Page 135 of Auctioned to the Cruel Highlander
Isobel answered too quickly, “Aye.”
Ava narrowed her eyes. “Do ye?”
“He would never force a woman who clearly doesnae wish it.”
“That wasnae the question.”
Isobel drew herself up a little. “If ye act as though ye have nay desire to be here, Ciaran will see it well enough. He isnae a brute.”
Ava stared at her.
This wasn’t a reassurance that the matter had been cleared up beforehand. All Ava could hear was Isobel’s confidence in how her brother ought to behave, and she wasn’t sure if that was enough.
“So,” she said slowly, “I am meant to trust that if I look sufficiently miserable, yer terrifying brother shall take the hint.”
“He isnae terrifying.”
“There is a reason he has that name.”
“He was named by fools.”
“Bymanyfools,” Ava pointed out. “And some of them may be excellent judges of character.”
Despite the edge in her voice, Isobel almost smiled. It vanished quickly when Ava did not.
“Ciaran has pride,” Isobel said. “He would never choose a woman who made her disinterest plain.”
Ava looked past her for a moment, over the shoulders and turned heads and carefully arranged composure of the hall. The women here were being assessed.Counted. Imagined into futures that might please fathers, clans, or lairds.
Her skin felt too tight with this knowledge, for some reason. The air suddenly felt too thin for her when she looked back at Isobel.
“Why did ye nae simply tell him nae to choose me?”
For the first time since Ava had started panicking, Isobel looked genuinely uncomfortable.
“I couldnae,” she answered after a moment.
“Couldnae?”
“It would have been rude.”
Ava blinked. “Rude?”
“Andunkind,” Isobel added, more quietly now. “I thought that saying such a thing outright would mean admitting too much. It would mean telling him the gathering needed help. That women were appearing because I pushed and persuaded and wrote letters and begged for favors, nae because his prospects improved on their own.”
Ava could only look at her. The flaw in the plan, already visible, widened like a crack through ice.
“Please, he is a feared warrior. I am certain his pride would have taken it,” she said.
Isobel winced a little. “I spared him the humiliation.”
“At the expense of mine?”
“Ava—”
“I daenae like this, Isobel. I daenae like this at all.”
Isobel opened her mouth, then shut it again. Her silence answered better than words.
