Read Online Warrior's Moon by Lucy Monroe - Free Book Online Page B

would have repudiated her.
    “Aye.”
    “I am not that naïve.” Did he think he had to lie to her to gain access to his son?
    Why did he even want Eadan now, when Caelis had been so quick before to reject even the possibility she was pregnant?
    Her thoughts whirled in her head like the most complicated court dance.
    “Just stubborn.” He sighed, running his hand over his face. “I do not remember you being so stubborn
with me
.”
    Because she’d
wanted
to give into him and that was her own shame to bear. At least he’d known her truly enough to realize it was in her nature to be obdurate with others.
    When she didn’t dignify his words with a reply, he sighed again, looking quite put out. “I have been without physical comfort for six years. You married another.”
    “First, I have absolutely no reason to believe you. And I don’t,” she inserted for good measure. “Second, you cannot call what transpired between the baron and myself
comfort
.”
    Not when the old man’s very touch made Shona’s skin crawl and he’d used her as the whore her mother had called her upon discovering Shona was with child with no suitor, much less husband, in sight.
    “I do not want to hear about it,” Caelis said with deep feeling.
    She had no intention of telling him anything about her life that he did not absolutely need to know. “Rest assured, you will not.”
    “Marjory is his.”
    Shona gave a single jerk of her head in acknowledgment.
    “Eadan is mine.”
    This time Shona merely stared, refusing to agree with or deny the statement.
    “You would deny it?” Caelis accused, though she’d done no such thing.
    “You were the one who told me that if I were pregnant then it would have to be by some other man.” Her fingers curled around the edges of the chest, the grip so hard she could feel her heartbeat in them. “Do you not remember?”
    “I was angry at having to let you go. I took that fury out on you.” Guilt washed over his chiseled features. “I did not mean it. I was under orders to cease my attentions to you. I knew those words would push you away as nothing else would. Your loyalty and determination were too strong to give in otherwise.”
    She did not know what he meant by orders to cease his attentions, though she could guess, but Caelis had been right about his methods. “You succeeded spectacularly in your efforts. I would have been content to live the rest of my days without seeing you again.”
    Because she had wished so strongly for that claim to be reality, it came out with all the conviction her heart lacked.
    The candle’s glow was not bright, but it illuminated enough of his handsome face to reveal the pain that crossed it and settled in his gentian gaze. “To my great regret.”
    “I do not believe you.” Was it a lie if she wanted it to be true?
    Again, he seemed surprised…even hurt…by her lack of faith in him.
    “Our laird denied my request to mate you.” There was a ring of sincerity to his tone she could not ignore.
    More important, the words rang true with the actions of the laird of her former clan. Uven was not a kind, or even just, man. He had his favorites among the clanspeople and they could expect his support and beneficence. Everyone else had had to sacrifice for the treasured few.
    Uven’s own daughter often suffered at his hand, not that Caelis had ever believed it. While they’d had a near-idylliccourtship before Caelis rejected her, the one area they never agreed on was the true nature of their laird.
    Her lack of loyalty, as he called it, used to infuriate her then beloved warrior to no end.
    Because, unlike her family, Caelis had never been shown the ugly side of the MacLeod laird.
    “You are one of his favored,” she reminded Caelis.
    “I
was.
”
    She didn’t ask what had happened to change that. The very fact he was among the Sinclairs rather than their former clan spoke of a great breach between laird and vassal. And she did remember her former laird’s