The Reluctant Highland Groom (2 page)

“
It is good to see ye again,” he said with what seemed like a paltry attempt at a smile. For a man only two or three years older than Ramsey, time had worn on Connor’s face. Creases from worry and anxiety made him look like a much older man than he was.

“
And ye, Connor,” Alec said. “It has been at least twelve years.” Connor had always seemed a serious sort, but he almost did not look like the same lad who had rescued Alec from his sister’s clutches. Alec would not have recognized him if they had not been introduced.

A servant handed Alec a mug, and he found a chair next to Logan. To his relief, the conversation did not turn to marriages or betrothal at his arrival. Mostly, the two families now helmed by the eldest sons talked of the growing season, sharing patrols on common borders, and the coming winter.

It was not a promising discussion.

“
We hav’na had the greatest growing season,” Connor said quietly.

Ramsey nodded. Alec knew there was a lot of rot coming in as their crops were harvested—and now he knew it had spread to the areas around them.

“
Have ye had any more encounters with the Gunns since the spring?” Alec asked. The Munroes hadn’t seen a Gunn in nearly three months, and their absence left him more worried than when they were spotted nearly daily last summer.

“
Nay,” Connor replied. “And it doesna bode well. We’ve not heard anything from them since my Da died last year.”

When the meal was finally served, the mood returned to lighthearted chatter and Alec was just beginning to relax. In fact, he’d not spotted the rat-faced girl at all. Perhaps she’d not traveled with her brother. Perhaps this visit had nothing to do with matrimony after all.

Alec let his long legs stretch out in front him and enjoyed another mug of ale, not paying attention to the conversation and letting his shoulders relax for the first time in many hours. It was just then, when he’d finally let down his guard, that Connor struck.

“
I think it’s time we get down to the real reason we are here,” Connor said. He’d taken a chair next to Alec and was now speaking so that only Alec could hear. “It’s time to make good on the betrothal our fathers agreed upon.”

Alec held his breath, wondering if simply fleeing from the room would be an effective answer. Instead, he sat up straighter in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees, staring into the fire.

Though Connor had spoken softly, Ramsey and Logan were now tuned into the conversation. Alec ignored them.

“
Connor,” Alec began, “about that…”

“
You promised me, Connor,” a woman’s voice snapped through Alec’s fog. He turned his head over his shoulder, ready to confront the rat-faced girl, and felt his jaw go slack.

The ugly, pinch-faced creature from twelve years ago was unrecognizable. The woman who stood behind Connor with angry, flashing eyes was a vision. She had shining auburn hair that fell past her shoulders in glossy waves. Her blue eyes seemed on fire as she gave Alec a detached once-over before returning to her obvious anger to her brother. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, the lass was lovely.

“
I’ve told you over and over again, I’m not marrying…
him.
” She gestured in Alec’s general direction dismissively. Well, perhaps not completely
lovely
, but fine-looking no less.

Time does work miracles,
he decided.
If I’d known she looked like this...

No, no. He’d not take her to wife—not for anything. She was not intended to be his, nor he to be hers.

Alec watched Connor’s face redden. The McHugh’s hands gripped the arms of his chair until his knuckles were white. They were all suddenly transported from a genial gathering in the Munro great hall to a tense standoff between two siblings.

Connor pushed himself from his chair and stood in front of his younger sister, his face inches from hers—growing redder by the second, as it was obvious he was doing his best to rein in his temper.

“
Ye’ve no say in this matter,” he said tightly. “It was agreed upon long ago by both families and all agree ’tis for the best.”

“
Who agrees?” Cara McHugh pointed a finger in her brother’s face. “I certainly didn’t. And from the looks of him, he didn’t agree either. Look at him!”

She flung a hand in Alec’s direction a second time.

Should I be offended?
Alec glanced around, but most faces seemed to be focused on Cara and her outburst, not him.

“
He looks like he’d rather eat the chair he’s sitting on than marry me,” Cara said. “And I feel the same way. You are doing nobody any favors, Connor.”

“’
Tis out of your hands, little sister.”

“
Is it? Will you drag me screaming like a banshee to the altar? You will not force me to do it, Connor, I know you better than that!”

Connor, for his part, seemed largely speechless. He sent Ramsey an apologetic look, then stared at his sister, apparently searching for words.

For the first time since arriving in the men’s conversation, Cara faced Alec and looked him in the eye.

“
Tell him,” she said, pointing to Connor. “Tell my brother that you’ve no wish to marry me.”

Alec looked from brother to sister. And then from sister to brother, with no idea how to navigate these murky waters. He looked to his own brother, Ramsey, for any clue as to how to proceed, but the eldest Munro merely shrugged. It was obvious Ramsey was perplexed as well. And as for Logan, he had the same mischievous smirk on his face that he always did. Logan was obviously enjoying the evening immensely.

At least someone was having a good night.

“
Speak, damn you,” Cara stamped her little foot in anger. “Say something, you lackwit!”

Whatever had held Alec’s tongue released its grip at her insult.

“
Mind yer place, ye little harpy,” he finally said and the color drained from her crimson cheeks. Oh, this was almost fun. “Yer a guest in our home and yer prancing around like the bloody King of England, insulting me and shaming yer family.”

Cara seemed stunned into brief silence by his demand, gaping at him with round blue eyes.

Connor nodded his head in assent, and from the corner of his eye, Alec saw that Ramsey had relaxed a bit as well. For a moment, anyway. Neither of their brothers would like what he was about to say.

“
But she’s right,” he said. “I willna marry her.”

Any remaining noise in the room faded away. Alec could hear the fires devouring the wood.

Connor fixed him with a pale blue stare. “I believed the Munroes to be men of honor,” he said. “Our fathers agreed to this years ago.”

“
Our fathers agreed to this when times were better,” Alec said. “I doona think they would force it upon us now, when all our energy is spent fighting our enemies.”

“
Nonetheless, an agreement was made.”

“
A verbal agreement,” Alec said, carefully not looking at Ramsey or Logan. “A verbal agreement, made over drinks. For all we know, the men were drunk. There were no contracts, no further promises. It was a suggestion between friends, not a binding oath.”

Beside him, Logan guzzled the last of his drink.

Alec waited for further pushback from both families, but it did not come. Connor shook his head and strode from the room, his face flushed. Ramsey followed behind, while Sabrina led Cara upstairs, away from the prying eyes of the Munro kinfolk—all who had gathered for what they thought was a wedding announcement.

Some of them looked in his direction. “Well, off with ye,” Alec snapped.

The crowd slowly dispersed, heading back to their daily routines, and Alec left the great hall as well. With very little idea of where to go, he wandered toward the fields. The barley, what had survived, had been shorn from the stalks, and the deep amber sea that stretched in front of him reminded Alec of why he’d returned to the Highlands, despite his family’s heartache.

The time he and his brothers spent in England, on the run from Laric Gunn and his bloodthirsty thugs, had been like living without a heart in his chest. England was bland and colorless. Even its storms could not match a Highland tempest. No, he belonged here, no matter what happened or how long it took them to do away with the threat the Gunns posed.

Alec wandered further out, past the small cottages the families of the Munro clan occupied. Past the grazing livestock, out into the surrounding forest. Foolish, he knew, but Alec needed the breathing room. His foolish pride had been instantly wounded when the McHugh girl refused the idea of marriage to him. Was he so terrible after all? Alec shook his head at the direction his thinking was taking him—he’d been the one who had decided not to marry, so her refusal should not matter to him. But it did. What was it about him that Cara McHugh found so repulsive? Surely a woman knew her only role in life was to marry and produce children—to continue the lineage. What ridiculous notion was in her pretty head that she should be any different?

***

“
Well, that went...poorly,” Sabrina Munro allowed, pouring Cara a goblet of wine in her husband’s study. “You did say you wouldn’t fight, Cara.”

“
You didn’t see the look on his face when he saw me,” Cara said. “Pure disdain. Why should I be wedded to a man who looks at me as—as a
harpy
?” She spat the word out, still astonished that he’d called her by such a name.

“
I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

Sabrina Munro seemed kind enough, if well-settled by marriage. Cara could not look at her as any sort of confidante; anything she told Sabrina would likely go straight to her husband Ramsey, and from there, who knew?

“
You got to choose your husband,” Cara said. “Would you not have done the same, in my place?”

Sabrina did not look quite as upset as she probably should have, and Cara thanked her lucky stars the woman did not swat her upside the head or deliver some other, similarly humiliating punishment. “Alec is a good man. A bit too impetuous, but a good man nonetheless! Why do you fight this? It’s for the good of both our families.”

“
And what about my good? Of course I wish to do right for my people, but it seems to me there are other ways to accomplish that than being a quiet, mousy little thing.”

“
Of course there are. But Alec is not the monster you seem to imagine him to be.”

Cara folded her arms, ignoring the goblet Sabrina tried to press on her. “You married the man you loved, Lady Munro.”

“
Please, it’s Sabrina.”

“
Very well, Sabrina. You loved Ramsey and you married him. You
chose
him. Why can you not see that I want only the same thing? To love a man, to choose him, not have him...forced upon me like some wine!”

Sabrina flushed slightly and set the goblet on the table. “Forgive me. I only hoped to ease your troubles slightly.”

Cara counted to five.
Calm yourself. She is not your enemy.
“No, it is I who must ask your forgiveness. I’m just...I’m so angry, Sabrina. I don’t want to be plaything to some young laird.”

“
He’ll not make you his plaything. Alec is many things, but he’s not cruel. Nor is he foolish. In time, I know he would recognize your value.”

“
And what am I to do until then? Tend to his hearth and do as he commands, until he realizes there’s more value to me?”

It probably wasn’t the discussion Sabrina had been hoping for. Cara pulled her shawl tightly around her shoulders and strode to the other side of the room, staring out the windows at the stable and its yard. Alec was out there saddling a horse, discussing something with his younger brother, Logan.

“
Did you know I quite worshipped him when we were younger?” she asked.

Sabrina came up beside her. “No. I know little of your history, save your fathers made an agreement.”

“
They did, and I thought it quite fine at the time. I knew I would never marry a king or a proper laird, and Alec was...well, he was older than I, and don’t all little children look up to the older ones? I adored him. I thought he would be my dashing husband. But he wanted none of me, and so I grew to dislike him.” Cara sighed, watching Alec say something cutting to Logan. The younger man winced and strode away, shaking his head.