Page 50 of Taken By the Savage Highlander

I kent he would try to get out of this when I agreed to the terms. We must outsmart him. I must outsmart him. For the good of me people. For the good of Margo.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The door in the corner adjacent to Margo’s creaked open, pulling her frayed attention away from the book she’d been attempting to read. All five of the kittens rose to their feet, staring at the door separating the two rooms. They seemed to come to the same realization she had.

Cameron is home.

As her heart began to pound so hard she could hear it over her breathing, Miss Crusoe jumped off her lap and scampered over to the door. Friday followed, and after the two kittens disappeared under the tiny crack at the bottom, the other three jumped off the chair they were perched on.

“Do not bother him,” she hissed, putting her book aside and rushing forward.

The kittens only ran faster, their claws scraping against the smooth floor. They slipped through, though not easily. Margo managed to stop one of the tabby kittens, scooping her up by the scruff of her neck.

“Why would you do that?” she asked the tiny creature.

On the other side of the door, she heard Cameron scoff. Then, his low, whisky-smooth voice rumbled, “Ye willnae allow me to have a single minute alone, aye?”

Her stomach turned as she recalled the contents of the letter. While she had tried to rationalize her feelings, that perhaps he had reasons for suggesting the heir clause, it still didn’t feel good. She had been traded as if she were cattle.

But even if all he wants is my body, he hasn’t taken it. Even when I was going to let him.

Blossom mewed, wiggling in Margo’s grasp. Giving in to her desperate need to be with her siblings, Margo set her on the floor. The kitten scrambled away, sliding under the door in an absurd display of impatience. Several seconds after the kitten disappeared, Cameron’s chuckle drifted through the wooden barrier.

“I was wonderin’ where ye were,” he said, his riding leathers squeaking as he presumably crouched. “I kent that there was one of ye missin’.”

Margo let out an incredulous sound, careful to keep her volume low so he didn’t know she was listening. It seemed that each day he grew more and more unbelievable. How could she reconcile the man who had presumably insisted that they produce an heir with the man who paid enough attention to the kittens to notice when one was missing from his welcoming party?

She froze in place. The entire time he had been gone, she could only think about how she wished he were here. Even after the initial shock she had felt in his study waned, she had longed for him to be here so she could confront him. Now that he was only a door away, she thought she would rather he still be away.

There’s no use in making myself mad trying to make sense of him. Mother always said that people are full of contradictions.

Rather than ruminating on the thoughts or eavesdropping on Cameron’s conversations with the kittens, she set to readying herself for supper. Dwelling on his soft underbelly did not change the fact that she had seen him bare his teeth. Or, at least, she had read the evidence of it.

She took her time, trying to clear her mind with the meditative motions of braiding her hair. After slipping into a different gown, if only to make the time stretch a little longer, Margo finally left her room heading for the Great Hall. As she was closing the door, Cameron marched into the corridor.

An instinctive part of her mind urged her to hide, to duck back into her room. The magnetic draw of Cameron’s presence, however, pushed her to face him. When their eyes met, it felt as if something had shifted inside him. The dominating energy that usually flashed in his pupils was still there, but quieter. More guarded.

“We were not expecting you until tomorrow evening,” she said carefully.

Though she wanted to demand he answer for leaving without so much as a word to her about it, and for what she had read in the missive from her father- why he had given her the contract and acted as if he had not played a heavier hand in her fate- his demeanor struck her as strange. Something had happened. She was much more interested in figuring out what had changed.

“Aye, we finished ahead of schedule,” Cameron said, his own words chosen with just as much consideration.

He’s speaking to me the same way he did after we arrived here.

“It would have been nice,” she said, perhaps intentionally trying to provoke a response, “if you had informed me that you were going to be away.”

“I dinnae realize that me presence was that vital to yer daily activities,” Cameron said, his brow furrowing slightly. “And I dinnae decide to leave until late the night before I departed. I dinnae wish to wake ye.”

“I believe that’s an acceptable reason to wake me,” Margo muttered, holding his gaze for another moment. She could not think of anything else to say, any other way to carry on the conversation. “Will you be joining us in the Great Hall?”

“In a bit,” he said, giving her a final nod before stepping around her and continuing on his way. “I have somethin’ to take care of with me Council first.”

Margo froze at his words, standing there longer than she cared to admit, watching him disappear around the corner at the end of the corridor. When she finally willed herself into moving, she realized that Cameron had not turned toward the Council’s meeting room and his study. He had taken the same path she did.

Perhaps he’s meeting with Gavin first.

That theory was proven incorrect when Margo entered the Great Hall. Cameron was sitting at the head of the table, already sipping ale from a mug. As she made her way toward the open seat across from him, she tried not to let herself feel hurt or frustrated.