“I would ne’er marry for obligation. I dinnae care who ordered me to do so.”
“Ye say that, but ye cannae really ken until ye are put into the position. Look at how yer father ordered ye to escort me. Ye listened to him then. Ye obeyed his order.”
He tossed another rock into the water. It entered with a plop and a small splash. “’Tis different. He wasnae ordering me to marry ye.” He started to say something else, but snapped his mouth shut.
“No’ e’eryone has the luxury of choice in such matters. Some of us must do what is demanded of us—no matter how unpleasant it may appear to be. I had no such choice of refusal. Growing up as a young lass, I had been told ad nauseam aboot what my duty to my family was. I kenned that I would eventually be used as a bargaining tool.”
Rory scoffed. “So ye are the one responsible for the chains ye now find yerself in. Yer own complicity is to blame for yer betrothal.”
Alana frowned. Had the man not listened to a word she had said? That was not what she had explained at all. “I didnae say that.”
“It sounds to me like ye did. Ye kenned yer whole life that this would be yer fate. If it was something ye were so against, ye would have found a way to extricate yerself from yer predicament.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Ye are daft if that is what ye truly believe. I had no choice. My father made it quite clear of that. As did my mother.”
Rory shook his head. “Nay, ye always have a choice.”
“Mayhap ye do!” She couldn’t keep the shrill from her voice, but the man was so frustrating. She threw her hands up in the air. “’Tis different for men, ye weel ken that. Women rarely have a say in such matters.I,” she jabbed her thumb at her chest. “Did no’ have any say. I was given no other option. I wasorderedthat this would be my future. I couldnae say nay.” She swiped at a tear that threatened to spill over onto her cheek. She wasn’t crying because she was sad. She was cryingbecause she was mad. It was a trait that had always been seen as a weakness. But her angry tears made her stronger. Made her sit up straighter. Push back her shoulders and jut her chin out stubbornly. She felt that Rory was attacking her personally and she took affront to that.
“How are ye any better than me, pray tell?” she asked.
His head snapped to hers and their eyes clashed in fury.
“Pardon?”
“Aye. Ye may not e’er be forced to marry like I have, but ye dinnae handle yer home life any better.”
“Ye dinnae ken what ye are talking aboot,” he snapped.
She stood and crossed her arms as she looked down at him. “Och, aye, I do. Whereas I accept my fate, kenning I can do naught aboot it, ye run away from yers. Ye spend days upon days frolicking through the Highlands. Running. Hiding away.”
“I have ne’er run away from a challenge in my life,” he growled.
“Nay?” She countered. “I beg to differ. Ye run all the time. And mayhap ye are not running from a challenge. Or an order. Mayhap ye run because ye are afraid to be needed.”
Rory stood up so quickly that Alana stumbled back a few steps. The fury on his face had turned his usually bright green eyes to the color of the darkest moss on the moors. His fists clenched at his sides, he stood there for a few minutes, his eyes boring into hers.
She wanted to shrink under his gaze, but she refused to show him weakness and matched his intense gaze.
Without a word, he stormed off to gather firewood, leaving her alone.
Fighting tears, Alana ran back to where they’d set up camp and rummaged through her pack for the amber fossil her mother had given her. Clasping it to her chest, she sank onto her blanket and cried silently as she stroked the cool stone.
Rory didn’t understand her predicament. He thought that shecould just say no to her father’s orders and that would be the end of it. How little he kenned about a woman’s place in the world they lived in. He saw everything through a man’s eyes. Life would be so much easier for her if she was afforded that luxury. But she was not.
She couldn’t refuse the betrothal. She could only hope that it would be somewhat pleasant.
Why couldn’t Rory see that she didn’t have a choice?
Chapter Eleven
Rory grunted ashe chopped a piece of wood with more force than he needed to. Alana’s words replaying in his head. She had gotten under his skin when she said he ran because he was afraid to be needed. Her remark hit close to his heart.
Too close.
And it irked him.
How could this woman, who he had kenned for less than a sennight, how could she ken him better than his own family?
