Page 341 of Wicked Highland Heroes

She snapped her head in his direction. “Truly?”

He nodded. “As my wife, you would be as free as you please.”

She scowled. “Otherwise, I am naught but your prisoner?"

“I do not like living with the fear that you might run away,” Iain answered with startling honesty.

“Aye,” she retorted. “’Tis always better to remind a woman of her status, is it not, my lord?”

“That was not my meaning and you know it,” he replied.

She shook her head. “That is exactly what you meant.”

Iain gave a low growl and threw his hands in the air. “Have your ride. Thomas will accompany you.” “I never asked to go alone,” she said. “And it may interest you to know, if I wished to run away, I would find a more clever ruse than a simple ride.”

“Oftentimes, the simple plans are the best.”

“Mayhap you should remember, I am but a simple woman.”

Iain's deep laugh was followed by, “Nay, lass, such good fortune was not to be mine.”

Victoria narrowed her eyes, eliciting a round of laughter from the men, but she turned and bestowed a gracious nod on Thomas. “If you please, sir, I will meet you in the stables in ten minutes.”

She started for her cottage and bit her tongue when Iain called, “Do not be gone longer than an hour.” The words, spoken in an offhanded manner, held a command she knew would be heeded by her companion.