“Too dangerous.”
“There is that hidey hole they ha’ not yet discovered, above the ford. You could rest there and get some sleep.”
Finnan had not been able to sleep, nor snatch even a moment’s peace.
Danny looked Finnan in the eye. “I ache to see her,” he confessed. “Aggie, I mean. That last time when I lay with her—”
Indeed, Danny and Aggie had still been together when Finnan stormed back up the hill, leaving Jeannie slain.
“’Tis risky, that,” he said, gritting his teeth around the pain as Danny pressed the bandage on. The cloth, dirty, would likely do him little good. Everything they owned was filthy.
He wondered how long he could go on like this. He had lost everything…except the glen; that remained his yet. He had always believed it enough to sustain him in the face of any hardship. What if he had believed wrong?
Ah, he had given Jeannie a damaging stroke from the blade of vengeance, aye, but it seemed to have cut both ways and injured him, as well.
“Worth taking the chance, I think,” Danny went on. “Mistress MacWherter will at least give us food, and perhaps shelter.”
“You are to ask nothing from her.”
“Eh?”
“Nothing, lad, do you understand?”
Their gazes met. Danny’s turned puzzled and then determined. “What happened that night when you came and collected me in such a hurry? Did you quarrel?”
“Nay.”
“Have you broken it off? I ken fine the two of you were…”
“Aye, broken it off. Drop it now.”
Danny whistled a breath between his teeth. “She will forgive you, no doubt, and help you yet, if she sees you in this state. She is a good woman.”
“You canna’ say that. You know naught about her.”
“Aggie says she is loyal, kind, and generous.”
“Aggie does not know her either, or else she lies.”
Danny stiffened. “Aggie would never lie to me.”
So the lad had given his heart as well as his seed—the fool. Memory caught Finnan unawares as he relived the glorious act of losing himself inside Jeannie’s heat, giving her all of himself. But nay, he must resolve to forget.
Savagely he said, “You do no’ ken what she did to our Geordie in Dumfries. Leave it, lad—I ha’ paid her in kind.”
Danny frowned. “I know more than you might think. Aggie likes to talk, and most of all when we were cozy after. She has said much about how hard life was for them in Dumfries. ’Twas marriage to Geordie or the streets.”
“And did she need to toss his love back at him? Could she no’ have been more kind and generous?”
Danny looked shocked. “But we canna’ choose where we love, can we, Master Finnan?”
Finnan said nothing, struggling against the pain inside.
“Come, Master, up and lean on my good shoulder. Let us move before the hounds are at our heels again.”
****
“He is up on the hillside and will not come to your door.” Danny said the words apologetically and refused to meet Jeannie’s eyes. “I left him sleeping or senseless—I could not tell which. He took a terrible bad wound a day and a half ago. ’Tis dirty, and it hampers him much.”
