Page 14 of Promised to the Cursed Laird

He had left the same night.

The same night, without waiting for morning, without assembling a larger force, with a handful of men and a sword and apparently no plan beyond going through whichever gate was least watched.

That's either reckless, she thought, or genuine. And I cannae tell which from the inside of it.

"I want tae go home," she said. "My own home. Let me send word tae my father and wait for his answer before⁠—"

"I cannae do that."

"Ye're choosing nae tae."

"The Accord requires⁠—"

"The Accord." She heard the edge in her own voice and let it be there. "Ye're using the Accord the same way my brother used it. The same way Cailleach MacRath used my brother. Everybody in this situation is very concerned with what the King requires and nae one has asked me what I require."

The arm across her middle was warm.

She was furious at the warmth of it.

"What do ye require," he said, quietly.

The question landed without warning. She had expected deflection. She had expected the same wall Fearchar put up, the same pleasantness Cailleach deployed, management dressed as concern.

She had not expected him to ask.

She looked at the road ahead and felt, underneath the fury and the exhaustion and the twelve hours of being someone else's problem, the dangerous thing that happened when a man said something that required her to take him seriously.

"I require," she said carefully, "tae make my own choices."

"About the marriage."

"About everything."

He said nothing for a moment.

"Then here is a choice," he said. "Come tae my land. Meet me in daylight, with yer feet on the ground and nae a bolt between ye and the door. Hear what I have tae say. And then decide."

She stared at the dark.

"And if I decide against it?" she said.

"Then ye decide against it," he said. "From a position of actually knowing what ye're deciding against."

She turned that over.

He's clever, she thought. That's the trouble. He's clever and he's warm and he came through a postern gate in the middle of the night, and his arm has been around me for two miles and I am absolutely nae going tae let any of that matter.

"Ye could be saying this tae get me tae MacKinnon land," she said. "And once I'm there the choice disappears."

"Aye," he said. "I could be."

"That isnae reassuring."

"It's honest," he said. "Ye told me ye wanted tae make yer own choices. I'm telling ye the same thing I told ye about Fearchar — I have an interest in this outcome too. Weigh it accordingly."

She looked at the stars appearing between the trees.

She was riding toward enemy land in the arms of an enemy chief who was telling her not to trust him unconditionally, which was either the most sophisticated manipulation she had ever encountered or the most unexpected honesty.