Border Bride by Amanda Scott

Author:Amanda Scott
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Highland
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-03-26T05:00:00+00:00

14

AS SHE SPED THROUGH the great chamber, Mary Kate heard Megan burst into tears behind her, and false though she knew such histrionics to be, she was grateful, knowing Douglas would pause to console his cousin and thus give her time to reach the privacy of her own bedchamber before he caught her. There could be no thought of avoiding an immediate confrontation, but his overwhelming fury had caused her to fear that he would bellow at her, or worse, right then and there, and she could not bear the thought that he might permit Megan and Ned to witness such a scene between them.

Her bedchamber was empty, and she continued across it to the half-open window, where she gazed with unseeing eyes at the fountain in the center of the hedged garden below. Birds called to one another, obliviously cheerful, but she did not hear them. While her mind raced, her ears strained for the sound of Douglas’s footsteps. What could she say to him? Cursing her impulsive tongue, she realized that she ought never to have allowed Megan to spark her temper. Indeed, she should have known better, feeling as she did, than to follow her upstairs. Then all thought was suspended. He was coming.

The snap of his quick, firm steps crackled through her mind as he neared her door. She did not turn but stood, waiting, holding her breath as he crossed the room, his footsteps muffled now by the carpet. Suddenly, his hands were upon her shoulders and he spun her roughly to face him. Mary Kate stumbled, but he caught her shoulders again, bruisingly. Then he was shaking her.

“Do not ever, ever let me hear such words from your mouth again!” he snapped, affected not one whit by the tears welling into her eyes. “By heaven, madam, I am ashamed of you, ashamed to find you capable of saying such insulting things to anyone, let alone to a relative of mine who wishes only to befriend you. There can be no excuse!” He stopped shaking her and glared, daring her to respond, but for once she was afraid to enrage him further, so she held her tongue. He continued harshly, “You will apologize for your insults, Mary Kate, and this time it will take more than a simple expression of your regret to satisfy me. Indeed, I won’t be satisfied until you have begged Megan to forgive you and she has agreed to do so.”

That was too much. She looked up disbelievingly, trying to steady her nerves. Her voice shook. “I will apologize, sir, if I must, for I ought not to have said what I did. But I will never beg that woman for anything. She provoked me to it. You do not know the things she has said or how she has taunted me. It is she—aye, and you as well, Adam Douglas—who ought to beg my forgiveness!”

His eyes narrowed dangerously when her voice began to rise, but he did not interrupt her.

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