Page 19 of To Claim His Highland Bride

“How much more?”

“I want to go on an adventure for once in my life and be free of the constricting walls of Dunvegan.”

He shook his head. “Alastair will never agree to that.”

“He would have no say in the matter if we were married.”

Marcus groaned. As a married woman, Rowena’s husband would determine her fate. Though he doubted Rowena would follow anyone’s guidance but her own. Married or not. That trait was initially what had drawn him to her. She hadn’t cared about his surname or that her clan might have reservations about the two of them.

Sensing he was softening to the idea, Rowena’s lips quirked. “I promise to start the annulment proceeding the moment we return. You can get back to your duty to your fallen crewmen, and you’ll never have to see me or my kinsmen again.” The words rang with outright challenge.

Marcus’s jaw tightened. How else could he dissuade her? He took a step closer, then another until his face was close to hers. His nerves flickered as the scent of heather teased his senses. “In order to receive an annulment, you must prove you are yet untouched. A physical inspection would be required.”

Rowena didn’t step back or react in any fearful way to his blatant intimidation. “I am up to the task, I assure you.”

He studied her eyes. The sun overhead reflected in the hazel depths, making them appear gold one minute, shadowed green the next—mysterious, ever-changing, much like the sea. A lick of desire slid down his spine when he noted her breathing had quickened along with his own.

The air between them all but crackled. She met his gaze with a steely one of her own. “You will marry me then, and take me with you.”

“You say that as though I had any other choice.”

“You don’t.”

A pulsing throb beat at his temple as he looked over Rowena’s shoulder towards Dunvegan. “A marriage in name only.”

A smile played at the corners of her mouth, casting out the shadows that had taken refuge there in his absence. “Agreed.”

“Shall we head back to the castle and wait for my parents’ return together?” He offered her his hand. She accepted and curled her fingers around his larger one. If taking her with him would provide her a future and clear his conscience, then that’s what he would do, even though everything inside him screamed to find another solution.

By nightfall a MacDonald would be married to a MacLeod.

Chapter Eight

Bryce kept his word and brought Marcus’s parents back to Dunvegan by midday. Shortly after, Alastair, Tormod, Callum, Graeme, and their men returned. The castle teemed with people and excitement at the news that Rowena and Marcus would marry within the hour. Now that the moment was upon her, Rowena’s thoughts had shifted from joyous to troubled. She was forcing the man she loved into a lie, manipulating him every bit as much as Bryce was doing.

Rowena sat on the edge of her bed, dressed in nothing but her shift and a dressing gown as she stared at the beautiful seafoam gown Gwendolyn had brought her. “I had it made just for this occasion when Marcus left so we would have it prepared upon his return.”

Alastair had paid for the gown, so he must have supported the idea then, but he had seemed confused when Marcus had announced their intention to marry that afternoon. He’d asked her to go to her chamber and wait for him while he talked to Marcus.

A knock on the door startled Rowena from her thoughts. “Come in,” she said, bracing for the interrogation to come.

Alastair entered the chamber then shut the door behind him before pulling a chair closer to her bedside. “I need to make certain all is well here before I can give you my blessing.” He glanced at the dress hanging on her armoire then back at her. “Only this morning Marcus told me he needed to break his promise to you in order to fulfil other obligations. What has changed in a matter of hours?” His gaze narrowed as though trying to read her thoughts.

Rowena couldn’t clear her brow of a frown, born of frustration, that had settled there. “Marcus changed his mind after we saw each other again. I’m certain he told you that when you spoke with him.”

A slow smile transformed Alastair’s face. “He said he’d fabricated an image of the woman he’d left behind over the months he’d been gone, and that image did not stand up to the woman you truly are.”

Rowena didn’t know whether to be pleased or insulted by Marcus’s words. “So you’ll agree to our union?”

“If you tell me this is what you want, I will not stand in your way.”

“’Tis what I want,” Rowena said more sadly than she’d intended, as she realised how disappointed her brothers would be in her when she finally did reveal the truth. Alastair hadn’t considered her feelings when he’d left her at Miss Doddie’s School for Girls, or when she’d had to make her way back home alone so that Callum would have family near him. Why should it matter what her brother thought about her when the treasure hunting was done? It shouldn’t, but it did.

Marcus had obviously appeased her eldest brother during his own interrogation. He’d lied to Alastair, telling her brother the things he wanted to hear despite the fact Rowena had trapped him in a cage of her own design. Her stomach knotted as she tried to imagine how she and Marcus would move forward once they were wed. He would have to stand up to Alastair once again as he took her with him to find the treasure Bryce demanded. But how would her new husband treat her as they lived amongst his men? Would he resent her? Punish her?

She knew Marcus to be honourable and just. He’d proven that when he’d left his own clan to help the MacLeods. But he was also in the habit of command now, and determined to have things his own way, as he’d proven while standing up to Bryce. There was no real way to know for certain how he would react to their forced nuptials until they set sail.

Blind to the turmoil inside her, Alastair stood and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “You’d best get ready for your wedding. Gwendolyn and Fiona are at the door, waiting to help you prepare.”