She was alive.
She was here.
They had wept and laughed and fought and kissed.
Kissed!
Kieran had thought that perhaps . . .
That with a wee bit of time . . .
But . . .
Sitting here, watching Simon watch her—
Kieran now understood with vivid clarity the future that Simon offered her . . . one of calm and peace, of gentility and ease, with her feet deeply rooted in community and family.
Eilidh would be a fool to turn the man away.
Damn but that hurt to admit. It burned and stung and lashed his senses with a cat o’ nine tails.
And yet . . . Simon wasgood.A kind man who offered Eilidh safety and refuge from harrowing memories.
Had Kieran ever stood a chance? Or had their love been doomed from the start? Eilidh’s decision already made?
Again, she had told Kieran this repeatedly, had she not?
And he, in his arrogance, had assumed she was somehow . . . wrong. That their midnight confidences and hungry kisses were building their relationship anew.
He loved her more than ever.
But was he thebestman for her?
Or was a quiet life as Mrs. Simon Fitzpatrick perhaps the future Eilidh needed most?
“I was soconcerned for you, Eilidh. You do not mind that I came?” Simon asked the words with his usual quiet intensity, but Eilidh could hear the note of anxiety beneath it.
So courteous, her Simon. So gentle, never wanting to misstep.
“Of course not, Simon,” she replied. “It is proof of your generous heart.”
She said the words unconsciously, a reflexive response.
Oof!She was such a coward. She needed to tell Simon about the implications of Cuthie’s looming testimony, that she might stand trial as a murderess.
But she hated to exacerbate his worry.
And it was a moot point until charges were legally made, was it not?
“You are charitable, as always, my dear,” Simon replied.
They had finished their tea and now strolled toward Kilmeny Hall, intending to call upon Ewan.
Eilidh had taken Simon’s arm, as was appropriate for their standing as a courting couple and his status as a guest.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick and Kieran walked ahead, Kieran politely steadying the older woman along the path. Kieran bent his head and smiled at something Mrs. Fitzpatrick said.
Her mind still stuttered and floundered, attempting to accommodate the revelations of the day.
