The Reluctant Highland Groom (3 page)

“
We must all do things we don’t like for the good of our people,” Sabrina said.

“
Again, ’tis so easy for you, isn’t it? You were allowed to choose.” Cara turned to stare at Sabrina, who at least did not flinch or look away. “You were allowed to
choose
.”

Sabrina had no answer.

***

Alec escaped from the knowing gazes and whispering voices in the only way he knew: he went for a ride.

Logan saddled his own horse and went along with him, whistling a mindless tune as they went. Alec put up with the whistling until they were well into the hills, at which point he half-turned in the saddle. “I will thank ye to cease, Logan.”

“
She’s not ugly anymore,” Logan said.

“
I hadn’t noticed.”

“
She’s quite attractive, actually.”

“
So ye got a look at her. Well-done.”

“
I also heard what ye said to her. Quite the scandal you’ve created, Alec. What will ye do?”

“
Why do I have to do anything? The decision was made by Da, not by me, nor Ramsey, nor Cara. She wanted it no more than I did. We’d hate each other.”

They rode in silence for a moment.

“
Alec, would ye not even try to get to know her?” Logan asked.

Alec shot him an irritated look. “Why? She showed no interest in knowing me. She arrived, refused me…”

“
Sounds rather like ye, actually. I’d think ye’d want to get to know her. She’s no lass to be trifled with, and not the girl you so despised…”

“
Did Ramsey send ye out to reason with me, Logan? ’Tis not working.”

“
Perhaps he did, but I’m curious, Alec, why ye did not at least give the girl a chance. I would have.”

Alec felt his mood brighten. “Then why don’t
ye
marry her? Keep the promise set forth by our fathers!”

“
I don’t think it works that way, Alec.”

He was probably right. Still, it had been a decent thought.

The horses picked up the pace as they rode up one of sloping hills. Alec gazed around at the landscape, somewhat unnerved by his brother’s thoughts.
What does he care what I do?
Logan had never showed any interest in matrimony beyond the occasional teasing of his brothers.

“
What else did Ramsey say to ye?” Alec asked after a time.

Logan shrugged. “That was all, really. Just to ask if ye’d not at least reconsider. I suppose Sabrina is asking Cara the same…”

“
What, has she no female relations to ask?”

“
Ramsey said it’s just her and Connor now. She has no other women, relatives or friends. The McHughs have had a difficult go of it.”

Some of his curt response was abbreviated by that revelation. He knew the McHughs had faced hardships over the last several years, though somehow he’d not connected Cara to those hardships.

But of course it would affect her. She was a McHugh, and her brother led the clan now.

They stopped at the top of a hill, peering down at the valley it sloped down into. Alec caught his breath; nothing could ever be quite so beautiful as Scotland, nor quite so striking as the Munro lands.

The McHugh lands, what he knew of them, were lovely as well, but to live there?

He stared down at the river that wound through the valley, at the tiny specks that represented people going about their daily business. “So ye think I should have given her a chance, do ye?”

“
No. Yes. I don’t know, Alec.”

He could hear the tacit disapproval in Logan’s voice, but it only served to harden his heart further.
You may disapprove, brother, but would you do any different, were you in my shoes?

“
So tell me, Logan, why Ramsey did not come to tell me this himself?”

“
Because he thought ye’d take it better from me?”

He sighed, turning his mount’s head back toward home. “Be sure to thank him for me, Logan. But my decision stands.”

“
I thought it might.”

They rode home, passing the homesteads and roads they knew so well. This was where he belonged—here in Munro territory, far from the marriage discussions and all the dangers they contained.

He did inwardly wonder if his decision might damage relations with the McHughs, which had grown stretched as of late. Would Connor seek out new allies?

No, he can hardly turn his back on us. We are the strongest allies he has, and he would be a fool to declare our friendship null and void just because I refuse to marry his harridan of a sister.

Cara wasn’t a harridan, though. Just…outspoken?

Yes. Outspoken. Much more flattering.

Logan cleared his throat. “Ye may get more grief yet from Ramsey…I just think it fair to warn ye.”

Alec sighed and rolled his eyes toward the heavens. “Oh, I’ve no doubt about
that
.”

***

Cara allowed the stablehand to assist her on her horse and looked one last time at Ramsey Munro. He was a fine man, and she hadn’t meant to insult his family by refusing them. Sabrina Munro had been kind to her when Cara had deserved none of it.

It had been Sabrina who suggested sending the McHughs home. Ramsey, surprisingly, had acquiesced to his wife’s wishes, though Cara had seen him speaking to her brother earlier that morning.

“I’m sorry I’m not what you imagined,” she finally said. She had to say
something
; after all, the man had opened his doors and shared his wine and food with Cara and her family.

Ramsey shrugged. “I’ve dealt with my share of headstrong women. ’Tis your brother ye should be apologizing to, methinks.”

She glanced in the direction Connor had ridden off in. He had been very, very quiet toward her in the final hours of their stay, and Cara knew quite well she’d be facing the unpleasant task of regaining his good graces when they returned home.

Connor was a good brother and a good man, but he had been counting on this marriage.

I shouldn’t have said anything.
With any luck, Alec would have refused her anyway, and she would have been unwed without losing Connor’s affection. Cara resolved to be more observant.

“I’ll do that,” Cara said. Connor and his men had left already, an hour or two ahead of them. Connor was angry, that much was obvious, and he had no desire to ride the six hours in Cara’s company.
I understand
, she thought.
I deserve no less.

Always the protective brother, though, he’d left the majority of his guards with Cara to see her home safely. It was odd riding with such a large group of silent, hulking warriors in front of and behind her, but she let her mind wander while the time passed.

Alec Munro hadn’t been the man she expected. Her memories painted a sullen, pouty teenager who always seemed to take himself too seriously. And while there were shades of that boy in the man seated at the fire today, she was also taken aback by the powerful-looking warrior who stood up to put her in her place. No mere farmer or middle son of a laird, Alec Munro had seen hard times and fought back, as evidenced by the scar that ran jagged along his proud jaw. He was handsome, that much was certain, with his dark hair and mysterious yellow-brown eyes. But there was more—Alec gave off an intensity that his brothers, and most men for that matter, lacked. A ferocity. A feral power that Cara had not missed, especially when he’d removed the pedestal out from under her when he cut her fit short.

There is something about him...

If they had met now, without the promise of marriage looming over them, would they have fancied each other better? Cara could not quite say, though she suspected she might have enjoyed his company, had they not shared a rather bitter past.

What’s done is done, Cara.
She’d said her part, and he’d reacted in kind. There was nothing to be done about it now.

A rustle in the thick woods beside the road made her jump, and Cara searched the dark, leafy cover for the source of the noise. She gripped her reins tighter and held her breath. A horse burst through the thick branches and scared a screech out of Cara that immediately made her laugh at herself. What had she expected? Her laughter died the instant she recognized her brother’s horse—riderless.

“It’s Connor’s,” she shouted ahead to Liam, the man in charge of their ride home.

Within moments, the entire party, save Cara, had ridden in the direction Connor’s horse had come from. Cara’s own horse stamped and pawed nervously, unable to remain still.

“Shhh.” She leaned over the side of her filly’s neck and stroked the long muscles in an attempt to soothe the spooked animal. In the distance, the sound of battle rent through the air—sword upon sword, screams of agony and chaos—and too quickly, it was over.

Without hesitating, Cara spurred her horse into the dark trees behind her. She rode as fast as her horse could carry them until she thought she was far enough away to go unnoticed. What had happened behind the cover of trees? Who had ambushed them?

There had been no word of bandits in the area, and the attack was too coordinated to be accidental. Had her brother or any of his men survived? Cara jumped from her saddle and continued to calm her panicked horse while she waited. The sun was starting to set, and she knew it would be dark soon. She stood little chance of surviving the night on her own in the wild with little more than a jeweled dirk in her waistband and a skittish horse that insisted on making noise as often as possible.

She led her horse back the way she had come until, at last, she stood at the very same road she’d fled from hours earlier. With no other choice, and certain she hadn’t heard the sounds of anyone nearby, Cara pushed through the branches and walked toward the scene of the battle. It didn’t take long to find the first dead body. Roderick, a young man just married this past summer. A cousin of hers. Dead, face down in the decaying leaves. Tears began to sting at her eyes as she walked among her dead kinsman. Ennis, the blacksmith. Aeric, the farmer. All family. All loyal to her brother, all sworn to protect her to their last breath.

And Connor.

Off at the edge of the trees lay her brother. His eyes were open to the sky above and his lips slightly parted, as though he were about to admonish her for stealing a sweet bread from the kitchen without permission, as he did often during their years together. It was a favorite game between brother and sister, as Cara would always steal an extra treat for Connor and he would carry on with his disapproving manner until they were both laughing. He looked as though he’d been struck down mid-sentence, and now, more than anything, Cara longed to hear his voice again.

The tears flowed freely and Cara collapsed to her knees, burying her head against Connor’s chest and letting the agony of grief sweep her away.

***

In her eighth summer, her favorite pony had died.

It had been a swift illness, the blacksmith told them, and the creature had not suffered. Cara had not understood it, though, had not known that her little chestnut would not be greeting her at the door to his stall anymore, would not be ready to accept treats and a saddle. He was gone, and she would not see him again. Not in this life, anyway.

She knew of death, of course; who did not? But that had not made it easier. Her early years had been sheltered, with mild winters and bountiful harvests, and she had not suffered great losses.

Now, though...

“Why did he have to die?” she whimpered to Connor, who had followed her out to the little gravesite her father had set up. Mother had muttered about it being an ill thing indeed, to have a grave for a creature without a soul, but her father and the rest of the family had indulged Cara’s sad little request.