The Arrow Read online

  Every time Seonaid looked at her, she felt like she was seeing the little no one who desperately wanted to be someone. She felt like the five-year-old who’d donned a pretty dress and believed she could be a princess.

  It made her want to lash out. Made her want to gloat and descend to that same unpleasant level that Seonaid trod upon.

  But Cate didn’t need to gloat. She didn’t need to prove herself to anyone. She’d won Gregor because of who she was on the inside. Not because the man who’d sired her was a king—she still couldn’t believe the handsome young earl who’d sat on the rush-covered dirt floors of her mother’s cottage and played games with her was king!—or because of her beauty, her feminine wiles, or the size of her breasts.

  She gritted her teeth. She would be gracious even if it killed her. In a much nicer voice, she added, “Can I help you with something, Seonaid?”

  “I underestimated you,” the other woman said, her eyes sparking malevolently. She gave Cate a long look, her gaze traveling down her velvet gown—the green one—and up again. “You obviously knew what you were doing when you said you would get him to marry you.”

  Cate stiffened. “I didn’t say that!” Did I? She bit her lip. “Well, that’s not what I meant.”

  Seonaid drew back in surprise at her protest. “What else could you mean? Your words were very clear. You said you could get the handsomest man in Scotland to marry you, even if you had to trap him. You sounded very determined and sure of yourself. Weren’t your parting words something like, ‘If you don’t think I can do it, you are wrong’?”

  Cate cringed. Dear lord, had she really said that? It sounded so … ugly.

  Seonaid might not have all her words exactly right—Cate had never spoken of trapping him—but she’d gotten the gist well enough.

  “So how did you do it?” Seonaid continued. “Did you strip naked and crawl into his bed so that he was forced to marry you?”

  Cate’s cheeks flushed hotly—guiltily? It wasn’t like that. She’d had a nightmare, and it had just … happened. Because you touched him intimately when he tried to leave. You wanted to force his hand. You wanted to seduce him. But not to trap him, only to prove that he cared about her; she hadn’t been thinking of marriage.

  But had a part of her known that would be the result?

  The blood drained from her face. No! She couldn’t let Seonaid do this to her. “Of course not!” she protested. “How dare you insinuate anything so duplicitous! What is between Gregor and me is none of your business!”

  But Seonaid latched on to her twinge of guilt like a dog to a meaty bone. “You did! I knew there had to be an explanation. Why else would Gregor MacGregor even look at someone like you?” Her gaze dropped to Cate’s chest, and her lip curled. “Unless you have more under there than I thought.”

  Someone like you … The disdain in the other woman’s tone made something inside Cate snap. She wouldn’t be put on the defensive. Not by someone like Seonaid. “Why someone like me? Maybe because he finds me attractive on the inside as well as the outside. Maybe because I have more to offer than perfectly coiled golden curls and big breasts.” Cate returned every bit of her disdain. “You might try not being so obvious. That dress leaves very little to the imagination. Some men like a little mystery in what they are getting—especially when there is little else to offer.”

  Seonaid gasped. Her eyes hardened to ice. “You pretend to be so high and mighty, but you are the one who had to trick a man into marrying you. Had I been willing to sink so low—”

  “You would have found yourself alone in bed,” Cate snapped. She was so furious, she wasn’t even listening to herself. All she could think of was that for the first time, she didn’t have to take the other woman’s taunts. She didn’t have to feel less. “You are deluding yourself if you think differently. You know what your problem is? You’re jealous. You can’t stand to think that the girl who wasn’t good enough to be your friend could have won the man you wanted for yourself.” She took a step toward her. “But I did win, Seonaid. He doesn’t want you, he wants me, and you are just going to have to accept that.”

  Seonaid’s gaze, which had been fixed on her, suddenly shifted to the left, looking past Cate’s shoulder and coming to rest on something.

  Nay, on someone.

  The bottom fell out of Cate’s stomach. The blood in her veins turned to ice. She didn’t need to look behind her to know who it was.

  Seonaid smiled. “My laird, I was just congratulating Cate on her coup.”

  How long had he been standing there? Cate turned and met his eerily cold and blank gaze. It was like looking into a dark cave. There was nothing there but empty blackness.

  Long enough.

  Every word she’d just said came back to her in one shameful wave of horror. She wished she could cut off her stupid tongue. But it was too late for that. How could she have let Seonaid get to her like that?

  Gregor wished he’d stayed in the storage room. But Cate had been taking so long, he wondered if she’d misunderstood his intent. He’d heard the voices as soon as he’d opened the door, recognizing Cate’s soft tones and Seonaid’s more grating ones.

  He’d been standing there the whole time. But both women had been so focused on the hostile game they played between them, they hadn’t noticed him.

  He wished they had.

  “Get the handsomest man in Scotland to marry you … trap him … forced to marry you …” He flinched at the words, unable to accept what he was hearing. And Cate’s response? Boasts and taunts instead of real denials. Then she served the final coup de grâce, the words that left no doubt of what she thought of him, “… won the man you wanted for yourself.”

  Won. Like he was some damned prize.

  He felt his insides twist.

  Damn it, not her, too? It couldn’t be true. Cate wouldn’t do that. She was too honest for such deceit. She wasn’t superficial and conniving like Seonaid and her ilk—even if for a moment she sounded like her. He didn’t much like this spiteful, boastful side of Cate. Still, he didn’t want to believe it.

  Don’t overreact, he told himself. Calm down. This was Cate. His Cate.

  But her own words seemed to damn her. Why had she managed only one feeble denial and acceded to everything else Seonaid accused her of? Why was she throwing her “win” back in the other woman’s face? And then there was her expression when she turned to him and gave a startled, “Gregor!”

  Horror. Guilt. Shame. He saw the mixture of emotions cross her delicate features and felt the doubt inside him begin to harden.

  He glanced over to Seonaid, and the satisfied cat-like smile on her face hardened him a little more. He’d be damned if he’d let the she-tiger see how deeply her claws had scratched. “Coup?” he asked lazily.

  Seonaid smiled. “Just a figure of speech, my laird. But it is quite an achievement for a girl like Caitrina to secure a proposal from a man of your … repute.”

  Gregor’s fists curled in spite of himself. He knew exactly what “repute” she was talking about. “A girl like Caitrina?”

  Seonaid flushed, probably realizing how petty she sounded. “I merely referred to her being an orphan, my laird.”

  He knew exactly what she meant, and it wasn’t that.

  Cate seemed to have been knocked from her shock. She grabbed his arm, “Gregor, I—”

  He cut her off, not wanting to hear her explanation—at least not right now. “I see you let Seonaid in on our wee jest,” he said.

  Cate looked just as surprised at seeing him smile as she was taken aback by his words. “Jest?”

  He turned to Seonaid. “Cate told me all about your conversation. We laughed about the ironic timing of our announcement, but we never thought anyone would actually believe it.” He gave her a slow, deadly smile. “Do I look like the type of a man to be trapped by an innocent lass?”

  Seonaid flushed hotly, her cheeks turning a bright scarlet red. “Of course not. We were just surprised by the sudden