Forevermore by Lauren Royal Read Free Book Online Page A

plain Cameron Leslie—"
    "But now you're the laird, Cam." Caithren stopped beneath the barbican and turned to him.
    "Exactly." He blinked at her in the shadows. "Whatever feelings I had for Nessa died when she laughed at my proposal. She is sleekit, but cold underneath, aye? I won't be going back to her now."
    His gaze drifted up to the massive portcullis overhead. The iron-banded gate would kill him instantly should it fall. Indeed, he would prefer such a fate to life with Lady Nessa.
    "And the village lasses?" She grinned and started walking again, backward this time, avidly watching his face. "I can think of more than a couple who are anything but cold. You've shared a tumble or two with some of them, aye?"
    He should have seen something like that coming. He reached for her shoulders and spun her to face away. "I won't be saying." There were some things he didn't share, not even with Caithren. "But there's none of them I can picture spending my life with, regardless." He followed her into the quadrangle and up the winding stairs of the old keep, all the while picturing spending his life with a certain woman who waited in a small white cottage. "I want somebody like Clarice—I mean, Mrs. Bradford."
    His statement seemed to vibrate through the ancient stones, and his cousin's feet faltered on the steps. "You mean you want Clarice herself, don't you?" He could hear the smile in her voice as she climbed. "Don't trouble yourself to argue—I saw you two together at my wedding. Does it not bother you that she's been married before?"
    "If I were thinking of having her, nay, it wouldn't bother me." They passed beneath an archway and onto a long stretch of wall walk that circumnavigated much of the castle. "She didn't have an easy time of that marriage, Cait. Not that I'm planning to take her home with me, you understand, but it's the truth I've found myself wondering if maybe I could make her happy. And Mary. She's a precious lass, and she's had a hard life."
    It was quiet up on the wall, and the view stretched for miles, lush and green. "You shouldn't marry someone to right past wrongs," Cait said softly. "Or even to make her happy. You should marry for your own reasons. If marriage is what you're implying you want, you need selfish reasons, if I may say so."
    "I have my own reasons. But they don't matter, since Cl—Mrs. Bradford—won't consider my suit. Not that I've been trying to court her. That would be daft, would it not? I'm leaving in four days." He crossed to the side facing the castle. "She thinks she's too old for me."
    Though Caithren remained on the other side, he could feel her gaze on his back. "What do you think, Cam?"
    "I think she's lovely and sweet, and a strong woman who isn't afraid of hard work. Life at Leslie isn't easy, as you well know. It's no Cainewood." With the sweep of an arm, he gestured at the immense edifice of the castle and the open quadrangle, continually crisscrossed by servants going about their business. As castles went, Leslie and his lifestyle there couldn't have been more of a contrast. "My wife won't be lying around eating sweetmeats all the day."
    When he turned to face her, Caithren's eyes flashed hazel fire. "Is that what you think I'll be doing?"
    He raised both hands in mock self-defense. "I know you better than that. But the fact remains you could do nothing more than that if it pleased you. Whereas my wife—"
    "You are thinking of marriage, aren't you?"
    "I think I might love her," he said simply, shocked at his own admission but knowing it was true. "That's reason enough to marry her, aye?"
    Cait came over and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure, Cam? You've known her but a few days."
    For a spell, he just measured her. "And how long did you know your new husband before you decided you love him?"
    She inclined her head in a thoughtful nod. "Point conceded. Maybe the Leslies just fall fast." She could hardly say otherwise, since her own romance had culminated in a