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?
“So we can speak reasonably,” he countered.
Alyce laughed caustically. “Reasonably you say when you know full well I wanted no part of marriage.”
“Give me—”
“The same chance you gave me?” she questioned sharply.
He tried to maintain his patience, but she was sorely tearing it to pieces. “This may be a—”
“Disaster for sure,” she claimed.
He was beginning to wonder the same, but then he looked past the storm brewing in her blue eyes and once again saw her heartache, and knew he was right. She loved him and somehow, some way he was going to make her see just how much he loved her.
“Disaster or not, we belong to each other,” he said.
For an instant he heard the catch in her breath and caught the hope in her eyes before she challenged, “You mean I belong to you.”
“No less than I belong to you.”
“You think me a fool?” she asked with a hint of uncertainty.
“Do you wish to be?” he asked, hoping she’d see the stark truth of his query.
“I will not go with you,” she said defensively and the women tightened the circle around her.
He expected her to protest and knew there was but one response. “You have no choice. You are my wife.”
“And must follow your orders,” she said as if she had just proven her argument.
“Again I ask that we talk in private,” Lachlan suggested.
“No,” Alyce said bluntly. “There is nothing more to be said between us.”
“I disagree,” he protested strongly.
“It matters not to me. I have nothing more to say.” With that she turned and walked away, the women holding fast to where they stood so that Lachlan could not penetrate their protective shield.
He watched her disappear into the common shelter and shook his head. This was going to prove much more difficult than he had anticipated, but then he wasn’t as familiar with Alyce as he had been with Terese.
He shook his head even harder and silently berated his own foolishness. There was no Terese; there was only Alyce. The woman who was finally allowed to emerge from her shell and be who she truly was, the woman he knew as Terese.
How did he get her to recognize herself and accept her true nature? How did he make her understand that she was the woman he loved, and her name was simply that, a name?
Time and patience were his only adversaries in this skirmish and he had an abundance of both. In time she would see the truth: that he loved her beyond reason and that was all that truly mattered.
Alyce collapsed in the chair at the table as soon as she entered the common room. She had feared her trembling legs would betray her long before that and was surprised and relieved to have kept a steady gait in spite of worries.
She rested her head in her hands, her elbows braced on the edge of the table. She could not, or perhaps she did not want to believe that she had been wed against her will. She had often wondered why she fought what she knew was her duty and the only answer that ever surfaced was that she knew that was not her destiny.
Her destiny was to live and love as she chose.
But isn’t that what she had gotten, the man of her choice? The man she loved. The man she missed? The man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with? The man whose child nestled safely in her stomach? The man who claimed to love her?
But if he did love her then he knew her and if he truly knew her, he would not have forced this marriage on her. He would have requested she wed him and left the choice to her.
The door creaked open and she knew the women would enter one by one and offer their support, but it would do little good. She was wed and would now have to obey her husband. The realization hit her hard and tears gathered in her eyes. She wiped angrily at them, annoyed that she grew teary-eyed much too easily lately. She had seldom shed tears; to her it was a waste of time, action proved much more satisfying. But what action could she take now; she was stuck.
She looked up, glad to be able to talk with the women who were like sisters to her and was shocked to see Lachlan standing there.
“I don’t want to speak with you now,” she said firmly, then stood and turned her back on him. She braced her hand on the rough-hewn mantel to help keep her legs steady. Damn, but she continued to feel weak-kneed around him and that annoyed her all the more.
“I understand w
hy you lied.”
She rounded on him with wide glaring eyes that glistened with unshed tears. “You understand and then wed me without my permission?”
“I thought—”
“No,” she said shaking her head and her hand at him. “No, you didn’t think, not for one minute.”
Lachlan scratched his head and smiled. “Actually, I thought it was quite chivalrous of me.”
“So you wed me out of sympathy?”
He laughed. “You truly think that?”
“Why else would you wed me?”
He shrugged, smiled, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know, maybe because I love you?”
Why did he have to tempt with his charming smile? And why did his muscled chest invite, reminding her of the many times she had pillowed her head on it morning and night? She could almost hear the strong beat of his heart and the wildness of it after they had made love. Damn, damn, damn him for reminding her how much she missed and loved him, and she felt all the more unreasonable. “If you truly loved me you would have never wed me.”
He shook his head. “That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” she argued. “You would have returned here and asked me to wed you.”
“And chance you denying me?”
“Aha,” she accused, shaking a finger in his face.
He grinned. “I knew you’d be stubborn and prickly about it.”
“And you wed me knowing it would irritate me?” she asked exasperated, especially with his smile. It was the smile she loved that always managed to charm and tantalize.
“Someone had to be sensible.”
“Now I’m not sensible?” She threw her hands up in the air.
“Not when it comes to love,” he confirmed with a chuckle.
“You think you have this all under control, don’t you.”
“Yes.”
“Well, you don’t,” she said. “And do you know why?”
“No, but I have a feeling you’re going to make it clear.”
She walked over to him and poked him in the chest. “It’s simple. You, my dear Lachlan, have yet to deal with Alyce Bunnock.”
He grabbed hold of her wrist and swung her around so that her back was pressed to his chest and he wrapped his arms around her, locking her against him, and whispered in her ear, “I look forward to it, dear wife.”
“You are not my husband,” she declared more weakly than she intended, his familiar scent tinged with earth and pine teasing her nostrils and senses.
“I have the papers to prove it.”
“They mean nothing to me,” she said sadly, for they didn’t. A proxy had signed where her signature should rest.
“In time—”
“Time will matter not,” she said, her sadness remaining, but her spark returning.
“Give us a chance,” he said and nuzzled her neck.
“Why should I?” she demanded.
“Because I love you and I believe you feel the same about me.”
She attempted to deny it and found herself unable to speak. She struggled with the truth, for she did love him, but he had hurt her by marrying her. He had been well aware why Alyce had been sent away, and why she had gone to the extreme and faked her death.
She closed her eyes against the torment. If she simply accepted Lachlan as her husband all would be well, after all she did love him. Why then did she feel so very betrayed by his actions?
He should have allowed her the choice. She had sent him away claiming she didn’t love him and as soon as he had discovered her true identity, he had wisely surmised the reason for her action.
With that assumption, he wed her without thought to how hard she had fought to make that choice herself. So then how could he claim to truly love her?
“I need to consider this,” she said and eased out of his arms, he reluctantly releasing her.
“That’s all I ask,” he said with a smile.
“Is it?”
His smile remained, though he tensed. “What do you mean?”
“You returned to Everagis, declaring it Sinclare land, making Andrew, in a sense, the laird here and with expectations of me returning home with you. You changed my life completely without consulting me, and then you tell me you love me.”
Lachlan rubbed the back of his neck. “My only excuse is that love has made a witless fool of me.”
“That excuse will not do, for I know you are no witless fool, love or not.”
A rap on the door before it swung open interrupted Lachlan’s response.
“I need to speak with you,” Piper said and Alyce knew something was amiss for Piper would not have disturbed them otherwise.
“Please excuse us,” she said to Lachlan and waited with a defiant glare for him to refuse and claim that as her husband he had a right to remain.
However, Lachlan bowed respectfully and walked out shutting the door firmly behind him.
A few moments after the latch clicked shut Piper spoke, though kept her tone low. “I’ve discovered that Lachlan has brought a man named Bogg with him and that his orders are to penetrate the mercenary camp and find what news he can of Lachlan’s brother.”
“I need to share this news with Septimus and alert him to the changes here at Everagis.”
“You’ll be leaving us, won’t you?” Piper said teary-eyed.
“I don’t see what other choice I have. Lachlan is my husband, though I will attempt to delay my departure as long as I possibly can.”
Piper smiled. “Good, for I do not want to see you go. None of us do.”
Alyce couldn’t trust herself to speak of leaving Everagis and the women who had become her family any longer, for she already felt the tears building in her eyes and was annoyed.
“Make the arrangements for us to meet Septimus late tonight when all are asleep.”
Piper turned to leave.
“Don’t let Evan know.”
Piper nodded and left.
Alyce plopped down at the table again, her feelings mixed and her thoughts confused. Had she been handed a gift only to refuse it? Was she being stubborn and shrewish?
She sighed and shook her head, receiving no clear answers.
There were many reasons why she should accept the gift presented to her and be grateful, but there was one that haunted her.
Lachlan had fallen in love with Terese. She had to know if he could love Alyce Bunnock.
Chapter 23
Alyce was tired, her legs ached and her body sweaty. With Lachlan at Everagis, she and Piper couldn’t take the chance of meeting Septimus at the usual meeting place. Precaution was definitely called for and so she and Piper had walked a distance to meet with him, and then of course there was the return trip.
They were near to home and while she preferred bed and sleep, there was one thing more she ached for…a dip in the river. She needed to wash the sweat from her, let the cool water cleanse every inch of her. If she were lucky perhaps it would even wash away her worries.
Piper went on ahead with a promise to return with fresh garments for her. Alyce stripped out of her clothes, grateful for the waning moon that let the night keep much of its darkness. She felt shielded by the night shadows and without concern eased into the river plunging beneath and surfacing with a contented sigh.
She didn’t want to think on anything. She simply wanted the river to work magic and wash her clean of everything. However, her mind refused to cooperate, and she thought about her meeting with Septimus. He was not happy with her news, but her suggestion of how to handle the matter had brought a smile to his handsome face.
It would be beneficial for all if Septimus allowed Bogg access to the camp and then feed him only that information his leader wanted the Sinclares to know.
As usual Septimus praised her intelligence and offered to wed her, claiming she was one of a kind. She of course declined his jest, but on occasion wondered over Septimus. Who truly was he? He was much too refined and his speech too arti
culate to be a mercenary. Was he like her, hiding from someone?
She would probably never know, for she would meet with him no longer. Piper and Hester would see to that now.
Stop! She silently warned herself. What good was it to think on all this now? She would get no sleep tonight if she continued to wallow in her worry. She let the cool, refreshing water soak her flesh, and she rested her hand to her stomach.
There was just a slight bulge, and she marveled at the thought that Lachlan’s child grew inside her. It truly was a miracle and one she had not expected to ever experience. Not for a moment did she regret that she carried his child. From the first day she had realized it, she had been filled with joy. How lucky she was that she would always have a part of Lachlan with her. He couldn’t have given her a greater gift.
How he would react to the news, she didn’t know and she didn’t plan on telling him just yet. There were other things to consider first.
She startled at a sound not familiar to the night then realized it must be Piper returning; and as she rose up in the river wringing her hair, she saw the shadow that approached was much too large to be Piper.
Alyce stopped waist high in the river. “Who goes there?”
“Your husband.”
Alyce swore beneath her breath and added several more silent oaths to it when she finally caught full sight of him at the river’s edge. He wore his plaid and his sandals and no more. His chest was bare, his muscles taut, his skin smooth, though she knew exactly where scars had marred his flesh, for she had caressed everyone of them and forced him to relate the tales behind them. Several had been earned through brotherly adventures and skirmishes when he had been young. Lachlan had chuckled with pride when he had told her, and she envied him once again his loving family.
Her family now.
The thought concerned her. Would they like her or think her a shrew as her family thought of her?
“Alyce.”
She startled once again still not accustomed to him referring to her by her given name, but spying the bundle in his hand meant he had to have spoken with Piper. And she didn’t know what excuse Piper had given Lachlan for their nightly escapade.
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