A Very Highland Holiday - Kathryn Le Veque Page 0,99
the implication. “Yes, well… I can assure you my uncle Edward hasn’t the least intent to profit from your lands.”
“Mayhap not,” said Callum, “And yet he will.”
Alas, it was Elizabeth’s turn to sigh, because, of course, it was true. It would be dishonest to deny it. Some lands were already being appropriated, and forfeited to the Crown. Callum’s lands, all but a portion, would be assigned to her uncle and leased to his family. All produce attained from MacKinnon lands would be offered first to the King’s regiments, who were bound to be permanent fixtures about Scotland in order to keep the King’s peace. “I could… go… home,” she offered, realizing she didn’t want to.
His smile persisted. “Or you could marry my brother?” he said.
Elizabeth met his gaze, sensing a question in his eyes even as they softened to regard her, and she felt…
Something…
Chapter Six
Something about the way she’d slid her hand across the bed… into the warm spot he’d left behind… it spoke to Callum like nothing ever had. He’d found himself wishing he was still seated there beside her, if only to find her hand… The thought ignited a fire in his veins that he suddenly realized he didn’t want to go out.
For a moment, Callum merely stared at her, wondering how the devil to propose, and whether he truly wanted to…
On the one hand, he loathed being manipulated; it would serve that wretch right if his cousin married his brother as planned, but poor Lachlan wouldn’t know what to do with her. Although he’d very clearly already accepted the betrothal on behalf of the family, he’d probably done so without ever knowing what his bride even looked like or how fiery her spirit—and, oh, that she was. He sensed it keenly, even as she sat so primly beside him, her thumbs twirling nervously in her lap. The gesture endeared her to him as surely as did the blush in her cheeks… and the flowering of hope in her eyes.
So then, he recognized the boon he’d been offered, and… yes, indeed, there must be such a thing as miracles, because here sat one beside him—with golden-red hair, and eyes as blue as cornflowers. And suddenly, he couldn’t bear the thought of her marrying his brother. She was a woman, through and through, and shouldn’t be wasted on a boy.
And anyway, he knew Lachlan well enough to know that the burden of leadership would be too much for him to bear. Callum was eldest by thirteen years, and Lachlan was scarcely fifteen. The rest of his brothers were eleven, eight and four, and their wee sister’s birth saw their mother gone from this world, barely a year before the Forty Five Rebellion.
Therefore, this was the only logical conclusion…
“Else… you could… marry me,” he said, and found he meant it. He knew a good thing when he saw one, no matter how conspiratorially it was delivered.
Indeed, whatever feelings he had about her cousin, they were already growing ambivalent—on the one hand loathing James for killing his father, on the other, grateful as hell for, not only setting him free, but for seeing to it that he had safe passage home to his family… and a future and home to return to…
“You never gave me your name…”
“Elizabeth Louise,” she said, and Callum smiled, because the name didn’t suit her. It was far too conventional and he had a sense she was anything but.
“Aye, well, Elizabeth Louise…”
He slid from the bed and fell to his knee, hitching up his chin. “If you’ll do me the honor of becoming my bride, I shall promise to provide for you to the best of my ability and I will honor and cherish you as a man should honor and cherish his wife.”
Elizabeth blinked.
Was he truly asking her to marry him?
On his knees?
The gesture was so intensely sweet that she felt a sting of tears spring to her eyes. Long, long ago, when she was still just a wee girl… she’d dreamt of a moment like this. And with every year that passed, without a proper suitor, nor prospects that weren’t stodgy and old, she’d lost all hope of love with marriage. And though it seemed she mustn’t truly have a choice, this man… this stranger… was giving her one…
She could return home, even to the dismay of her uncle and her cousin.
Her father had never cared one whit what her desires might be, and even now, he was traveling God knew where. Her uncle wouldn’t