Highlander Medieval 06 - Her Highland Hero Read Online Free PDF Page A

she was grateful for. Mary continued on down the corridor, not needed when Isobel was seeing her father. He was dark-haired like her, but his eyes were nearly black, and not blue like her own. She had her mother’s beautiful cat-like eyes, she was oft told. Now his eyes narrowed at the sight of her.
    “Father, I wish to wed Marcus. I love him and he loves me. That should be all that matters.”
    “You belong here where you will provide an heir for the earldom. You do not belong in some drafty, ill-furnished castle in the Highlands, my daughter.” The diplomat that he was, he was firm, but at least he still attempted to placate her.
    She would not be appeased! She glared at her father. “Did you send him away? He was invited here. A guest, like any other.” Though she knew he was not a guest like any other. Only she welcomed him with open arms. Everyone else reviled him. Except for Mary, who loved to hear stories from him of home as well, and Jane, who thought Isobel and Marcus’s love for each other was the most romantic notion ever.
    “You were too bold with him. I would have done the same had any other man touched you the way in which he did. ‘Tis not done when you are not promised to him.”
    “We love each other!”
    “‘Tis only a young girl’s imaginings. You will care for the man, any man, who takes you for his wife.”
    “That is not so! Marcus has asked for my hand many times, and you have turned him down every one of those times? I do not imagine the love that is between us. What of my feelings for him? What of his feelings for me? Do they not matter? Did my mother mean naught more than a dowry to you ?”
    She knew he had loved her mother with all his heart. She hoped he’d see her point.
    “Enough, Isobel. My title was not at stake when I took your mother to wife.”
    “My happiness means naught to you,” Isobel blurted out. She saw the look of hurt on her father’s face, but she had to break through his denial. She had to make him remember why he married her mother. Didn’t Isobel deserve the same kind of love and happiness?
    “Seven men have offered for you, whom I approve of, and you will spend time with them and decide which you prefer to marry.”
    “Marcus is the only one I will agree to wed.”
    Ignoring her comment, he continued to speak as if she were blithely agreeing to everyone he dictated! “You will wed in a fortnight. In that time, each of the seven men will be given the time to court you properly. If you select one before you have spent time with the others, so be it. If you cannot find it in your heart to decide on one of them, I will do the honor. I leave it to you to choose well.”
    She bit her lip to keep from saying no to her father. She only had one choice. If she ran away to join Marcus at Lochaven in the Highlands, her father would punish the laird and his people. She could see that now. If she went somewhere else, disappeared for several months, if she could find someone safe to stay with, mayhap her father would be so relieved to learn she was alive, he would allow her to wed Marcus. She would not give in so easily to her father’s unreasonable demands. She understood about his title and the importance, but she wanted to be loved for who she was, allowed to be the way she was and not what some nobleman, who didn’t love her, wished of her.
    Her parents had cared deeply for one another just the way she wanted to love Marcus.
    “As you wish, my lord father.”
    He frowned and seemed not to be taken in by her acquiescence. She’d accepted his demands too readily.
    “You do not wish to know who will have the honor to court you?”
    She shook her head, her chin stubbornly lifted, fighting the tears that suddenly filled her eyes.
    “I only do what is best for you.” He reached to take her hands, appearing somewhat unsettled that she was on the verge of tears.
    She took a quick step back to avoid his touch, tears rolling down her cheeks. “May I retire to my