Page 23 of Captured by a Laird
The same could not be said for her. She remembered his threat well.One way or another, you shall be this vile man’s wife.
***
“We must talk seriously now about this marriage.” Wedderburn signaled for her to sit on the bench beneath the window. When she hesitated, he said, “Would ye prefer the bed?”
She dropped onto the bench and folded her hands in her lap. “There’s nothing to discuss.”
He settled next to her, crowding her, and stretched out his long legs. Though the servants had lit no fire and the room was chilly, his body radiated heat, warming her side from shoulder to thigh.
“Ye need a husband who is strong enough to protect you and your daughters,” he said.
“And who will protect us from you?”
“Why fight this?” he said, ignoring her question. “Few women of your station can choose who they marry.”
“Aye, but their families—people who care about their well-being—choose for them.”
“And your family cared so much about ye that they wed ye to Blackadder?” He folded his arms across his chest. “God save me from such acaringfamily.”
He had a point. Though her grandfather was in his grave, she had yet to forgive him for marrying her to Blackadder.
“My circumstances are different now,” she said. “As a widow, the choice of whom to marry, or whether to marry at all, is mine.”
“Ye believe your brothers would allow ye to remain unwed?” he asked, raising one eyebrow. “Ye can’t be that naïve.”
Archie’s parting words came back to her with like a slap across the face.I’ll find ye a husband.
“Believe me, your brother the earl has no intention of leaving ye unwed for long,” he said. “He’ll want this castle in the hands of a strong ally who can defend it.”
“Then he’ll not take kindly to your stealing it.”
“Once we’re wed, your brother will see the wisdom of the match,” Wedderburn said with a shrug. “I am feared and respected in these parts. He’ll come to view me as an asset.”
“An asset?” she said, her voice rising. “After ye laid siege to my castle and forced me to wed ye?”
“Aye, I’m certain of it.”
With all her heart, she wanted to believe that her brothers would respond to the wrong done to her and her daughters with fury, not cold calculation. They did care for her. And yet she would not be in this predicament if they had put her interests above their ambitions.
Now that Archie was the chieftain and earl, would he use his family members as pawns in his power games just as their grandfather had? She pushed the question aside, determined to maintain her composure and argue for her future.
“You’ve told me why ye believe this marriage would be to my advantage,” she said. “But I fail to see what benefit it holds for you.”
His eyes darkened. “Several come to mind.”
Oh my. She licked her dry lips and did not ask him to elaborate.
“Ye already hold the castle, so ye don’t need us,” she said. “Why not let me and my daughters go?”
“The cost of keeping Blackadder Castle—and I will keep it—will be far less if I’m perceived to have therightto hold it,” he said, giving her a smile that did not thaw the ice in his eyes. “Our marriage will save much bloodshed.”
Alison felt as if the ground were shifting under her.
“Some of the blood ye save will be Douglas blood,” Wedderburn continued. “If I am your husband, ’tis unlikely your brothers will attempt to remove me from Blackadder Castle by force.”
He was trapping her with his words, each one another link in the chain he was tightening around her. And the hard lines of his handsome face told her he would never relinquish the castle without spilling blood.
“Most of the other lairds will see that they’ve missed their chance,” he continued, “so I’ll not have to fight them either.”
