A sham of a wedding and a sham of a marriage. Would naught happen to prevent it?
“We will need a wee bit o’ time,” MacRowan said.
“Aye, so,” Father hurried to agree. “We shall gi’ ye a chance to recover fro’ your journey. A good meal and a good night’s sleep, aye? And then—”
He glanced at Annista as if in inquiry and as swiftly looked away again. Could Father too see how mutinous and angry she was?
“—the marriage in the morning?”
No one said anything. The moment drew out hideously until Mother spoke. “Aye, to be sure. Will that suit, my dear?”
Annista turned to Mother and Alan got his first look at the color of her eyes. He’d thought them brown like her hair, but they sparked with gold as much as with her anger. Hard eyes.
“Aye, so,” she said grudgingly. “But I would first like a word with my bridegroom alone.”
The elders looked at one another uneasily, but no one so much as glanced at Alan. Aye, he’d had little say in any of this. Why should they consider his wishes now?
“I suppose that is reasonable, if no’ strictly proper,” Lord MacRowan said. “These two will want to become acquainted.”
“We will await ye in the hall,” Mother said and gave Alan a meaningful glare before they left.
Alone with her, Alan eyed his prospective bride. She seemed to be marshalling her thoughts, preparing what she meant to say to him. When she stepped up beside the fire, he got another look at what lay in her eyes, hard and bright.
“I wish to mak’ one thing clear to ye, Master Alan MacKallan. I may be forced into this marriage even as my sister was forced into hers before me. I do it for the sake o’ my family—naught more.”
“As do I.” He narrowed his eyes at her.
She stepped even closer and lowered her voice to a throb. “I may be constrained to wed wi’ ye—but ’twill be a marriage in name only. If ye so much as touch me—” Her lips drew back from her teeth in a decided snarl.
A threat? She meant to deliver a threat to him? Interested despite himself, Alan asked, “If? Then what?”
“I will kill ye.”
In that instant, he believed her. In deadly earnest she was, as much so as any woman he’d encountered ever before. Did she think she could? And him making two of her in size, and with training at arms.
His lips quirked. “Do no’ worry, Mistress. I too am being constrained into this marriage. I assure ye quite sincerely, the verra last thing I want to do is touch ye.”
Did she look insulted? He had to confess, he meant her to. He felt slighted by this whole affair. And how dare she think aught about her would render him incapable of containing his lust?
She drew back a mite. “Och, well, good.” Again her eyes narrowed. “Is that a promise? That we will wed in name only?”
“It is, indeed. Rest assured I ha’ no desire whatever to put my hands on ye.”
“Good. Good.”
She marched to the door and through it without a backward glance.
More unsettled than ever, Alan followed.
****
And what was she to do now? Annista asked herself that question as she glanced around the chamber she’d been given. What she supposed was to be her new home.
Bonnie, who’d arrived here before her, had already begun unpacking and placing Annista’s belongings around the room. It did not help much. A gloomy chamber that felt cold, it had dark wainscoting on the walls and a bed shrouded in plain-colored hangings. She hated the place on sight.
Could this have been the room Robena inhabited when she lived here? There were no signs of her, and despite Bonnie’s efforts, it had a barren feel as if it had not been inhabited in years.
The little maid, busy at the clothes press, glanced at Annista and, perhaps reading her mood correctly, said nothing.
