Read Online Captured by a Laird by Margaret Mallory - Free Book Online Page B

as he set the girls on their feet, they began petting and cooing over the wiggling bundle of black and white fur in Will’s arms.
    “I know ye lost your da,” Will said, “so I brought Jasper here to cheer ye up.”
    Alison bit her lip. What a thoughtful boy.
    “Take them all outside,” Wedderburn told Robbie, who gave him a pained expression.
    “We can’t go,” Margaret said, her bottom lip coming out. “Mama says it’s not safe for us.”
    Beatrix glared at her sister.
    “Your mother needn’t worry,” Wedderburn said, placing his large hands on top of her daughters’ heads. “Remember what I told ye?”
    “That we’re your responsibility now,” Beatrix said, smiling up at him, “and you’ll protect us.”
    “Aye,” he said, shifting his gaze to Alison, “as will my brothers and every one of my men.”
    Questions swirled in Alison’s head. How in heaven’s name had he won over Beatrix? Could she trust his word? Could he ensure her daughters would be safe with his men?
    She drew in a sharp breath as Wedderburn stepped next to her.
    “Do ye believe,” he said next to her ear, “that the women of this castle would have been left untouched if I had not ordered it?”
    Her hand went to her throat as she considered what could have happened—what she, in fact, had expected to happen—when the castle fell. As a highborn lady, she would have been spared violent rape by the common men, but the serving women surely would have suffered that harsh fate if Wedderburn had not commanded his men not to harm them.
    “May we go?” Beatrix pleaded.
    Alison nodded her assent, and her daughters ran down the stairs, laughter and barks echoing behind them.
    In the end, it was not Wedderburn’s words that persuaded her to entrust her daughters’ safety to their captor as much as his instinctive act to protect them when they screamed. Her daughters would suffer no harm while Wedderburn held the castle.
    The same could not be said for her. She remembered his threat well. One way or another, you shall be this vile man’s wife.
     
    ***
    “We must talk seriously now about this marriage.” Wedderburn signaled for her to sit on the bench beneath the window. When she hesitated, he said, “Would ye prefer the bed?”
    She dropped onto the bench and folded her hands in her lap. “There’s nothing to discuss.”
    He settled next to her, crowding her, and stretched out his long legs. Though the servants had lit no fire and the room was chilly, his body radiated heat, warming her side from shoulder to thigh.
    “Ye need a husband who is strong enough to protect you and your daughters,” he said.
    “And who will protect us from you?”
    “Why fight this?” he said, ignoring her question. “Few women of your station can choose who they marry.”
    “Aye, but their families—people who care about their well-being—choose for them.”
    “And your family cared so much about ye that they wed ye to Blackadder?” He folded his arms across his chest. “God save me from such a caring family.”
    He had a point. Though her grandfather was in his grave, she had yet to forgive him for marrying her to Blackadder.
    “My circumstances are different now,” she said. “As a widow, the choice of whom to marry, or whether to marry at all, is mine.”
    “Ye believe your brothers would allow ye to remain unwed?” he asked, raising one eyebrow. “Ye can’t be that naïve.”
    Archie’s parting words came back to her with like a slap across the face. I’ll find ye a husband.
    “Believe me, your brother the earl has no intention of leaving ye unwed for long,” he said. “He’ll want this castle in the hands of a strong ally who can defend it.”
    “Then he’ll not take kindly to your stealing it.”
    “Once we’re wed, your brother will see the wisdom of the match,” Wedderburn said with a shrug. “I am feared and respected in these parts. He’ll come to view me as an asset.”
    “An asset?” she said, her voice