Taming the Scotsman Read Free Page B

think you don’t know who my clan is. You have no idea who I am, and you can’t take me back to my father unless I tell you, which I most certainly will not do.”
    She had him there.
    But not for long. “You will tell me.”
    “Ha!” she snapped, lifting her chin defiantly.
    Ewan clenched his hands into fists. What did a man do with such a woman?
    “Why of all the men in Scotland did you come to me?” he asked.
    “Because you and your brothers are the only men I know who scare Ryan. I knew Sin and Braden MacAllister would never leave their wives to take me to England, and Lochlan, being laird, would never consent to help me for fear of running afoul of my father and his clan. That left you, who has no other tie to anyone. I thought that if I told my father that I had eloped with you, no one would dare come after me.”
    Ewan muttered under his breath about women and their mindless machinations.
    This was a nightmare all over again. So close to the events with Isobail and yet so oddly different.
    How could this be happening to him again? Especially on this particular day that marked the death of his brother. “You told them you eloped with me?” he asked.
    “Well, what else could I do?”
    “You could have done as you were told.”
    She shook her head. “That is the one thing I canna do. Nor will I.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I will not allow myself to be some useless adornment.”
    Ewan frowned at her unexpected words. Although why he even reacted to that, he didn’t know. She seemed to throw his keel every time she opened her mouth.
    “I am not some nothing to be ignored and patted on the head and tolerated like a pet dog,” she continued. “’Tis bad enough my father thinks me lack-witted, but to be married to such a man…Never.”
    What a bizarre concern for a woman. Who’d ever heard of such? A woman’s place was to do as she was told and to bend her will to that of her father and then to the husband her father picked for her.
    God help them all if a woman ever took it into her mind to think for herself.
    He, for one, would never again help a woman defy her family’s wishes.
    “For this you are willing to risk your life?” he asked.
    “If someone planned to shut you away and ignore you, to listen but never hear a word you spoke, would you tolerate it?” She looked about his cave and appeared to change her mind. “Well, mayhap you would, but I will not. I have a mind of my own and I wish to use it.”
    Ewan shook his head in disbelief. “Wherever did you get these ideas?”
    She ignored him. “You’ve made it quite clear that you’ve no wish to help me. So be it. I’ll trouble you no more. Now step aside and let me be on my way. I’ve a long journey ahead and—”
    “You’re not leaving.”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “You heard me. I’m not about to allow you to take a journey that at best would result in your ravishment, at worst your death.”
    “I’m no concern of yours.”
    “Lady,” he said, his voice gruff and menacing, “the moment you put my name on a piece of parchment designating me as your betrothed, you became my concern. What think you would happen if you were harmed? Your father, whoever he is, would demand my head for allowing you to behurt. According to your own words we are bound to each other.”
    She cringed as if she hadn’t thought quite that far ahead. “They might not believe it,” she said hopefully. She nodded her head as if she had just convinced herself of her reasoning. “After all, we’ve never met before. Come to think of it, they shouldn’t believe it at all.”
    “But they will,” he said morosely.
    “How do you know?”
    “Trust me, my luck would have it no other way.”
    Ewan growled deep in his throat again. She seemed to have that effect on a lot of men when they spoke with her. Though why everyone became exasperated with her, she was never quite sure.
    Nora watched as he began gathering his things. “What are you doing?”
    “I’m