Page 29 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

“Given the events of the day, caution seemed reasonable.”

Hamish laughed beneath his breath. “Ye fought Cormac twice, reclaimed a castle through a tunnel and challenged half the MacNicol council without blinking. Then the woman smiled at ye, and ye looked ready tae retreat.”

Roy stopped near the parapet. “I didnae retreat.”

“Nae. Ye stared at yer bread.”

“The bread was there.”

“A formidable opponent.”

Roy rested his hands upon the cold stone. Dun Ard spread beneath them, its windows glowing faintly against the dark. Somewhere within those walls, Donaldina slept or,, more likely, argued with herself over whether sleeping might grant him an advantage.

He never wanted this marriage. The decree had been duty when it was signed and an inconvenience while war delayed it. He imagined returning, fulfilling the King’s command and placing order where politics required it.

He had not imagined her.

“I never wanted this,” he admitted.

Hamish’s humor faded. Roy looked toward the sea.

“Marriage?”

Roy nodded.

“Because she is a MacNicol?”

“Because she is anyone.”

The admission sounded harsher aloud than it had in his own mind. Hamish waited patiently, a trait Roy had always envied. The former could stay silent until someone mistook his endurance for safety and ended up revealing everything.

“I learned young,” Roy finally continued, “that loving someone merely gives fate another person tae take.”

The wind moved across the wall. He thought of a voice he had not heard in years, a hand grown cold within his own, and the long empty days afterward in which the world continued with an indecency he had never forgiven.

“Better tae possess naething ye cannae survive losing,” he added.

Hamish leaned against the parapet. “That sounds sensible.”

“It is.”

“It also sounds miserable.”

Roy gave him a flat look. Hamish ignored it.

“Ye crossed half of Scotland as soon as the Crown released us,” he reminded him. “Ye arrived tae find Lachlan dead, the clan hostile and Cormac holding a knife tae the woman’s throat.”

“I remember.”

“Then ye fought him on the cliff, followed her through a hole beneath the sea wall and fought him again inside the castle.”

“That was necessity.”

Hamish’s brows rose. “Was it?”

“She was in danger.”

“And ye hesitated nae at all.”