagine that after believing you lived in sin with me, they’ll think you didn’t if I leave?” Lachlan and Moira would not be able to mend this mess with this simple a measure. “The only way for you to regain your reputation is marrying me,” he stated as he paused right in front of her.
He said it in an impulse, but the usual disgust with the institution did not rise as expected.
Such sadness tinted her eyes, marring her whole face, you would believe she had just been dished her death sentence. She turned her back and her gaze flew through the window.
A long minute passed before her frame swivelled back to him. But now her stance had tinted with refusal.
“Marrying you would be the mistake to reign over all mistakes made by humanity,” her soft voice contained an iron clink, her glare met him unreducible.
Her words struck him like a boulder to his chest. He was fully aware of her contempt for marriage. Nonetheless, there had been several lasses in the past that would consider his proposal a dream come true. This rejection did not sit well with him.
A scowl smothered his countenance. “You brought me here with a match in mind.” Granted, he was the one to think it delirious at the time.
“But we found a compromise,” she disputed. “A comfortable compromise.”
“Which isn’t working any longer,” he rebutted.
Moira rubbed her forehead, feeling cornered by a world where men set the rules. If she accepted his suggestion, the problems ripping her clan apart would be close to a solution. But she would be stuck with a man that had the shortest attention span in the Highlands. Eventually, he would turn to others and what would be of her? Even married, he would attract women in droves and would cast her aside without a second thought.
