They were free!
She would climb onto Goliath, and they would ride off to a new life together—just the two of them. No more need to conceal their love. No more Gray and his cruel truths and hateful words.
Jubilation made her giddy. She covered his face in kisses, her lips desperate to touch every inch of his skin—the crease of his closed eyelids, the smooth patch beside his earlobe.
“You’re here,” she breathed. “I love you. I missed you. Hallelujah, you’re here!”
It was a miracle she had survived so many days without him. She couldn’t hold or caress him sufficiently. Finally, after one last deep kiss, he pulled her hands from his body.
Of course. They needed to be on their way.
She looked up into his shadowed face.
“I’m ready to go with you. You didn’t say, but I brought my valise.” She gestured to where she had dropped it on the path. “Let me grab it.”
She pivoted, but he stayed her with a gentle hand at her elbow.
That was her first clue that anything was amiss.
“Isla . . .” he began, a catch in his voice.
A chill dropped down her spine. She turned back to him.
Something was wrong.
“What happened?” She clutched his fingers in hers. “What did Gray do?”
Tavish . . . crumpled. There was no other way to describe it. His shoulders pitched inward, and he shook loose her hand, his arms dangling useless by his side. The shadowy features of his face puckered.
In the dim moonlight, the glitter of his eyes found hers.
“I’m leaving, Isla.” He said the words quietly, but they still struck Isla with a bracingthwack.
Iam leaving. Nowe.
She refused to accept what he might be saying.
“I know, love. That’s why I’m here. I’m leaving with you.”
Silence.
And then—
“Isla . . . I can’t . . .” A breath. “I can’t take ye. Not yet.”
“What do you mean, Tavish? Of course, you can take me. You have your inheritance. You would buy a commission, you said, with a little set by for us.”
He winced. “There is no money, Isla. Callum spent my inheritance. He lost it. Gambling.”
“Pardon? How is that even possible?”
Tavish laughed, a terrible, caustic sound that resembled Gray too much for her liking.
Isla flinched.
“I don’t ken how it’s possible, but Callum managed it.” Tone so bitter. “I’m paupered, Isla. I haven’t two sous to rub together, much less funds to support a wife.”
Isla blinked up at him, unable to truly fathom what he was saying.
