Free The Scottish Lord’s Secret Bride by Raven McAllan Page B

uneven track and expertly wheeled the vehicle and horses around a large boulder in the way. The vehicle rocked from side to side and Morven held on to it, white-knuckled.
    They had enjoyed a hearty breakfast at the tiny Tea Pot inn, and now Morven was beginning to wish she hadn’t wolfed down quite so much food. The swaying of the carriage combined with haggis and black pudding made her somewhat queasy.
    ‘That we were friends before and hoped to be friends again. What more could I say? I could hardly point out that if she were to indeed wed you, it would be over my dead body.’ The horse jibbed at something and the coach slid sideways. She bit back a muffled yelp.
    ‘Sorry about the rough ride,’ Fraser apologised after a brief glance at her expression. ‘But this will cut a good five or six miles off our journey and believe it or not save a lot of time. The proper road isn’t much better and the hill no more gentle.’
    ‘If you toss me out I will never forgive you,’ Morven muttered as they slowed for a moment and then picked up speed again. ‘If I die I will haunt you.’
    He chuckled. ‘If you die I will let you, and I promise not to wed your sister if you do. Come on now, love, we did worse before.’
    ‘That was then, this is now. We are older, supposedly wiser and have no idea of our status or our future.’
    Fraser considered his reply. Looking at things from Morven’s point of view—something he hadn’t really done in the past—he could understand how frustrated and out of sorts she must be feeling. He slowed the curricle to a walking pace and once he was at a place to draw to a halt did so. Ahead of them the hills and glens stretched out in gentle folds, but he scarcely registered them. His land he loved, and it mattered not one jot at that moment. ‘I’ve not been very fair have I, love?’
    She glowered at him. ‘Do not call… Argh, what’s the point? Maybe if I ignore you, then you will stop?’
    ‘Do not wager on it,’ Fraser advised her. ‘Believe me, love, there is not a chance.’
    ‘Men,’ she muttered crossly. ‘Always thinking they are correct.’
    He laughed. ‘We do come in handy sometimes you know.’
    Morven snorted. ‘Really? No do not tell me when,’ she added hastily, before he had a chance to say anything. ‘Just tell me what we are going to do if this visit tells us we are married, be it only here and not in England. How do we progress then?’
    ‘We’ll find out if and when it happens. I refuse to spend all the drive wondering “what if” about things we have no control over and which may prove not to be.’ He urged the horses on at a steady rate once more.
    ‘If only I could do the same. But I worry. I hate not knowing who or what I am,’ Morven said passionately. ‘Plus in some strange way I feel it devalues what we had together.’
    Had, not have.
    ‘Did you ever wonder why things went as they did? Both before and after I left?’ he asked curiously.
    She shrugged. ‘At first, I kept replaying our last time together. How after we’d…’ she coughed delicately ‘…loved each other, you said that was it. I could not help wonder why I was not good enough for you.’
    ‘Lord, Morven, it wasn’t like that, I promise you.’ Fraser almost shouted the words. ‘I was trying to be noble. To let you see a bit of the ways of the world before I asked you to tie yourself to me. My nobility lasted until you left and then I thought, no dammit, let me ask her to come with me. And, well you know the rest.’
    ‘Sadly. How… No I will not get riled again, not now.’ She took three deep noisy breaths. ‘Maybe later to their faces but not yet. Though, Fraser, I want to scream out loud. For my sanity, I told myself to part was for the best. Dammit. Sorry,’ she said in a half-hearted tone. ‘I was determined not to resort to profanities, but hell, how can I not. You were the idiot for not believing me when I said I knew my own mind. They were the villains for