Page 19 of Defy the Highlander

He didn’t answer for a moment, pondering what he’d suggested. It had purely been on a whim, but even as he thought on it, nothing had ever seemed so right. He hadn’t known her very long, but that didn’t matter.

His heart knew hers.

He knew he didn’t want to be without her.

“I want ye tae marry me,” he said quietly. “I know we havena known each other very long, but we’ve got the rest of our lives tae know one another. I dunna want tae stay at Hawkhill the rest of my life and neither do ye. Why not live our lives together?”

Lilia watched him as he spoke, shocked by the proposal but also wildly flattered by it. “I’ve never had a man ask tae marry me,” she said, awe in her voice. “But… when I found ye, ye were living in the street. How can ye think tae support a wife?”

“I told ye that I can do almost anything. I’ll find a job.”

“Then why have ye not found a job before this?”

“Because I had nothing tae live for until I met ye.”

She sat up, looking at him with a great deal of confusion. “’Tis a heavy burden tae put on me, Brody McKay,” she said. “When I met ye, ye had the smell of ale on ye. Why were ye living in the street with nothing else tae live for?”

“Do ye want the truth?”

“If ye’re proposing marriage, I think I deserve it.”

“Are ye actually considering my proposal?”

“That depends on what ye tell me.”

She grinned. He grinned. But quickly, his smile faded. “I’ve not spoken of it since it happened,” he said. “’Tis… difficult.”

Lilia could see that he was struggling. He was reverting back to that man she’d first met, the one with utter defeat in his eyes. She didn’t like that look on him, not when he’d come so far in so short a time.

“Then not now,” she said. “When ye’re ready, ye’ll tell me.”

That seemed to bring him some relief, but he was still struggling with the question. It was true that he hadn’t spoken of it since it happened, the event that shaped his life and cast him out of his clan.

The event that saw him living on the streets.

Perhaps the time to talk about it was now before he lost his nerve.

“My da is the chief of a small McKay Clan,” he said. “We come from a small village called Ledmore in the Highlands. ’Tis so far tae the north that there are villages around us that still have the way of the Northmen, from the times when their princes ruled our lands.”

“It must have taken ye a long time tae come tae Edinburgh,” she said.

He nodded. “It took me almost a month. Traveling from the Highlands isna a simple thing.”

“Go on.”

He sighed faintly, reaching out to take her hand and hold it against his broad chest as he lay there and stared up at the roof of the hay shelter. Thrilled, Lilia let him.

“The English were swarming Berwick and border villages,” he said. “The call went out for men from the Highlands tae help defend Scotland from the Sassenach raiders. Even though my clan is small, we had many excellent warriors, including my da.”

“And ye?”

“And me,” he said softly. “Once, they called me the Highland Protector. So much of my life was spent defending the Scots against the English. I know about warfare and I know how tae fight them. Therefore, when the call went out for Berwick, my da answered. He took me, my cousins, and fifty of our best lads south tae the borders. By the time we got there, the English had burned several border villages, like Jedburgh and Hawick. My da and I were…”

“There ye are!”

Suddenly, there was a big, round woman standing at their feet, pointing accusingly to Lilia, who immediately leapt to her feet.

“Colly!” she hissed. “What are ye doing here?”