“Duty. Right?” she asked, annoyed with herself for expecting more.
Arran walked over to stand in front of her. “If I don’t take my duty seriously, you—my wife—could be harmed and I will not see that happen.”
She had told herself to no longer question her marriage to him, so why question the duty that came with it? She was being foolish, wanting something she couldn’t have. He wouldn’t love her, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t continue to love him. Still, though, as much as the thought of coupling with him was appealing, something gnawed at her, urging her to wait.
“No one would know if our vows were sealed, but us,” she said.
A scowl surfaced fast on his face. “I warned you before our marriage that it would be permanent, so if you think to wait to see what happens upon our return home and think to end our union for any reason—that will not happen. We are husband and wife and will stay husband and wife.”
“That isn’t why.” She shrugged. “I’m not even sure why. Maybe it’s the day, the deaths, my father setting a bounty on my head.” She shook her head. “I just—”
Suddenly, his arms slipped around her and he drew her against him slowly to hug her tight. That he offered comfort instead of judgment melted her heart. Her arms went around his waist with a familiar ease, as if she had done it a hundred times before, and her head fell on his chest with the same familiarity.
“I should have considered that. We will wait until we return home where I trust you will be safe,” he said.
She was relieved and yet oddly enough somewhat disappointed.
“Then I will be able to see that you’re pleasured appropriately,” he said with a kiss to her temple.
Once again his remark, while not intentional, was a reminder that she was a chore, a duty to see to. And she worried that coupling with her husband might prove disappointing.
He eased her out of his arms. “You need to sleep. We leave in the morning.” He cast a look down at Princess, sleeping close to the fire. “She is well enough to walk?”
“She should do fine,” Purity said. “The journey isn’t long. We’ll reach home by day’s end, and then she can rest.”
“We take a different path, one that none will expect us to take, but one that will take a day and a half to reach home,” he said as he moved the barrel from in front of the door and replaced it with the chair.
“You think more men will come for me?” she asked, seeing him once again ready to guard the door.
“Aye, I have no doubt.” And that was what disturbed him. More would come, but how many? He was a superior swordsman, but a swordsman could only fight so many men. He needed to get his wife home to her clan. There’d be no more bounty then. First though—“We will stop at my home before we go to yours. I will see my family, let them know I am well and that we are wed.”
“I would be pleased to see your family. It will be nice to speak with Oria again,” she said, though it was Raven she wished she could see again. She had been the one who had helped her find her courage. “Perhaps we can spend a couple of days there before continuing on to my home.” She would prefer several days. Even though she was curious about what her father knew about the bounty on her, she wasn’t eager to see him.
“Word spreads fast and once your father hears you are at the Clan MacKinnon and wed, he will waste no time in coming after you.”
Purity stretched out on the bed. She didn’t want to think what it would be like to see her father again. He’d done nothing but dictate to her when she’d been in his presence, which hadn’t been that often.
“I don’t think my father likes me very much,” she said and wondered if she should have admitted what she had felt all these years, though it gave her courage to say more. “I believe I’m a disappointment to him and he’s ashamed of my deformity. It didn’t help that I’d been shy or that I have such plain features. Most everyone paid as little heed to me as my father did, that or being called the spawn of the devil because my three-fingered hand resembles a claw.”
“You’ll suffer none of that now that I’m your husband. Your clan will answer to me if they disparage you in any way, and I will make that known from the start. One gossiping tongue, one slur, and the person will regret it, and the sample I make of him or her will be enough to stop anyone from doing the same.”