Revenge (Book 3 of Lost Highlander series) Read Free Page B

upsetting her.
    “When we arrived back at the castle everyone was talking,” she said. “Yer people may be more reticent, but mine are wicked gossips.” Heat started to rise in her face as she recounted what happened. “Everyone was all atwitter about my new husband being with that strumpet at the inn, and how beautiful she was, and how I didna keep him happy after only a fortnight of marriage.” She clamped her mouth shut, her eyes blazing with anger at the shameful memories. Pietro pulled her closer but she remained stiff in his arms.
    “We know that wasna the truth,” Quinn said in his best attempt to appease her.
    With a pained sound, she turned on him. “How many times has something hurt ye that wasna the truth?” she snapped. “And I didna know the whole story then. All I knew was servants were snickering and looking askance at me. I was verra angry when we first returned.” Her body went from rail stiff to a ragdoll slump and she let her head drop back against the tree trunk.
    “Ye were confused,” Pietro said, taking her hand and lacing her fingers with his. Feeling her smooth palm against his was fortifying.
    “Bella, lass, what did ye do?” Quinn urged after she continued to look mournfully up at the tree branches.
    Seconds ticked by in a long silent stretch, rife with tension, before she answered. “I told my father that the marriage was never consummated.”
    Pietro almost sighed with relief when he heard that was all that happened, but then he saw the open mouthed look of horror on Quinn’s face. His dark blue eyes radiated fear as he stared aghast at what Bella had just said.
    “Ye did what?” he asked in a choked voice.
    He had been squatting in front of her, trying to get her to look him in the eye, but now he sat back, crossing his legs in front of him and putting his head in his hands.
    “‘Twas only the truth,” Bella said, in a feeble attempt at defiance.
    Pietro could see she was miserable at having to admit what she had said to her father, and it was clear that Quinn was more than upset by it. As for himself, it seemed like a good thing. It would clear Lachlan’s name as a whoremonger and keep Bella from any gossip about not pleasing her husband. And, he liked that people would know he wasn’t really an adulterer, not that it should matter to him what anyone thought. But if any of this was ever to be sorted, he liked to think he could end up Bella’s husband and have a clean slate about it.
    “Did he believe ye?” Quinn asked. His voice was rising dangerously and he stood up to begin pacing again. The silence was almost unbearable. Quinn stopped his restless pacing and repeated his question. “Did. He. Believe. Ye.” Each word a staccato burst.
    “Aye, I believe he did,” Bella said.
    She shrank into Pietro’s embrace as Quinn threw up his hands and growled furiously.
    “Yer father believed ye when ye told him ye didna consummate yer marriage to my brother?” He stormed back and forth as he bellowed.
    “What is the big deal?” Pietro asked, pushing himself up and standing for a moment to see if he would fall over. Feeling confident enough to take a step, he reached out to try to calm Quinn.
    Quinn rounded on him. “I shall tell ye the ‘big deal’,” he said with a tortured laugh. “‘Tis that Bella’s father now believes that she and Lachlan are no’ legally married.”
    Pietro tried to understand, he really did, but he just shook his head and then stepped back in a hurry when it looked like Quinn might want to hit him. He’d taken enough punches in the last few days to last him a lifetime, and he was straight up done with it.
    “It means,” Quinn said slowly, as if to a child, “that Tavish Glen thinks we have made off with his only daughter unlawfully, and if I’m no’ mistaken, against her will.” He turned his glare to Bella.
    “I didna want to go with ye at the time,” she said. “I didna know the whole story, as I tried to tell ye. And I was