Page 87 of When the Scoundrel Sins

She slipped her hand into his, and he helped her up onto the curricle. She sat next to him on the bench. With a flick of his long whip, he sent the team forward.

When they reached the bend in the lane where it joined the main road, Sir Harold sent the team the wrong way—not toward the fields to the south but toward the north.

Turning in her seat, she glanced over her shoulder, to try to glimpse the men in the fields. But she could see nothing around the raised canopy behind them. Her heart began to pound as the same unease she’d felt when she first saw him bubbled up inside her.

“It seems we’ve gone astray,” she told him, forcing a lightheartedness into her voice that belied her rising uneasiness. “We’ll never find the sheep by heading in this direction.”

He kept his gaze straight ahead, but this time, he made no attempt to smile. “We’re not going to find the sheep.”

The short hairs on the back of her neck prickled in warning. “Where are we going then?”

“To Scotland.” He flipped the ribbons, and the horses jumped into a fast trot. A dark determination hardened his features. “Where we’ll be married, just as we should have been all along.”

Alarm flooded through her, and her hand gripped at the seat rail so tightly that her fingertips turned white. “I don’t find your teasing amusing, Sir Harold.” She forced out in panic, the jarring beat of her heart coming so hard that she winced, “Please stop and let me down this instant!”

“I’m not teasing.” He glanced sideways at her, with an expression of such raw hatred that she flinched. “And we’re not stopping until we reach Scotland and the blacksmith.”

Dear God, he was serious! Fear shot through her, and a bitter metallic taste formed on her tongue as her breath came in fast, frightened gasps that matched the terrified racing of her heart. Then she knew…

He was kidnapping her.

Her gaze darted to the hard and rocky ground speeding past, her mind spinning as fast as the curricle’s wheels. If she jumped, she could clear the wheels and run for help—

“You’ll break your neck,” he warned, reading her mind.

She pressed herself against the edge of the seat to put as much distance between them as possible. “Why?” she breathed out, panic burning inside her chest. “Whyare you doing this?”

“Because you left me no choice,” he bit out. “Everything would have been fine if you’d simply married me, as you should have done all along.” His eyes narrowed on her, darkening until they were almost black. “But you’ve always been stubborn. Even with all the trouble I’ve caused for you at Glenarvon, you still refused my help when I offered.”

Terror flashed through her. “It was you,” she breathed out. “You were the one who destroyed the floodgate, let out the sheep…”

Worse.He’d set the fire in the hay barn that could have injured the workmen and that had nearly killed Quinn. She’d mocked Quinn’s intuition that Sir Harold had been involved. Oh God, she’d been so wrong about him!

“You forced me. Even then, you were too obstinate to realize that you needed to take me as your husband. You should have been honored to have a gentleman like me give you a second glance, let alone offer marriage.” A sneer pulled at his lips. “You, the worthless daughter of a convict and a maid, who should have been washing pots in my scullery. Who should have been begging me to marry you instead of forcing me to make overtures to you and that insipid Lady Ainsley.”

Confusion swirled with her panic. “If you hate me so much…why are you doing this?”

He snapped the whip over the horses’ backs to keep up their fast pace even as the wheels bumped and jumped over the rocks and dips in the old road. “Because of your announcement at the party that you wouldn’t marry.”

“No, you don’t understand! I don’t need to marry now.” She tugged at his arm, pleading desperately, “Please stop, and we’ll forget this ever happened. A misunderstanding is all, you wanting to help me—”

“Stupid gel!” His hand shot up and grabbed her by the neck. He yanked her toward him, his eyes flaring as he glared down at her with his fingers clenched around her throat. “I don’t give a damn about you. This is about saving Kinnybroch. The only way I can get my hands on enough money to pay the mortgage is to marry you and sell Glenarvon.”

“No,” she choked out, her body flashed numb with terror, even as she clawed at his arm to loosen his hold. “You’ll never have it!”

His eyes gleamed, and he tightened his fingers on her neck. “Once we marry, it becomes mine.”

“I’ll never marry you!” she ground out.

“You’ll have no choice. There’s a blacksmith just across the border who’ll do anything I ask, if I pay him enough. Including marrying you by force over the anvil and swearing you went willingly. And his wife will witness it.”

“Then I’ll—I’ll have it annulled!”

“You can’t. Not without your husband’s permission.” An icy smile spread across his face. “And I’llnevergive it, unless you give me Glenarvon.”

A sickening helplessness overcame her, and she whispered in horror, “You’re mad.”

“Worse.” A muscle ticked in his tightened jaw. “I’m a gentleman in debt.”