not putting up with any more nonsense from you or anyone else.” He kicked open the door to her room and dropped her on the bed.
“Goodnight, Anne.”
But as he turned away, she grabbed his fox skin. “No, please, you can’t leave.”
It was not a good move. He’d been all too aware she’d worn nothing beneath her night dress, and while his mind said no, other parts of him had not been so submissive. And he hesitated to parade in all his glory before her. If she knew her impact on him, he’d be clay in her hands.
He grabbed the fur. “Let go, Anne.”
“Please, you can’t send me back.” She tugged.
He pulled. “I promise you will be handsomely compensated.”
She released the fur. “You don’t understand! I can’t go back. There’s nothing to go back to! Nothing!” Tears welled in her eyes—and he was undone.
Aidan hated to see a woman cry. It tore into him. He never knew what to do when one cried. “Here now, Anne, don’t go all upset.”
“I’m not!” she denied. A lone tear escaped and ran down her cheek. She took an angry swipe at it. “I don’t cry. I don’t.” But three more tears in quick succession branded her a liar.
She turned away from him to face the back wall.
Aidan should have walked out the door. He should have ignored her. But he didn’t. He couldn’t. He sat on the edge of the bed and offered a corner of the sheet to her. “Here.”
She shook her head, refusing his help.
“Anne…It’s not so bad. In England, you’ll find someone who will make you happy. With the money I’m going to give you, your parents will be pleased—”
“My parents are dead.”
Her words lingered in the air. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes dry now. “I’m an orphan,” she said almost defiantly. “I lived with my aunt and uncle. They don’t want me back.”
Aidan felt terrible and it must have shown on his face because she said, “Don’t pity me. I’ve spent a good portion of my life being ‘Poor little Anne.’ The last thing I want from you is more pity.” She swiveled around to face him. “Aidan, I will be a good wife to you. Maybe I’m not your choice, but you aren’t mine, either.”
“What’s wrong with me?” he asked, his pride piqued.
“Nothing…except, well, you are a bit of a character. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as eccentric.” She paused. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing…except I don’t want a wife. Especially one who ramrods her way into my life and turns the world upside down.”
“I didn’t want to,” she conceded. “If I was someone beautiful or came from a well-connected family, I wouldn’t be here. I’ve had two Seasons. No one offered for me. No dowry, no connections. Nice personality, well bred, but most men can do better. If I didn’t marry you, my uncle was going to hire me out as a companion. I couldn’t live at the whims of some old woman. It would be better to be buried alive.”
“Anne…” He didn’t know what to say. Platitudes died in his throat.
She looked up at him. “I want a husband and children and a home. Tonight, when you said we were going home, I felt such longing it frightened me. Then we came to Kelwin and I didn’t think I’d ever seen anyplace so lovely.”
“That’s not what you said in the great hall.”
His flat statement surprised a laugh out of her. “Well, it is a mess.”
“It is,” he agreed, and couldn’t help but smile with her.
Her smile died. “Don’t make me go back. Even with your money, I would be considered a failure by my relatives. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll even sleep in the bed with the lice. I have nothing to return to. You can’t imagine what that is like.”
Aidan stared into her beseeching eyes and wanted to tell her, he did know. Growing up in England, he’d always felt an intruder. It wasn’t until he’d come to Kelwin that he’d realized he’d been searching for this place all his life.
He came to his feet. She rose with him. “Are you going to send me back?”
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. Deacon had been right: he couldn’t have an Englishwoman lingering around as he smuggled Danish gunpowder to fuel an insurrection.
Nor did he have the heart any longer to pack her off to Alpina.
He waved toward the door. “Here, sleep in my bed. I don’t want you itching like one of the