Highlander’s False Betrothal by Alisa Adams
4
Caroline rose with some difficulty a handful of hours later, wishing that she might make up for her lost sleep by spending a few more hours in bed, but knowing that her father would never allow her to make a poor impression by keeping her potential groom waiting.
Not only am I to smile and pretend that I approve of being married off to a Scotsman,she groaned inwardly as she forced herself out from under the covers, but I am to do so while so deprived of rest that I can barely keep my eyes open. Ugh, what a horrid state of affairs.
When she went down to the dining hall for breakfast, she discovered that Aodh and her father were already sitting at the table in earnest conversation, along with the man who had been previously introduced as Edmund. As she entered the room, all of them stood respectfully to greet her.
“Welcome, my dear,” Lloyd said. “Delighted that you could join us. We were simply discussing the potential benefits and logistics of a union between our houses.”
“How delightful, then, to wake and discover that my future is being planned for me so thoroughly in my absence,” she replied sourly, taking her seat.
“The final decision will, of course, be entirely yours,” Lloyd told her in a voice indicating that was anything but true. “It is not as though anyone can force you to take your vows at knifepoint.”
No, not in any literal sense, perhaps,she thought bitterly. I shall simply be denounced, disgraced, and potentially disowned for disobeying my father’s wishes, which amounts to much the same thing.
“I am overjoyed to hear it,” Caroline answered as a plate of sausages and eggs was placed before her.
The meal largely proceeded in silence, with all of the men in attendance sheepishly staring down at their own plates. Caroline made no attempt at conversation. If anything, her anger rose with each passing moment. They had been perfectly willing to talk among themselves before she had entered the room—even though two of the three men had spent the previous month attempting to kill each other—but now that she was sitting with them, they did not have a word to utter?
She found the whole thing gravely insulting and wished that she could simply run from the room, climb into the carriage, and order it to return her home at once—leaving her father behind since he now seemed to enjoy the Campbells’ company so much.
But of course, this would have been as impossible for her as sprouting feathered wings and flying away. Because although she was of aristocratic lineage, the fact remained that she was not free to come and go as she pleased, and she never had been. The poorest beggars had more freedom in life than she did, and the thought of it filled her with an ocean of self-pity.
Perhaps I ought towelcome the prospect of being disowned, at that, she told herself sullenly. Who needs feasts and fine clothes? I could easily embrace a more humble way of life by wearing plain things, eating simple meals, wandering from place to place, saying and doing as I please, marrying whomever I wish…
Caroline knew that she was being entirely silly and fanciful with this train of thought, but she didn’t care. In that moment, the idea of it seemed wondrous to her.
When the meal had concluded, Aodh cleared his throat and stood once more, walking over to where Caroline was seated. “Lady Caroline,” he said awkwardly, “Loch Aindreas is a short distance from here. Might I take you to see it?”
You may as well,she retorted inwardly. It’s hardly as if there are any other amusements to pass the time in this godforsaken wilderness of a place. Mayhap along the way, we shall happen to note something truly exciting, like the passing of a nearby hare!
“Certainly,” she answered stiffly, getting up from the table and taking his arm.
As they crossed the courtyard toward the main gate of the castle, an attractive woman with strawberry-blonde hair ran toward them. She was dressed in the clothes of a noblewoman, and there was a hungry gleam in her eye as she approached.
“Aodh!” she called out happily, arms outstretched.
Caroline felt Aodh’s body tense next to her. “A-Ainsley,” he stammered, taking two steps back to avoid her embrace. “I…had no idea you had planned to visit with me today.”
Ainsley’s arms fell to her sides, and she tilted her head as though stymied, but from the look in her eyes, Caroline could tell this was far from the truth. “I have never required a formal invitation to see you before! Usually, you are delighted to see me at any time!”
“Yes,” he said, clearing his throat uneasily, “and I am happy to see you now as well. However, as I recently explained, our situation is a bit different at the present moment.”
She put her hands on her hips, eyeing Caroline. Yes, every moment of this embarrassing scene had been calculated by Ainsley far in advance. Caroline could see it easily, even if Aodh could not. “Are things that different, though, truly?” Ainsley challenged. “I was given to understand that this arrangement was meant to be something of a meaningless formality.
“Speaking of formalities,” she added, “are you going to continue to be rude, or will you introduce me to your companion?”
“Ah, yes, of course.” A slight tinge of red crept into Aodh’s face. “Lady Caroline, this is Lady Ainsley. She is the, er…”
“The woman you spoke to me of earlier, yes. I suspected as much.” Caroline curtsied to Ainsley. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Oh, the pleasure is all mine, I assure you!” Ainsley replied with a wide grin. “I hope we have many more chances to speak. Why, we already seem to have so much in common that I imagine we shall be the very best of friends!”
Then you have quite an imagination, Caroline thought wryly. For it is clear to me that you arranged this impromptu visit so that you might throw Aodh off-balance and so that you could catch a glimpse of the woman you see as competition. What a dreadfully manipulative tactic! I am beginning to understand what Freya meant about this awful woman.
“At any rate,” Ainsley went on relentlessly, “I have come all this way, Aodh, and I have missed you terribly! This seems as good a time as any for the three of us to spend a bit of time together, eh? Where shall we go?”
“Ainsley, much as I relish that notion,” Aodh said uneasily, “I hardly think Lady Caroline’s father would approve. They have come a much longer way, with the purpose of ensuring that she and I might be acquainted, given the, er, proposition which lays before us. Surely you understand.”
Ainsley made quite a show of being wounded but “trying not to show it,” then nodded slowly.
“Oh. Very well. Then I suppose I shall simply return home and patiently wait for a message from you to indicate when I should visit. Would that be more convenient for you, my dear Aodh?”
“That would be ideal, yes. Thank you,” he replied brusquely. From the look on his face, Caroline could see that Ainsley had succeeded in sowing seeds of guilt and frustration, just as she had so obviously planned.
Ainsley curtsied to Caroline once more. “Lady Caroline, again, a pleasure to meet you. I…hope the two of you enjoy your time together.”
And with that, she turned and left (though not without a pouting backward glance or two on her way to the gates).
“I apologize for the disruption,” Aodh said in a choked voice. “I assure you it will not happen again.”
Within the hour, Caroline found herself wishing that she had been able to invent any excuse at all in order to decline Aodh’s invitation to visit the loch, up to and including a sudden and pernicious onset of leprosy.
The heels of her shoes sank into the soft and muddy ground they walked through, and blades of wet grass clung stubbornly to the hem of her dress. Her corset was tight and slippery around her midsection, and she felt her fine silks growing damp with dew and perspiration. Much of the journey involved ascending hills, a form of exercise she was inexperienced in (and most ill-suited for).
When Aodh offered a hand to help her, she swatted it away, insisting on making the climb herself. “For God’s sake,” she snapped, waving away clouds of midges that hovered around her face, “what are the women in this country expected to wear while making their way from one hill to the next? Hip boots and overalls? Am I to dress for an afternoon with my intended as though I were about to muck out the stables?”
“Given your overall disdain for the people of my country,” Aodh growled, “no doubt you believe our women traipse about the Highlands naked like a pack of savage Druids, eh?”
“They may as well, for all the good manners they show!” she retorted hotly. “That Ainsley woman is a perfectly beastly example!”
“What on earth do you mean?” he balked. “She showed you every courtesy and refinement, despite being rather put out!”
“Are you honestly too foolish to have seen through her ghastly manipulations? She knew full well what she was doing when she showed up unannounced!”
He waved her off. “She does that quite frequently.”
“Yes, but you told her of my visit, did you not? And the nature of it? You alluded to such a thing when you spoke to her earlier.”
“I did,” he replied uncertainly.
“Well?” Caroline challenged. “Do you honestly believe that such a thing simply slipped her mind? Or that she genuinely believed it would not be an issue for her to come and see you while you were entertaining me?”
“I…” He frowned, unsure of how to respond to that.
“She came here to take my measure as a potential rival for your affections, you silly man,” Caroline went on, “and to make you feel odd and unhappy at being caught between us. In short, she came to remind you that she will not make herself easy to dispose of…and to make that same point to me as well.”
“Do you not think you might be embellishing all of this rather heavily?” Aodh suggested. “You interacted with her for all of two minutes, and already you seem to be jumping to a great many conclusions.”
“How can you possibly be so blind to something that is right in front of you?” she asked incredulously. “Is this the great tactical mind of Laird Aodh of the Campbells at work, then? Can you not see how utterly outmaneuvered you have been by this shrewd and calculating woman? With strategic abilities such as these, it’s a great wonder that you have lasted twenty-three hours against my father’s forces, let alone twenty-three days!”
“And your father’s such a master tactician, is he?” Aodh snapped. “Aye, it takes military skill indeed to simply keep buying more and more men and throwing them out onto the battlefield, does it not?”
“It must have worked well enough,” she shot back, “else we would not currently find ourselves in this position, would we?”
“The only position I wish to find myself in at the moment is back in my own chambers,” Aodh said, turning back toward the castle angrily. “Bugger the stroll around the loch, and bugger this idiotic marriage proposal as well, come to that. I must have been out of my damned mind, allowing Edmund to talk me into this.”
“So that’s it, then?” Caroline protested. “You will simply abandon the entire concept?”
“What do you care, eh?” he demanded. “You never wanted this any more than I did.”
“No, and I still do not!” Caroline tried to keep pace with him, even though the soil kept grabbing greedily at her shoes and the hem of her dress. “That, however, does not make our position any more flexible! It seems as though marriage is the only way for both of our houses to be at peace!”
“Then we shall have to find some other way!” Aodh insisted. “For now, though, I propose we return to the castle in silence, lest we find new ways to anger each other and worsen our prospects!”
Caroline opened her mouth, then closed it again, knowing that given the mood he was in, further talk would serve no purpose.
But if they were not to be married, what then? More war?
There must be another way,she thought grimly. And if so, I swear I shall think of it.
