Entrusted to a Highlander (Highland Promise Trilogy #2) - Donna Fletcher Page 0,12

enough there was no arguing with him. He would learn soon enough his dictates were lost on her.

She stepped outside and she froze in place as her eyes settled on Arran’s naked back. He stood with his back to her next to the rain barrel, water streaming down the grooves, muscles, and scars along his back. Five years ago, she had watched him from the woods when he’d been on the practice field. Often in the summer he would remove his shirt and she recalled how smooth and unmarred his skin had been and the muscles along his back and arms had been plentiful. His back was unmarred no more. It bore a mixture of scars he had to have gotten in battle and some from the lash of a whip. His shoulders seemed broader than she remembered, though it could be the muscles he had gained there and along his arms that made him appear that way.

She jumped startled when he turned to her.

“The scars on my back hold tales I will never tell you and you will never ask me about,” he said.

Purity’s gaze rested on his naked chest and midriff. His flesh was solid and rippled with more muscle than she had ever seen on him and a scar—long healed—marred his left shoulder. What cruelty had he lived that scars forever stained his skin? Her heart hurt for him and she had the urge to hug him tight, to infuse him with her love, and chase away the pain of the past.

“Don’t waste your time on sorrow for me, Purity. I left more scars on others than the ones left on me.” He grabbed his linen shirt off the small bench near the rain barrel. “You have today to gather what you wish to take with you. We leave early tomorrow.”

Purity sighed. “I don’t know how many times I must say this before you grasp it. I’m not going with you.”

Arran walked over to her, his shirt still in his hand and Purity wished he had slipped it on first. Rain water glistened on his chest and the pungent scent of the forest drifted off him to whisper over her. The rippling sensation it sent racing through her turned her legs weak.

Wed him.

The words tolled like a bell in her head. She wanted his love not his pity.

“I am not leaving you here on your own. You are going home with me one way or another. And you will be my wife one way or another.”

“You didn’t want me then and you certainly don’t want me now, and I don’t want you.” She ignored the silent shout in her head. Liar!

“It makes no difference what either one of us want. It is what we must do. I will be a good husband and treat you well. I will not stop you from seeing to your animals, though they will not be allowed inside our home. Listen well to my word and we will share a good life together, and I will always see you and our children kept safe. What more could you ask of a husband?”

His meaningful words hurt her heart in so many ways. She stepped away from him, needing the knot in her stomach to ease and the one in her throat to fade.

She spoke calmly when she was finally able to speak at all. “First, my animals are family and they live with me, in my home. Second, I no longer obey any man’s word. And finally, you ask what more I could ask of a husband—love—that is what I want from my husband.”

“Animals in the home we can discuss. Any husband expects an obedient wife. And If I could love you I would, but I can’t. I can promise that you will be safe with me. I won’t let anyone harm you or will I let cruel things be said about you. I also don’t expect you to love me. And this final part is not negotiable—you will wed me and that is that.”

Purity was so frustrated, she almost screamed aloud. Instead she turned and went to her garden. Working with plants and the soil always helped calm her. She would have preferred to wander in the woods for a while, but Arran would forbid her from going alone.

She groaned. He already had her obeying him and they hadn’t wed yet. She couldn’t imagine losing her freedom, being dictated to once again. It was a horrifying thought, but how did she stop