Page 87 of Claimed by a Highlander
Rory should have taken the money he’d already won and left. But he imagined a lass’s shining black hair falling over his chest, and he signed his name, which was all he could write.
For years he had told himself that he agreed to that last, unusual wager for the wealth and powerful connections such a marriage could bring to him and his clan.
Now he saw the truth. He had done it for a chance to spend his days and nights with the bonny black-haired lass with laughter in her eyes.
He had been so damned certain that night that luck was on his side.
But luck, like the lass herself, was fickle.
CHAPTER 30
Rory felt like a caged animal as he paced the chamber. He’d been taken for a fool by Sybil’s slippery, smiling brother.
“Ye knew from the very beginning when I showed ye the parchment that it was no binding contract,” he ranted. “And ye knew I didn’t know it was false.”
He had no right to take Sybil away with him. Kidnapping a bride was not uncommon in the Highlands, but a man ought to know when he was doing it.
At least Sybil had the grace to look guilty.
“Why did ye not tell me?” he shouted. “Why?”
“Well…” Her gaze flitted away. “I didn’t want to disappoint ye after you’d traveled such a long way to fetch me.”
“Sybil!” He clenched his fists at his side. “The time for games is at an end.”
“I had the threat of imprisonment and a charge of treason looming over me,” she said. “And you were looming over me as well, just as ye are now. Before I became accustomed to that icy stare of yours, ye could be a wee bit frightening.”
“Don’t ye dare mock me.” He’d had enough of her sarcasm.
“Ye don’t understand—”
“Oh, I understand perfectly now,” he said, folding his arms.
“Ye don’t.”
“Ye needed a man to take ye away. Who better than an ignorant Highlander?” He backed her up against the wall and leaned in close. “Ye used me.”
“That wasn’t—”
“Ye never intended to become my wife.” He felt as if a fist was pounding against his head. “Ye went to bed with me. Why? To make me believe we were bound?”
“Nay, that wasn’t the—”
“What else have ye lied to me about?”
When she looked off into the distance as if she was struggling to recall all the ways she had deceived him, he thought his head would explode. A terrible suspicion crept into his mind. God’s bones, he hoped he was wrong.
“Ye lied to me about why ye weren’t a virgin, didn’t ye?”
Her face drained of color.Christ,how could she?
“Ye lied about being raped.” The words tasted like ashes on his tongue.
“I never m—”
“You’re every bit as deceitful as your brother,” he said, pointing his finger at her. “Ye only went to bed with me after ye learned my brother died and there was a good chance I’d be made chieftain.”
“That’s not why I did it!” she said. “You were grieving. I wanted to comfort you.”
