The Knight by Monica McCarty

Author:Monica McCarty
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Monica McCarty
Published: 2013-12-10T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

By the end of the week, Linlithgow Castle was theirs. A local farmer, a man named William Binnock, known as Binny, had indeed proved invaluable. They’d executed a Scottish version of a Trojan horse. While delivering hay to the garrison at Linlithgow, the farmer concealed eight of James’s men in his cart. Binny was familiar to the English and the portcullis was raised to allow him to enter. Once under the gate, the farmer cut the oxen free and blocked the gate with his cart while James and Randolph led the attack. This time the garrison did not surrender, and James was not troubled by promises—or his conscience.

He was, however, troubled by other things. As much as he hated to admit losing focus and being distracted by a woman, what had happened with Jo weighed on him. He tried to put it out of his mind, telling himself he’d had no choice. She had to understand the reality, and once she accepted the situation, they would continue with their lives together.

She’d given him an ultimatum, damn it. He’d done nothing more than call her bluff.

But his plan to make her see how it would be if they weren’t together wasn’t working the way he’d intended at all. She was the one who was supposed to be heartsick and tormented. She was the one who was supposed to fear the future without him.

What if she decided she could live without him? What if she decided she didn’t love him anymore? What if it hadn’t been a bluff and she actually took him at his word? And the thought that tormented him the most, and made his stomach feel as if acid were churning in his gut: What if she took it in her mind to accept one of the proposals her father had mentioned kept coming her way?

James took out his dark emotions on the English, fighting with a frenzy that raised Boyd’s eyebrows once or twice. But even as the English fell beneath his sword, James couldn’t stop seeing her face. The hurt. The disillusionment. And something else. Something that made him fear his words had struck in a way he hadn’t intended.

He had to tell her he hadn’t meant it. She loved him, and he knew she would forgive him. It was one of the things he loved most about her; he could always count on her.

But his thoughtless comment wasn’t the only problem. Jo was sweet and kind to a fault, always seeing the good in people, which they sometimes took advantage of. It wasn’t naïveté, he knew, but stubbornness. And that worried him. What if she was stubborn about marriage? What would he do then?

Damn it, he had to make her see reason. Men in his position didn’t marry for love. It was an alliance. A transaction. A contract between families to increase their wealth and prestige. But for him it was more than that. His family’s honor was at stake. He couldn’t let his father down.

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