Page 3 of Never Marry a Highlander

"If ye wish me to speak with yer sister, I am happy to do that.If she accepts my offer, it might ease yer mind."

The man actually threw his head back and laughed."I care no' about Lorena's feelings or thoughts in this matter."He thumped his chest with his thumb."She is my possession and I decide what happens to her.She will do what she is ordered."

Any slight dislike Craig had for the laird turned into a very strong dislike.Robin had told him the lass had been beaten by her brother as well as her dead husband, Avery Gordon.How a man could take his fists to someone who is in their care and protection went against everything Craig believed in.He also knew that The Gunn had told Robin if he didn't marry Lorena he would marry the lass off to a brutal laird in a small clan in the lowlands.A man who already buried two wives who both died in 'accidents.'

The laird stood."I expect ye to stay until I make a decision.”

Craig nodded."Aye.My men and I will stay outside the castle."

"Nay," Gunn said."Ye will stay in the castle.I will have a maid prepare a bedroom for ye and yer cousin."

He really didn't care for the sound of that.It was almost as if they were being held prisoners.Craig shifted in his chair, making sure his dirk was close to his hand."We will stay outside the castle.There is no reason to deny our request.We arrived here of our own free will with an honest offer.We have no intention of fleeing and do no' wish to be treated as prisoners."

Knox leaned over and spoke to his father, low enough that Craig didn’t hear him.The man continued to stare at Giles and Craig."Verra well.Ye can stay outside the castle until I decide."

Craig nodded."I would request time to speak with Lady Gordon."

***

Lady Lorena Gordon stared at herself in the looking glass in her bedchamber.She’d seen the MacKays ride in a little while ago.So this was it.She was to marry Robin MacKay and spend the rest of her life at Dun Ugadale.There were no regrets in leaving Clyth Castle.She’d never been happy here.

Bluidy hell, she’d never been happy anywhere.When her mam and da died after their carriage slid off a bridge, plunging them both into the swollen river below, she’d lost the one person who had ever cared about her.

Her mam may not have been overly attentive, but at least she knew who she was.Once she collided with her da in a corridor when she was about seven years and he didn’t know her and shoved her away in annoyance, complaining about bairns running around loose in the castle.

Her brother, David, now the laird, had been away fostering most of her life and when he returned to take over their da’s duties, he immediately began looking for a husband for her.‘Twas the cook who reminded him Lorena was only ten and three years.

David was nice to her on occasion, but most times ignored her also unless he was in a foul mood and then she would feel his fists.She had learned soon after his return to stay out of his way.

She had foolishly high hopes when she did marry at the age of ten and six, but her husband was brutal.The best thing he’d done for her was to die after only two years of marriage.

What was it about her that made her so unlovable?She never asked for much.Like all young lasses, she liked the attention of the guardsmen, of finding a coin or two in her brother’s study to buy something shiny when the vendors came around and speaking with the village girls.

It was right before her marriage to that beast Avery Gordon that the girls she’d been gossiping and shopping with found out she was the laird’s sister.“We thought ye were one of the castle maids,” Kiley said.She narrowed her eyes and studied Lorena.“Ye doona look like the laird’s sister!”

“Nay.We have different mothers.I think David looks like his mother and I’ve been told I look like mine.”

Kiley laughed.“It must have been quite annoying to yer da to have two bairns and neither one look like him.”

Lorena smiled at herself in the looking glass, remembering the good times she’d had with the village girls.Once she returned from her marriage, she didn’t have the desire to search them out.She knew they were probably happily married with maybe even a bairn or two.

She didn’t want to see their happiness.Not that she begrudged them their husbands, but she knew in her heart that kind of happiness would never be hers.

Now she was once again being shoved off onto a laird who not only didn’t want her but was in love with another woman.She’d heard the stories when she had visited Dun Ugadale with her brother.Mayhap she should do as she told The MacKay and jump off the bridge into the river where her parents had drowned.

She laid her head on her folded arms and cursed the one tear that slid down her cheek.‘Twas just one more in a stream of them she’d cried over the years.Just as she sat up and wiped her cheeks there was a knock at the door.

This was it.‘Twas time to do her duty and marry another man who would also ignore her while he pined for a lost love.