Page 10 of A Match Made in Heather

Garrick smiled grimly at that. He supposed he should. Simply gallop off and finally cut all ties with Scotland. He didn’t need what money his half of the estate might bring, and he certainly didn’t belong in the highlands anymore. After all, he was now an English lord with more loyalty to the crown than to the thistle.

And wasn’t that his purpose for coming here in the first place, to prove to himself how much he’d changed? To take one last look around the highlands before heading back south and never returning? This time, it would behisdecision to leave.

He hadn’t lied to Arabel in the solicitor’s office. He wanted revenge against the Rowlands, and he’d spent every breath of the past ten years craving just that, even as what they’d done to him had inadvertently led to his skyrocketing rise. Inheriting Highburn had finally given him that revenge. The groom who wasn’t good enough to marry into the Rowland clan now held the fate of its ancestral seat in his hands. Truly, that was what mattered. Not the property, but its control. And proving to himself that the Rowlands no longer had any control overhimby being able to walk away from the highlands without a second thought.

But then he saw Arabel, and everything changed.

Now he couldn’t simply walk away. Not when she still affected him like this. And certainly not when he could have once more what she and her family had taken from him—his home and heritage.

“No,” he answered wryly. “I think the Townsend holdings could use a highland estate.”

Reeves looked at him knowingly. “Or is it that Townsend could use a highland lass?”

“Not that lass,” he muttered, his gaze returning to the coat of arms. “That one’s a true thistle.”

The damn woman had made him believe she loved him, only to set her family on him. She probably did love him, in her own way; he’d give her that much credit. But not enough to defy her family and choose a life with him.

A commotion went up outside as a small carriage pulled to a stop.

Through the margin lights bracketing the front door, Garrick watched as Ewan Murray alighted and turned to help Arabel to the ground. She paused in the carriage doorway to glance up at the old house, and her face lit with emotion. The look of home.

Then she stepped to the ground, took Murray’s arm, and allowed him to lead her inside.

Garrick faced her, their eyes locking across the entrance hall. Neither moved as around them their arrival sent up a flurry of activity, with footmen coming forward to carry her trunks and bags into the house and the housekeeper giving orders on where they should all be taken. A fierce determination blazed in her green eyes.

This was how it was going to be, was it?

So be it.

“Welcome to Castle Highburn,” he announced with as much arrogance as any lord of the manor, solely to irritate her.

Not deigning to reply, she pulled back her shoulders, but the defensive stance couldn’t hide her stunning beauty. Not in that dress of crushed green velvet that made her hair resemble fire as it lay piled in soft curls on top her head. Pinned so loosely in place, in fact, that he wondered if he could shake it down simply by running his fingers through it. Her full lips were pressed into a tight line of annoyance, but he knew how soft that mouth was, how responsive and spicy-sweet. Try as she might to appear formidable, her anger only added to her allure. A hard-edged hellion wrapped in soft velvet. The contradiction she represented tied his gut into knots.

Unaware of the turmoil she churned inside him, she turned toward Murray. The man had finally stepped to her side after chastising the servants for attempting to bring in his luggage and shouting at the driver and tiger to keep the carriage at the ready.

So the banker wasn’t staying. Satisfaction rolled through him.Good.

Murray possessively took Arabel’s elbow. “I want you to give up this nonsense right now and get back into the carriage with me. We’ll file suit and—”

“Which will do no good.” She shifted away from him. Not far enough that anyone else would have noticed, but Garrick did. “It’s only a month and will pass before we know it. Besides, being here will allow me to finalize our wedding plans.”

Garrick’s chest tightened.

“I’llfinalize everything,” Murray corrected gruffly. Then, with his eyes never leaving Garrick, he lifted Arabel’s hand to his lips. Her engagement ring, now worn on the outside of her glove when it had been safely tucked beneath at the solicitor’s, glittered in the sunlight for all to see. Just as Murray wanted, Garrick was certain. To brand her as his. “I’d be a fool to let you get away.”

An icy jolt pulsed through him, and he clenched his jaw. Did Murray know the true relationship between him and Arabel? No, surely Arabel had kept her secrets. Otherwise, Garrick couldn’t imagine that Murray would be daft enough to leave her alone with him.

Hecertainly wouldn’t have.

He raked his gaze coldly over the banker. How little this man knew her. Arabel’s independent spirit made her give freely of her passions, but she’d never allow herself to be owned by any man.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she assured Murray, although her long-suffering sigh made Garrick smile to himself. Whatever was between the two, it wasn’t love.

With a scowl, Murray took her arm and pulled her aside, then began to lecture her quietly enough that no one could overhear. But he jabbed his finger at her, belittling her with every point he made.

Hot anger flared inside Garrick’s chest. How dare that bastard! Clenching his fists, he started forward—

Reeves laid a hand on his shoulder.