Page 35 of A Highlander's Bride

Lady Chisholm did not live in a dream world. She saw their finances fading as her husband continued to drink away their funds. The gambling wasn’t helping either.

They’d already raised their tenants’ rents three times in the last year. There were complaints from them that they had had to sacrifice food for their bairns to pay the rent.

That wasn’t her problem. They shouldn’t have had so many bairns if they found it difficult to feed them. She had solved that problem by banning her husband from her bed shortly after Alice had arrived, even though he’d complained about needing an heir.

All she knew was she had to save her family, and Alice marrying Laird Daniel Mackenzie was the way to do it. Before the lass’s condition became known.

There was no time to waste. The laird was obviously enamored with Lady Beth. It would take some thought and planning to keep this marriage from taking place.

Luckily, she had already secured the help of her own lady’s maid, Meggie, and Joshua, the man her maid had grown attached to.

Planning, that was all it took. And Lady Chisholm was the best when it came to planning. Especially when it came to her best interests.

So, Lady Beth loved Laird Mackenzie, and he loved her.Ach.She thought at one time she loved her husband, but years of living with the man had changed her mind.

Now she was more interested in saving herself.

She left her hiding place in the glen and moved forward. She had a lot to do, and some of it right away before the laird approached Laird Munro and the elder advisors with his decision about a wife.

She hurried to her bedchamber and called to Meggie. “Get up, ye lazy lass. I need ye to use the handwriting ye have been practicing. And find Joshua, bring him up here to this room. We need to make haste.”

Laird Daniel Mackenzie and Lady Beth Munro would not marry.

*

Beth paced inher bedchamber, her chemise whipping around her legs as she turned and moved in the opposite direction. Not that shethought she’d made the wrong decision in telling Daniel “aye,” but was consumed by the fact that her entire life would change.

Mayhap she needed more time to think this through. When he was with her and holding her in his arms, she wasn’t able to think straight. She’d agreed to something she’d been adamantly against for years.

Mam had stopped in a short time ago and it had been easy to see the joy on her face. Somehow even with Beth saying nothing she’d guessed that something had happened between her and Daniel.

“I doona want to talk about it,” Beth said when her mam had introduced the subject.

She wasn’t comfortable yet with discussing her relationship with Daniel.

After a few motherly words of wisdom that Beth didn’t feel she needed, Mam had kissed her on the forehead and left her room.

Now she was tied up in knots again. Before she could convince herself that she should go to Daniel’s room and discuss this further, a soft knock sounded on her door.

Knowing Mam would just walk in after one knock on the door, Beth walked to the portal and opened it.

“I ken this is no’ proper, lass, but I must speak with ye a bit more.” Daniel stood in the doorway, a look of confusion on his handsome face.

Before he could say anything else, she reached for the opening of hisléineand pulled him into the room.

Neither spoke as he wrapped his arms around her and took her mouth in a searing, possessive kiss. Plastered together, he moved her farther into the room.

“Ach, love, I dinna come here to have our wedding night before the ceremony, but I had to see ye one more time before we slept.”

Beth ran her hands over his mussed hair. The man must have been running his fingers through it. At a sudden thought, she pulled back. “Are ye unsure? Are ye sorry ye asked me to marry ye?”

He tugged her back again. “Nay! I never made a better choice in my life. I just wanted to be sure ye weren’t having doubts before I spoke with yer dad in the morning.” He ran his fingers down her cheek. “I love ye too much, Beth, to force ye into something ye really doona want. I want ye, and I’ve never wanted anything with this kind of ache.”

The candlelight fromthe fire in the hearth caught the flush on her cheeks and the glint in her dark eyes—equal parts uncertainty and desire.

Daniel placed his knuckle under her chin and lifted her head. His voice low and rough, he said, “Before we continue, ye can still say nay, Beth.”

She looked up at him, her throat bobbing as she swallowed. “I won’t. Ye cause an ache in me, too.” She stopped for a moment, then said, “Take me to bed, Daniel.”