Sighing, Conran turned away. He started out, headed for his room, but changed his mind halfway there.
Chapter 8
Evina remained silent after the bedchamber door closed behind the Buchanans. She didn’t know what to say. Her mind was awhirl with several different worries and fears.
“A baby running the halls again would be nice.”
Evina glanced up at her father’s words and bit her lip. “Could I really be with child?”
“Ye ken that better than I? Did he breach ye?”
“Aye,” Evina sighed the word.
“Then aye, ’tis a very real possibility,” he said solemnly, and then pointed out, “Ye can no’ let the child grow up a bastard, lass. No’ when the father is here and willing to marry ye.”
Evina closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them and blurted, “But he does no’ want to marry me, Da. I was no better than Betsy for him.”
“He said that?” her father asked aghast.
“Aye,” she said, and then grimaced and admitted, “No’ the Betsy part. I sorted that out on me own, but he apologized and said he was sorry. He’d thought me an experienced widow who would be happy for a dalliance .”
“Hmm,” her father murmured. “Well, I’m no’ surprised. He is a fourth son with little in the way o’ prospects. He probably assumed his suit would ne’er even be considered. That I would be like most lairds and demand a first son with a castle, lands and wealth of his own for ye.”
“Why?” she asked with surprise. “I am yer only heir and we could only live at one castle at a time. If we had two, one would always have to be left unattended.”
“Exactly me thinking,” he said wryly. “But for some, a lot is ne’er enough. They must have more.”
Grimacing, Evina lowered her head and peered at her stomach again, wondering if Conran’s seed had taken root. And if she could bear to have a husband.
“Ye’ll have to marry him, lass,” her father repeated solemnly. “Why do ye no’ give him a chance and see if ye might no’ like him? He seems a nice lad to me.”
“A nice lad?” she asked with disbelief. “He lied about who he was.”
“Did he lie, or did ye just assume he was Rory, and he did no’ correct ye?” the Maclean asked gently.
Evina’s mouth tightened. “He lied by omission, then.”
“He also saved me life,” her father pointed out. “And when he found out I’d told his brothers ye’d kidnapped him, he defended ye, assuring them he was here willingly.”
“Did he?” she asked with surprise.
“Aye. In truth, daughter, he’s been very understanding about everything, even the manner in which ye brought him home. I would no’ have been nearly as good about it meself had some strange woman knocked me out, and dragged me across the country, naked, tied up and hanging over the back o’ me horse. It’s part o’ the reason I think he’d make ye a good husband. He’s obviously coolheaded and patient, and a lass as trying as ye needs a man like that.”
When Evina narrowed her eyes and scowled at him, he shrugged. “’Tis the truth. I fear I have no’ been a good father since we lost yer mother. I let ye do as ye like, and now ye’re far too used to having yer own way.”
When Evina glowered at him, refusing to even speak to the suggestion, her father shrugged. “Well, if there’s a possibility ye’re with child, ye’ll have to be wed and quickly. That means ye either marry Conran Buchanan, or I accept the MacMurray’s latest offer and ye arrange a marriage contract with him.”
“Nay!” Evina gasped with dismay. Their neighbor, MacMurray, had been making offers for her hand in marriage for years now. But he was a pretentious little prick with a nervous laugh and a tendency to be cruel to his servants. Evina knew darned right well he’d be just as cruel to her if he ever got her to agree to marriage and had her under his thumb. Her father knew it too, which is why he’d always refused the offers. She couldn’t believe he’d even consider the partnering now. That told her just how serious he was about her having to marry now that she might be with child.
Good Lord! All of this because of a few minutes in a field that she’d regretted from the second it happened.
“Well, then, I suggest ye seriously consider wedding Conran Buchanan,” her father said quietly. “Else I’ll have to look