Read Online Keeper of my Heart by Laura Landon - Free Book Online Page B

between her fingers. She could not let him do this to her. Marriage was a sentence worse than death. She’d seen her mother’s suffering her whole life. She would rather he kill her now.
    She looked at her father. Why would he want her to marry the MacAlister? Her gift revealed his black heart, exposing his evil intent. A sinister grin covered his face, the malicious glare in his eyes as vile as a glimpse of Hades. Of course. He intended her to marry the MacAlister laird to curse him. There would be no need for war between the two clans. Her father planned to wed her to the MacAlister so he could pass the curse to his unsuspecting enemy the same as he thought her mother’s gift had been passed to him.
    “Nay,” she repeated. “I will na marry. I will na.”
    “You will, daughter, or I will have na choice but to take you back with me.” His smile became more malicious, his loathing for her more obvious. “And I swear, the happy, contented life of your youth will be nothing but a fond memory. You will never enjoy such comforts again. I swear it.”
    Màiri thought of the hell she and her mother had endured all of her life. The long winters with not enough heat to keep warm, the endless days with little or no food to eat, the lonely nights where tears were her only comfort. By the saints, she would rather he kill her now than take her back with him.
    She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t let him take her back.
    He must have seen the defeat in her look for he threw his head back and laughed. “I knew you would see the wisdom of adhering to my decision. And as a reminder of your dear sainted mother, I brought with me the ring I placed on her finger the day I took her as my wife.” Ewan MacBride handed the ring to the MacAlister then grinned a sardonic smile. “May it bring you as much joy as it brought her.”
    Màiri thought she would be ill. Her stomach rolled. She could not wear her mother’s ring.
    “Nay!” she said, turning toward the MacAlister. “That ring will not go on my finger.”
    She spun around to face the priest. “I will na wear that ring. It is defiled and he knows it.”
    Her father crossed his arms over his chest and smiled. “But you must have a ring.”
    The priest stared at her, his look showing he did not understand why she would not want to wear her mother’s wedding ring. Her world spun around her in a dark haze. Putting her mother’s ring on her finger would make a mockery of the vows she spoke. She couldn’t do it.
    “Milord, please,” she said to the Scot. “I canna wear the ring.” She shook her head and swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I canna.”
    He placed his hands on her shoulders and held her. “Hush, lass. I will na make you wear your mother’s ring. See?” He took his dagger and cut a leather strip hanging from the belt at his waist. “This will be your ring. I will tie it around your finger when we wed.”
    Màiri looked at the narrow strip of leather and nodded.
    “When we get home, I will have a metal band fashioned instead of the leather,” he said.
    She nodded then whispered her final appeal. “It is na too late to change your mind, milord. Let me take refuge with the sisters so you are free to seek a wife in other quarters.”
    “Nay, lass. Our union will bring peace.”
    “My father does na care about peace, he only hopes to destroy you.”
    “How can our marriage bring about destruction? Your father has promised peace. He has sworn it.”
    Màiri turned her gaze toward Kenneth. How could she tell the MacBride what only she and her father and Kenneth knew? How could she reveal her gift, knowing the MacAlister would reject her? She was not strong enough to endure a lifetime of her father’s hatred and abuse. She had no choice but to marry the MacAlister and pray he never found out about her gift.
    “Come, milady,” the Scot said, leading her to stand before the priest. “What we do is for a greater good. You will na regret our marriage. I