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“My father can go to hell,” Alyce said sharply.
Lachlan grinned. “Perhaps he should, but presently he has the power to order you home.”
“Why? To wed someone I don’t want to wed?” she asked, her tongue remaining sharp, mostly in fear of what would happen when her father discovered her pregnant.
“What has been decided is in your best interest,” Lachlan said.
Alyce laughed then assaulted him with a prickly tongue. “My interest is best decided by me.”
“You know you will return with me, so why fight it?” Lachlan asked, much too confident to her way of thinking.
Megan stepped forward. “Alyce remains here with us.”
“Afraid not,” Lachlan said.
Megan looked to Andrew.
Andrew appeared perplexed and torn. “Perhaps it would be wiser for Alyce to remain here.”
With a sharp snap of his head, Lachlan looked to Andrew. “Our mission was to retrieve Alyce Bunnock and return her home. Do you suggest that I ignore our laird’s edict?”
Andrew looked helplessly to Megan.
Megan turned sorrowful eyes on Alyce.
“Enough,” Alyce said. “I will not have you pitting people against each other.”
“Then what will you do to settle this?” Lachlan asked.
Alyce felt her heart grow heavy. What choices did she have? She certainly couldn’t wed another man when she carried Lachlan’s child, and yet Lachlan did not want Alyce. So what were her choices? She didn’t know.
“What does my father want of me?” she asked.
“For you to wed the man of his choice,” Lachlan answered.
His words were cold, as if he did not care what happened to her and it broke her heart.
“Will you do it?” Lachlan asked.
“Why can’t you tell her father that you couldn’t find Alyce and let her live her life in peace here at Everagis?” Rowena asked and the other women nodded in agreement.
“Cavan will be sending more men here to establish Sinclare prominence and eventually someone would realize the truth,” Lachlan said. “But that’s beside the point, Angus Bunnock wants his daughter wed, and he will stop at nothing until he has seen it done.”
“He’s right,” Alyce said. “My father rules with an iron fist and will have his way no matter what the cost to me.”
“It’s not fair,” declared Piper.
“Fair or not, Alyce returns home with me,” Lachlan said.
Hester stepped forward. “You will not take her from us. This is her home.”
“Not anymore,” Lachlan said coldly.
“She belongs here,” Rowena said with a shake of a fist.
“Not any longer,” Lachlan said.
The women gasped.
Even Andrew and Evan seemed alarmed.
“If you think I’ll go willingly you are wrong,” Alyce said. “You will need to restrain me the whole trip and then some.”
“You are already restrained,” Lachlan said.
“What do you mean?” Alyce asked, not liking the sound of it.
“You have been wed by proxy to a man of your father’s choosing.”
The women cried out while Alyce felt her whole body go numb. While she wanted to deny it, she knew all too well that her father had the power and privilege to do as he pleased and so he could rightfully wed her to whomever he chose.
Nausea gnawed at her and her knees grew weak, but she revealed none of her worries, instead she remained strong and in command.
“So you, like others, do my father’s bidding,” Alyce said caustically.
“I do no man’s bidding,” Lachlan said with a defined anger in his dark eyes.
“Yet you are here to take me back.”
“I am.”
“And why is that?” she asked.
“Simple. I have come to take my wife home.”
Chapter 22
Lachlan knew she heard him clearly, though undoubtedly his words took time to settle in and all the while she shook her head. He hadn’t meant to shock her, or perhaps he did. He was still angry with her, not for sending him home, but for not trusting him enough to confide the truth.
She was more beautiful than he remembered and somehow more vibrant. There was a color, a glow to her that he hadn’t recalled, or perhaps he was more deeply in love with her than he remembered. Whatever it was, he was glad to be here and relieved to know she would be returning home with him.
“We should speak of this in private,” he said, wanting to discuss so much more with her.
“Why?” Alyce challenged. “You’ve just said everything. I’m your property now.”
He expected her to lash out at him, though he hadn’t expected it to feel like a punch in the gut. If she truly knew him, she would know that she was anything but his property.
Time, however, would have her understanding that, but time was a slim defense to claim against the hurt he saw in her eyes.
Keeping patience in tow, he said, “We need to talk.”
“So you can give me orders?” she declared defiantly.
He had to smile, for he could see that Alyce had a stinging tongue, but in all honesty it was in her own defense. So how could he fault her for it?
