Ian's Rose: Book One of The Mackintoshes and McLarens by Suzan Tisdale Read Free Book Online

hall. Her eyes widened in surprise first, before he caught a fleeting glimpse at her fear.
    “Woman!” he shouted.
    With nowhere to run, she turned around and went back into his chamber. He was at the door before she could bar it. Pushing through, out of breath and furious, he stood in the doorway and glowered at her. “Did ye find it amusin’ to leave me in the loch without so much as a leaf to cover me nakedness?”
    Slowly, she backed away, looking more fearful as the moments passed.
    “I asked ye a question,” he said as he took a step forward.
    She cleared her throat before answering. “’Tis no more than ye deserved, ye pigheaded lout!”
    He quirked a brow at her insult. “Just because ye be me wife does no’ mean ye can do as ye please. It does no’ give ye the right to leave me naked, to force me to walk all through the keep without a stitch of clothing. It also does no’ allow ye to insult me.”
    Even if he had not spoken a word, she would have been able to tell just how angry he was. His eyes pinned her in place, the vein on the side of his neck pulsed and throbbed. He was standing over her now, his hands clenched into fists at his side. At the moment, she was unable to determine if he planned on hitting her. Believing they were married, he might just believe ’twas his right to do so.
    Mustering courage, she pushed her fear aside, fully prepared to admit they were not.
    “As me wife, Rose McLaren, ye shall show me the respect I deserve as yer husband. Do no’ ever tempt me patience like this again, or else I’ll give way to me anger and give ye the spankin’ I be certain ye deserve.”
    Her eyes widened in surprise. “Ye would no’ dare!”
    “Because we be newly married, I will nay give in to the temptation to do just that. But mark me word, ye’ll no’ be so lucky next time.”
    “Next time?” she scoffed at the idea. “I thought ye were setting me aside? I thought ye wanted out of this marriage?”
    Her questions stopped him dead in his tracks. ’Twas as if he had forgotten what he’d said earlier. “I fear the beatin’ Frederick gave ye last night did more damage than I previously thought,” she told him. “One minute ye can no’ stand the sight of me and want to cast me aside, the next ye speak as if ye think we’ll be married a good long while.”
    He turned away from her, clenching and unclenching his hands. He had no desire to admit she had a valid point. He’d been so furious that he had forgotten he wanted to end the marriage.

    * * *
    “ I am no good fer ye, Rose,” he told her pointedly. “I can no’ give ye the things a woman wants, like beautiful dresses, fancy slippers and baubles. Hell, I can no’ even give ye a decent home.”
    She stared at him in stunned silence. So that was what all this was about? She had never been more thoroughly convinced he was an idiot.
    “Ye deserve far better than me.”
    He was an exasperating man. “Of course I do!” she replied. “Every one kens that.”
    He had no good response. Instead, he stood next to the cold hearth with his head hanging low.
    “So ye decided to break our troth, to set me aside, because ye can no’ give me things I never asked fer?” she demanded with a shake of her head. “Ye be just as addled as Frederick said ye were. Ye’re also quite selfish. And a coward.”
    His head shot up so rapidly she was surprised he didn’t snap his neck.
    “Aye, I said it.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Instead of takin’ it as a challenge, ye surrendered. Instead of doin’ what most men do — work verra hard to make a happy and safe home fer their wives, work hard to give them what they can — ye took the coward’s way out by surrenderin’.” She shook her head in disgust. “Nay, ye be no’ the man I thought ye were, and all the things I heard about ye must be lies.”
    “What things?” he dared to ask.
    She gave him a casual shrug of her shoulders. “That ye have stared into the face of