She sucked in a sharp breath as the courtyard around her began to spin.He loved her. He wanted to wed her. He had the power to break her heart.
He let out a long sigh as he studied her, and then he said, “I see by yer rabbit trapped by a wolf look, that ye likely do nae wish to wed me, but I fear I require an answer. Ye see, my da is returning here—he sent word—and I need to ken how to deal with him.”
She frowned. “How to deal with him?”
“Aye, lass. It will depend on yer answer.”
“Are ye saying I have a choice?” she said, and a pain pierced her heart.
“Ye ken as well as I do there is always a choice, even when it seems there’s nae.”
“Oh, aye,” she replied, angry but whether at him, or herself for her fear, or herself for her confusion, or the king for his edict, or her da for not keeping his promise, she did not know. “I can wed ye as the king commands, or I can defy family and king and be sent off to live my days in a nunnery, which will cause harm to my family, and likely an irreparable breach between the men and the women. I can see clearly, I have a choice.”
He shook his head. “Nay, lass, I am giving ye a true choice. I want to wed ye, but the choice is good and truly yers. If ye do nae wish to wed me, I’ll take the blame. I alone will go to the king and tell him it was me, and nae yer family. Yer da, granda, and I have signed a peace treaty, stating that there will nae be any more quarrelling between us. That was what the king wanted, so the repercussions to my family should nae be too terrible.”
She could hardly believe it. “Why? Why would ye take that risk?”
“For ye,” he said. “I love ye, Lillith. I would defy the world if it meant giving ye what ye need, what ye want. So what is yer answer? Will ye wed me?”
Her tongue was frozen in fear. A part of her yearned to say yes, and another part of her, the part that remembered her da’s pain, was scared to give herself over to this man completely. He had her affection already, of that much she was now certain, but how much worse would it be if they were wed? If they had bairns? If they had years of love that were suddenly ripped away? She could still protect herself. She could stop letting him in any further before he stole her heart completely. It was on the tip of her tongue to say no, but then she blurted, “If ye can best me at the ice plunge challenge, I’ll give ye an answer tonight. Otherwise, I’ll give ye an answer by the morning.” That was, after all, the day of the Winter Solstice and the king’s deadline. She needed time to think, and she could not think with Rory so close.
“Then prepare to lose, Lillith. I’ll nae be going to bed without yer answer.”
The water was the coldest she’d ever experienced, but she employed her trick, sending her mind to the rolling hills of Skye. She ran through the grass, trailing her fingers along the edges,feeling the blades tickling her skin, and the sun warming her face. She played fetch with Masie and practiced archery, taking a nap on the plush grass after a hearty snack. Eventually, the sun went down, and she started to notice the chill that accompanied that, and that’s when she heard yelling.
She opened her eyes, and the ice-cold of the loch water stole her breath and her senses for a moment, but then the chaos consuming the night around her commanded her attention. She looked to her right to find her da in the water and her Uncle Rolland, and they were lifting Rory, so that her granda and Uncle Brus, who were on the bank with the rest of her clan, could pull him out of the water hole where the ice plunge contest took place.
Had Rory gotten a cramp? When his head hung oddly backward as his body was being lifted. Lillith heard herself gasp. No one was paying her any heed. Her grandmama, Eve, her aunts—everyone was crowding around Rory, shouting at each other. Lillith scrambled out of the water, and as she stood, Lenora cried out, “He’s dead! Lillith’s foolish competition has killed him!”
No, no! That could not be. Lillith stood on her tiptoes, pressed as the was to the back of the circle surrounding him, and she peeked between two clansmen to see Rory. He lay still, eyes closed, skin an odd shade of blue, illuminated grotesquely by the moonlight.
A cry lodged in her throat, as tears sprang to her eyes, and the weight of her guilt, her horror, brought her off her toes to stand there, swaying as wave after wave of despair washed over her. The pain nauseated her, and caused her bones to ache, and her blood to freeze in her veins. It was too late—for Rory and for her. He was dead, and she loved him. She’d not given him her heart; he’d taken it, and now it was broken. Her anguish was so overwhelming, she almost fell to her knees right there, but thenshe thought of Eolande and the Wishing Tree. There was only one person with the power to save him, and the last time Lillith had seen the seer was at that tree.
Chapter Twelve
“I am nae dead,” Rory finally managed to say over whoever was screeching it so loudly that it pierced his ear. “I am, however, freezing,” he added, opening his eyes with some difficulty. His lashes seemed stuck to his skin. When he finally did get them open, he saw faces looming over him—Iain, Lady Marion, MacLeod, Caleb, Lenora… Lillith’s family was crowded around him, all wearing matching expressions of relief, but where was Lillith?
He started to sit up, and the crowd of MacLeods who’d been gathered to watch the ice plunge challenge cheered. Iain and Royce reached to help him up, but he waved them off. “I’m fine.”
They ignored his protest and helped him sit up, and for one moment, the world tilted around him before it righted itself once more. He locked gazes with Iain. “Did I win?”
Iain frowned, then shook his head. “Nay. When ye passed out—”
Rory quit listening. He stumbled to his feet, sweeping his gaze over the hundreds of MacLeods and his own men who were staring at him. He didn’t see Lillith in the crowd, but his vision was a bit blurred. Squeezing his eyes shut, he pinched the bridge of his nose and willed his vision to clear. He’d never done an ice plunge challenge, but clearly, he’d unwittingly started holding his breath when the cold began to affect him.
“Drink this,” Iain said beside Rory.
Rory opened his eyes and took the wine skin Iain had thrust in front of Rory’s face. He tipped up the pouch and took deep swallows, savoring the trail of warmth the wine created inside him. Lady Marion held a bundle of blankets in her arms, and she held one out to him. “Take this. I brought one for you andLillith,” she said, handing him the blanket while glancing around the circle around them, frowning, and then looking toward the water.
As Rory bundled up in the blanket Lady Marion had given him, he watched her turn in circles as the expression on her face went from baffled to concerned. His own thoughts became clearer as his body warmed. Where the devil was Lillith? He knew she was under no obligation to give him an answer to his question tonight, given he’d lost the competition to her, but he needed to assure himself she was fine after being in the icy water.
“Where the devil is Lillith?” Lady Marion said, as if she had read Rory’s mind.
Her family glanced around as Rory shoved past them to the water’s edge with his heart now pounding in his chest. Beside him, a plump woman with gray hair stood there as he started to kneel, but she put a hand on his shoulder. “She got out, my lord. I saw her run up the seagate stairs with her hound at her heels.”
Rory looked to the stairs, but Lillith was nowhere to be seen. He frowned, even as he started toward them, brushing past her family, who were giving him concerned looks. He had a bad feeling. He couldn’t explain it, but it was like a warning horn inside his head, and his instincts told him that Lillith was in trouble.
“She’s nae in the stables,” Rolland said a long spell later.
