Free Keeper of my Heart by Laura Landon

promise.”
    Màiri looked into his handsome face. “I wish I could promise you the same, milord.”

     

Chapter 6
    The dust settled slowly as the last of the MacBrides topped the hill and faded from sight. Iain struggled to keep his temper in check as he thought about everything that had happened today.
    She’d lied to him from the start. Didn’t she know peace would have been lost to him forever once she stepped inside the abbey? Didn’t she care?
    He spun around to face her, his anger boiling near the surface. “Was the thought of marrying me so repulsive you had to lie about who you were?”
    She lifted her chin as if preparing for a battle. Her bravery would never cease to amaze him.
    “I did na know you had come to marry me.”
    “Did you really believe I had come to kill you?”
    Her gaze wavered, her cheeks turning even paler than before.
    He stepped closer to her. “Even after you knew me, you thought I could kill you?”
    He waited for her to answer but she said nothing. “God’s teeth, woman. Was a life with me so reprehensible you would rather spend the rest of your days locked away in a convent?” He waited again. She turned her face away from him. “Answer me!”
    Her shoulders dropped. “I do na want to be a wife. Yours or anyone’s. I would have done anything to avoid this marriage.”
    His anger increased with every charge he made. “By the saints, woman. You let me believe my betrothed was dead. I would have gone home believing peace was lost to me forever.”
    Her head snapped up, her temper sparking in her eyes. “You think my father gave me to you because he wants peace? You think our marriage guarantees a tranquil existence between our people?”
    He answered her with an indignant glare. He had to believe their union would bring about peace. Too many good men and women…and children…on both sides had died for no reason.
    “You are a fool, milord. My father does na desire peace. He gave me to you because—”
    The startled look on her face revealed she’d almost said something she did not want him to know. He waited for her to continue. “Because why?”
    She wiped her hand across her cheek and staggered backwards. “It is na important.”
    “It is to me.” He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her toward him.
    The muffled cry that came from deep within her startled him. With a sharp gasp, she clutched her right arm to her middle and pulled away from him.
    “What is wrong?” he asked, watching her face turn from pale to ghostly white.
    “Nothing. I have listened to enough of your accusations. I would like time now to myself,” she whispered, turning from him and walking toward a copse of trees near the stream.
    Iain noticed her unsteady gait and the arm that hung limply at her side, then looked at Kenneth for understanding. The concern on Kenneth’s face puzzled him until he felt the wetness on his own hand. The one that had just touched her.
    “Holy Mother of God,” he whispered, wiping the sticky moisture from his fingers. “Kenneth, your mistress has been injured. Bring our mounts to the stream and take care of them. We will spend the night here.”
    Kenneth gathered the reins of the three horses. It angered Iain that Kenneth thought he had been a threat to her. By the saints, she’d saved his life. How could Kenneth think Iain would let any harm come to her.
    He followed his new bride to the stream behind the abbey. The sticky moisture on his hands was blood. She must have been injured when she struggled with her father over the knife.
    He hurried his footsteps. If the wound were only a scratch it would have quit bleeding long ago. Why hadn’t she said something?
    He found her leaning against a large tree close to the stream. As if her knees chose that moment to give out beneath her, she sank to the ground, cradling her injured arm in her lap.
    “Let me see your arm,” he said, kneeling beside her.
    “It is noo but a scratch.”
    “Na doubt, but I will see it