Kaden tilted his head to the side, wondering what the man meant by that, but he didn’t ask.
“What with breaking off nae one buttwoengagements already,” Hamish huffed. It seemed that when he was nervous, he rambled to fill the silence. “Emily is of marrying age, so it is a good thing that ye have come along.”
All that the news meant to Kaden was that, clearly, Emily wasn’t a woman easily scared or afraid of anyone, given that she easily carried the weight of her reputation like it was nothing.
“I assure ye, those days of troublemakin’ are behind her!” Hamish pointed a finger at Kaden and then seemed to think better of it.
How Kaden planned on forcing her to do his will, that was another thing entirely.
This whole plot had started out as nothing more than him needing to appease his councilmen and family by finding a bride who wasn’t afraid of him, but he found that he was rather interested in seeing how this whole thing would play out between them.
Hamish hummed to fill the ensuing silence. “But ye are… taken with her, arenae ye?”
“Something like that,” Kaden answered.
“Ah, well, the alliance that this will entail will be a grand one, to be certain.” Hamish plucked at the arm of his chair. “She willnae leave this arrangement.”
Kaden nodded once, knowing that her father telling her not to do it did not mean anything at all. If she wished to leave, then she would. It was that simple.
“But we will have plenty of time to work out all the details at another time!” Hamish concluded.
Kaden took a moment to glance over at Peter, who seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“Might as well tell the lass the good news!”
He almost smirked at that, knowing good and well that Emily was unlikely to consider it good news.
“Iona! Emily!” Hamish half rose from his chair as if he knew that the two women were still standing in the hallway, attempting to eavesdrop.
When the door creaked open once again, he made a clicking noise with his tongue and dropped back down into his chair.
Here goes nothing.
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 toat leastbe in the room as her future was being decided for her.
“I think that ye and I have very different definitions of the wordgood, 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?”
