“Undertaken on Laird Campbell’s orders.”
Reid stood there, stunned, barely able to take this in. All this time? He’d been played for a fool all this time?
“Bastard,” he growled at Campbell. “Ye utter bastard. I’ll kill ye for this.”
Almost blinded with fury, he swung his sword. But it didn’t connect with Campbell’s body. Instead, another sword caught it.
Cinead stepped into Reid’s line of sight. It was his sword that had caught Reid’s. “Nay, Reid,” he said. “This isnae the way.”
“Out of my way, damn ye!” Reid bellowed. “I’m going to kill him! I’m going to—”
He cut off abruptly as Abigail grabbed his shoulder.
“Not like this, Reid,” she pleaded. “Don’t be the man he tried to make you. If you do that, he wins. Let him go.”
“He will face justice, brother,” Cinead rumbled. “I swear to ye on this.”
Reid’s limbs trembled with fury. His muscles ached to act, to drive his sword through the snake’s heart. All these years he had hated Cinead, lived only for vengeance against the man who he thought had ruined his life. And for what? For a lie. So he could be used by a man who cared not one whit for him or for anyone else. He’d allowed himself to become a monster.
Abigail’s grip on his shoulder tightened. “It’s all right,” she said, in that soft, beautiful voice of hers, that voice that was like a cool balm against his skin. “It’s all right.”
In her eyes he saw a reflection of himself—the way she saw him. She thought he was a decent man, a man of honor and courage. He so wanted to be that man.
“Put down the sword, Reid,” she said softly.
He had lived with vengeance in his heart for so long that it had become a black, shriveled thing. How then, could he let it go now? Who would he be without it?
The man Abigail thinks I am, he thought.A better man.
He uncurled his fingers from around the hilt of his sword and let if fall from suddenly nerveless fingers. Then Abigail was stepping forward, wrapping her arms around him and he was stepping into her embrace, burying his face in her shoulder and breathing in her sweet scent.
Around them he heard movement as Campbell was led out of the tent but Reid ignored it all. In this moment all that mattered was the woman in his arms. Everything else could go to hell.
Oh, how he’d missed her. How could he ever have thought he could be apart from this woman? He could not.
They were alone in the tent, everyone else having filed out. He stared into her eyes and saw tears gathering in them.
“Why do ye cry, lass?” he asked softly.
“Because I thought I might never see you again. When I saw you riding into battle... holy crap, Reid, I’ve never been so terrified in all my life.” She gripped the front of his tunic in both fists. “Don’t ever do that to me again, do you hear? Promise me, Reid!”
He ran a thumb across her cheek. “I canna make that promise, love,” he said. “These are dangerous times and I canna say my life will never be in danger again. But I can promise ye that I will try. “
She put her forehead against his chest and breathed out. “That will do for now.”
He brushed the top of her head and held her close. “I’m glad ye found yer friend,” he said after a moment. “Did she tell ye how to get back to yer time?”
Abigail nodded. “I need to go back through the arch that brought me here just like I suspected. It’s in Kalmack Castle and seeing as we’re now friends with the Muirs, getting back there shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”
It felt as though a lead ball had suddenly dropped into his stomach.Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.Such simple words to describe the destruction of Reid’s life. He couldn’t do it. He knew he’d promised her she would go home but it turned out that Reid was a selfish bastard after all, despite all his efforts to be otherwise.
“Dinna go,” he blurted.
“What?”
He shook his head. “I canna do it. I canna let ye just walk out of my life like ye mean naught to me. I know what I promised ye, love, but it’s beyond me. I canna be that selfless. Stay. Please, stay with me. I love ye, lass and I canna live without ye. Please stay. Please marry me.”
Damn it, he would get down on his knees if that’s what it took. He would beg and plead like some supplicant if it would make her stay.
