Chapter 15

Ewen's voice was sullied by drink. So sullied it was incomprehensible. At last, he had noticed her though. Drunk or not, the dimness of the peat-smoked room couldn't disguise his eyes glowing like burning coals. Had she expected it to be so pronounced?

She'd hoped not to bed him, given everything she'd heard. Should she dwell on that now she was here alone though? Concentrate instead on guaranteeing the futures of all who depended on her? Somehow? What was it to sleep with him? With any man? Firstly, she wasn't just cold inside. Secondly, she was dust and ashes. Well, she had been till she'd come here yesterday and clapped eyes on the Wolf but she was away to get shot of him.Thirdly, it was all time yet to be lived.

"Yes, my lord. I am Lady Kara, Chief Ian Dhub's oldest daughter," she said.

Nicely too, making no reference to the fact that Chief Ian Dhub's second and also his youngest had already proved so unexpectedly sticky about signing the agreement, one had said she'd sooner cut off her hand.

Ma--a woman as good as Ma could only be in one place, unlike Kara who was surely destined for hell—Ma, God rest her soul, would be cartwheeling across the clouds. At last, finally, Kara was the daughter she'd always wanted instead of the one who'd drank herself senseless with the serfs on stolen whiskey, couldn't stand being in the same room as her sisters, whose shadow had a name. Trouble. Who had a mouth to match.

Ewen's bear-like paw strayed toward the whiskey jug. More slopped onto the table than into the wooden goblet. "S'well, madam, s'no afore time. Ah was just saying te S'Ulla, here … there … whaurever the s'hell, S'Ulla is …"

"Right here, mah lord," Ulla called brightly. "This end of the table."

"Richt enough. So ye'are, though Ah dinnae ken whit ye're dahun' there. Onywye, as Ah wis sayin' tae S'Ulla aboot time, ye took yours, madam."

Dissatisfied with the mess he was making of the table, Ewen dispensed with the goblet and slugged the whiskey straight from the jug. "Maybe ye were no wantin' a sicht o' iz? Eh?" He wiped his mouth.

"Oh, not at all, my lord." How that lie tripped from her lips was proofmiracles could occur, right here in McDunnagh Castle too and without her working terribly hard for them, either.This was going well. So well she had curbed the urge to say, a sight of a sight. Gathering her skirts, she rose.

"Now I'm here, you might say I cannot tell you how deeply I regret the delay."

"S'is that so?"

"Aye, is the word, I believe."

No lie. For the first time since her father's men had been sent packing, this was going well.

"Do ye s'lear that?" Ewen waved the jug at the Wolf. "S'likes iz a'ready. An'ken whit? Ah dinnae blame her. Here, hae a drink. Toast the bride. Go on. You'n ah."

"My lord? Are you meaning m--?"

"Well, Ah'm no meanin' the castle cat, madam. Aye. You. Come s'lere."

"But … but of course, my lord.Nothing would give me greater pleasure."

When she had sworn to be amenable, there was no point in doing anything else after all. She grasped her skirts. How the blazes did it happen though, that one minute she swept across the stone-flags, dress swishing, boot heels echoing nicely, her smile in place and the next she was pinned to a heaving barrel of a chest?

"An' gie yir new lord a kiss, like ah the lassies do here. Aye."

Put him to bed and pretend? There was fat chance of that the way his rancid breath--whiskey, last night's, last week's, last year's--blasted her lips, all but knocking her flat.

His fingers, strong as steel, thrust inside her bodice, yanked the neckline down. Bed? She wasn't going to get near any bed, let alone one she could put him in. As for pretending?When he'd grabbed hold of her naked breasts, with dirty, blackened nails?

She gulped. Black panic swamped. Blinding, choking. As if she was right over her head in a bottomless vat of rats and bilge water. Things, nameless things that got up her nose and stuck in her throat.

When it came to pretending, what was this to get back Arland though? When so much had been taken from her already? When she had always clung to the hope her world would somehow regain its course and would one day cease its unbearable orbit of a darkened star? When she outlived her father? And instead this chance had landed in her lap? Well? What was it?

A mistake actually.

How the hell could she do this?Before she could stop it, her spine stiffened to regal formality.

"I am Lady Kara McGurkie. And I demand the treatment due a betrothed bride. Not some doxy you'd plow for a merk. Now get your dirty, filthy, damnable hands off of—"

"What do we say to a little respect here? Hmm?"

Her tongue froze on the word me. Possibly her breath, scalp, heart and spine did too. Ma fell down from the clouds and shattered on the stone floor. Oh God. And no wonder. The Wolf? The Wolf dug his fingertips into Kara's arm.

"Well?"

She said a lot. Just not given the furious way the Wolf gritted, icy fury roiling off him like a cold mist. That, if Ewen desired to paw her, if half the glen did for that matter, right now, while her breasts were hanging out her gown, they were very welcome was probably the best thing though when she was going to die and never see Arland again, which she'd come here to ensure because she, frankly, could not keep her mouth shut, a lamentable fault that made her a bad person, unhappy with the choices she as making.What was more she was the one who was going to have to face Ewen after.