He was being asked to pay far less. He had no right to complain.
He captured Sara’s eyes with a stone-hard glare. “I will wed you,” he said.
Chapter 4
The ceremony was quick and simple following a lengthy protest from the Abbess. She claimed it wasn’t right to wed for inappropriate reasons, and after a round of debates, she conceded out of pure exhaustion. Sara had been relentless in her reasoning and demanding in her decision. She would wed Cullen Longton and that was that.
The wedding served a purpose, or so she convinced herself while exchanging vows. Like so many young girls, she had dreamed of love, but had resigned herself to never finding it. It appeared it just wasn’t meant to be for her. Since she had been young, the lads made fun of her height or ridiculed her outspoken nature, which fostered an even deeper bluntness. While they practiced with their swords, she had sharpened her tongue, until few dared even to spar with her.
Her bold nature had won her few friends and even fewer suitors. But she survived her time at Stilmere Abbey and learned a thing or two, so her stay wasn’t for naught. Her time at the abbey had also provided her with the means to return home under her own terms, and for that she was grateful. However, she didn’t think the Scotsman would be too pleased to learn there would be more to their agreement than she’d led him to believe. “I will get my things so that we may leave,” she said moments after the ceremony ended.
“That won’t be necessary,” Cullen told her. “You go your way and I’ll go mine. Just tell me where I can find my son.”
Sara took a breath and released it with a whoosh of words. “After my father meets you and knows we are properly wed, we’ll get your son.”
Wisely, she took a step away from her new husband as soon as bright red splotches popped out all over his face and neck and melted into each other until his skin glowed like red amber.
Cullen lunged at her, and she halted him with a firm, splayed hand to his chest. He felt like hot metal and her palm nearly singed from his heat.
“Your son is safe,” she reassured him. “Once my father knows that I am good and wed, and claims my duty as a daughter done, then I will see you to your son.”
“That wasn’t our bargain. We were to wed, no more.”
“I didn’t exactly say that.”
“You tricked me.”
“Would you have wed me if you thought more was expected of you?” she challenged.
He turned away from her and she heard him take a heavy breath before turning back, his face no longer aflame.
He kept his voice low. “What else do you expect of me?”
“We’ll discuss it later,” she said, casting a quick glance at the Abbess, who was busy at her desk, properly recording the ceremony. All the others were already gone from the room.
Cullen leaned in closer, until it looked as if he were about to kiss her, but Sara knew better and didn’t flinch.
“Tell me now.”
“When we’re alone,” she said firmly.
Rather than respond, Cullen took hold of her arm and propelled her out the door to the far corner of the arches, where no one could hear them, much less see them.
“Now!” he said, releasing her arm as if it scalded him.
“Try to understand my predicament,” Sara began. “My father must know for sure that we are properly wed. Only then will he be satisfied and leave me alone. I do not insist that you must stay with me. One day you can simply vanish, be gone. Tongues will wag for a while then turn silent, and I will finally be left in peace. And you will finally have your son.”
“Define ‘properly wed.’”
She had thought to have more time before addressing the issue, but since he asked, she said, “I need you to bed me.”
He threw his hands up in the air, paced in front of her and shook his head.
Sara was blunt. “I understand that you’re still mourning your beloved Alaina. That should make it easier for you. There is no love involved, simply duty. You could do it and be done with it.”
Cullen groaned, though it sounded more like a snarling growl.
“The vows must be sealed. I cannot take the chance of my father dissolving the marriage and forcing another husband on me.” Sara turned silent, wanting to add more but knowing it was best to give him time to digest the information, and for her to swallow the ridiculous hurt that he didn’t want to bed her.
She was offering herself to him, and he acted as if he found the thought repugnant. From what she had learned about men through observations and candid queries, they were receptive to any willing woman, so why should Cullen be any different?
He grabbed her arm once again and forced her up against the stone wall, his brute of a body near pinning her to it. She barely had room to take a breath, though there was no need to since her breath had caught in her throat, and struggled to break free.