Page 72 of Defy the Highlander

But no more.

Once his contract was purchased, Brody would have to submit to Lady Currie like everyone else.

“Hurry up, Lilia,” Colly snapped. “M’lady wishes tae be dressed immediately.”

Lilia realized that she was daydreaming, thinking of the murky future of both her and Brody at the hands of Lady Currie. As she took the dress over to the rack where it would be hung and inspected for any spots or flaws, she eyed Lady Currie as the woman brushed her hair.

“M’lady,” she said hesitantly. “Have ye considered that the man will bring his wife here tae live at Hawkhill? He told ye that he was married.”

Lady Currie stopped brushing and looked at her. “I never told you that.”

Lilia only realized that as Lady Currie said it. It was true; she’d never told Lilia, in all of her scheming and planning, that Brody was married. Quickly, Lilia hastened to clarify how, exactly, she knew that.

“I know ye dinna, but I heard him tell ye that when we were in Sir Clegg’s private box,” she said, which was the truth. “He told ye that he had a wife.”

Lady Currie went back to brushing her hair. “As if that will stop me,” she snorted. “He can bring his wife and I will put her to work in the soldier’s barracks. She can be of use to the soldiers while her husband becomes my personal comfort-giver.”

It was a rather brutal thought, even for Lady Currie. Usually, the woman wasn’t so nasty, but it was clear that jealousy had her in its grip when it came to Brody. The more the man refused her, the more obsessed she became over him.

And she didn’t want any competition.

“Mayhap ye’ll be lucky and he willna bring her at all,” Lilia said. “It would be better if she dinna come if that is the fate ye have consigned for her.”

Lady Currie chuckled, but not in a nice way. She stopped brushing her hair long enough to pour herself a large cup of wine from the pitcher that was always on her dressing table.

“Then she’ll do well to let me have her husband,” she said, taking a long, satisfying gulp of the red liquid. “Hurry now, Lilia. I want to dress and go early to The Cal so I may make the offer to Clegg. I want to make sure I offer for the man before anyone else does. I saw how those whores at The Cal were looking him over. You know the ones I speak of; that hideous mother and her equally hideous daughters. They want what I want but, in the end, I shall have him.”

Lilia began the process of hanging the dress and smoothing it out, laboring to focus, as Colly summoned Amy and the woman began to fashion Lady Currie’s hair. The chamber became a hive of activity once again, as it so often did when Lady Currie dressed for a visit to the Ludus Caledonia.

But this time, there was something more to it.

The stakes were about to escalate.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“Brody?”

It was a gentle winter’s afternoon. Brody was sitting outside of his cottage in the warrior’s village, smoothing the rudis he’d been using since he’d arrived at the Ludus Caledonia. He’d used it so much that splinters were coming out all over the place.

Glancing up when he heard his name, he could see Cam and Isadora approaching. Isadora was carrying their toddler son on her hip, a little lad with his mother’s red hair and his father’s green eyes.

Brody smiled weakly at the pair.

“Well?” he said. “Am I fighting tonight?”

Cam lifted his big shoulders. “I’ve not yet heard,” he said. “I came tae ye about something else.”

“What?”

“Lady Currie came early today,” he said, lowering his voice. “I saw yer lady with her, Lilia. They were heading intae the keep of Caelian Hill.”

Brody lowered the sword, looking at Cam curiously. “Why did they go intae Caelian Hill?”

“That’s what I wanted tae know,” Cam said. “Axel and I followed them because he saw them arrive, too. It’s no secret that Lady Currie wants ye badly, so we assumed she’d come tae speak with Clegg about ye again.”

“And? Did she?”

Cam nodded. “Axel and I slipped in after them and listened from the shadows,” he said. “’Tis no secret I dunna like Lady Currie. She’s spoiled and bold. The more ye deny her, the more she wants ye. In fact, she wants ye so badly that she offered Clegg sixty pounds sterling tae buy yer contract.”