Page 69 of Auctioned to the Cruel Highlander
“Aye.”
Hector was already turning to bark orders, and the men in the yard sprang into motion around them. The sound of boots striking dirt cut through the air.
Ciaran kept Ava close enough until he felt she could stand on her own. Even then, he did not fully let her go.
“Listen to me,” he said. “They will ride out now. We will ken more soon.”
“I want to go with them.” Her answer came at once, as if she had been holding it in from the moment she began running.
Ciaran looked at her fully then. Her eyes were wild with panic. Her face had gone rigid from the effort of staying upright and speaking plainly.
He knew exactly what she wanted.
Her father.
Her home.
The place that had held her whole life before him.
He also saw the road in his mind, a terrified woman riding alone, the chance of smoke still rising, timbers fallen, men panicked, the cause unknown. His body answered before thought had fully formed.
“It isnae safe, wife. Ye’ll stay here.” The words came out harder than he had intended.
He heard that too late. Ava heard it at once.
Her lips parted in disbelief. “Stay here?”
“Aye.”
“Me father may be hurt.”
“I ken that.”
“Then I am going.”
“Nay.”
The force of the word stopped her for a beat, but it did nothing to calm her. The fear in her face sharpened into anger.
Ciaran could see the exact moment when he lost the ground he should have held more carefully.
“But me father?—”
He cut her off because the thought of her on the road was already too much. “Yer father isnae yer protector anymore. I am.” He heard his own voice and still did not stop. “And yewillobey me.”
The yard had gone quieter around them. His men continued carrying out orders, but Ciaran knew with a grim clarity that every person within earshot would remember that line.
Ava stared at him. The hurt on her face landed harder than her anger had.
“Are ye being serious?”
“Ava—”
“Ye have become me protector?”
“Ava, ye must understand?—”
“What? Because ye have become me husband, me father is suddenly useless? Worthless?”
