"This is not how a man acts, Caleb," Catherine said, her voice steady and composed despite the tension coiling tightly in the air around them.
It would have been easy to let the moment overwhelm her, to step back and allow the men behind her to take control, especially with three of them already poised to defend her without hesitation.
But even if she had been alone, even if there had been no one to stand behind her, she would have said the same. This wasn't about protection. This was about principle.
Yes, the Preston men had always been known for their tempers, for the way anger came to them quickly and fiercely, but that had never been an excuse to lose control, not like this, not in front of a woman, not in a way that stripped dignity from the room itself. And not just her. Any woman.
