Page 37 of Marin’s Promise

His jaw tightened. “They made their choice. It’s all a rich man’s game. No doubt that’s why the Grahams attacked Mabrick. Men like me, we’re simply pawns.”

“I’ll do anything.” Marin lay back in supplication and pushed up her breasts toward him. “Take me, do what you will with me, just please, please save my sisters.”

She couldn’t stop the hot tears from leaking from the corners of her eyes. The force of agony radiating from her chest was more than she could bear. How could she be so helpless? How could there be nothing she could do?

She could not lose her sisters. They could not die.

“I will be cooperative in any way you require. I will ensure the servants accept you.” She clenched her fists. “I will do anything.”

He smirked. “Attacking the Grahams would cause a war I will spend a lifetime fighting. I canna risk my men. I canna risk losing this castle. No’ when I’ve worked so hard to secure it.” He shook his head. “Yer sisters left my protection. They made their own decisions. I canna be responsible for their fates.”

But her sisters hadn’t made their own decision. Marin had made it for them. She had sent them to be cut down like beasts on the hunt.

An idea struck her so suddenly, it wrought a cry from her lips. “I will marry you.”

Shock lit his gaze.

She gazed up at him. “Please. If you help my sisters, I will marry you.”

* * *

Bran easedhis grip from Marin, but she did not launch at him in an attack. Her eyes were red rimmed from her tears, her cheeks and nose pink.

“Marrying me will give you an earl’s eldest daughter for a wife,” she explained. “You will have the acquiescence of the entire castle. You will have the security of my wealth. And if you were so generous as to save the earl’s four other daughters from being massacred, I assure you my father would bestow upon you a great reward in gratitude. You will no longer be a pawn in a game of rich men. You will be a player.”

Bran studied the lovely, miserable woman beneath him. She was clever. Clever and shrewd and made as weak by her love for her sisters as he was by his love for Ena.

Her suggestion was an ideal opportunity, and an appealing one at that.

Marriage to Marin would give him the protection of a March Warden, a lifetime of safety for Ena as long as she didn’t do anything foolish.

He stared down at Marin, taking in her beauty. He would be lying if he said he had no interest in her carnally. God’s teeth, he wanted her with every bit of his being. And it was true her people would accept him if she voluntarily wed him. It might complicate matters when Kerr arrived, but then Bran would not be in such a position of weakness.

“If I release ye, will ye stop fighting me?” he asked.

Marin nodded with her watery blue gaze fixed piteously on him. He knew the helpless desperation she felt, as well as the chest-splitting pain of loss.

Bran released Marin and straightened. Every moment he considered her proposal was one that could cost one of her sisters their lives. And yet it was not a decision made easily.

“Ye’re no’ wed?” he asked. After all, it could be a trick.

She sat up. “Nay, I am not wed. I never have been.”

Yet she claimed to not be a virgin. An interesting situation.

“Betrothed then?” he pressed. He wouldn’t want some foolhardy intended coming after him over this.

She shook her head.

“And yet ye are no’ a maiden.” He frowned. “Were ye compromised when ye were held captive before?”

Her cheeks went red. “I am a maiden.” Marin folded her arms stiffly over her chest. “I only said I wasn’t in an attempt to seduce you and kill you.” She paused before saying with vehemence, “I’ll do anything to save my sisters.”

He scoffed. “Including seducing me and marrying me, aye?”

She lowered her eyes. “The advantage of a marriage to me would be beneficial to you.”

All the strength she possessed before now wilted beneath the crippling effects of her helplessness. She pressed her hands over her heart and her shoulders curled forward, as if the pain were too great to bear. For truly, it no doubt was. She lifted her eyes to him, and another tear rolled down her cheek. “Please save my sisters.”