‘Is he come?’ she asked, peering in the direction in which the boy pointed.
‘Nay, nay,’ he said with a wild shaking of his head. Oh, the boundless energy of childhood, she thought. ‘He is there. Fighting with Munro. Like this.’ Alasdair began throwing punches into the air around him.
Aidan fighting Munro? Why? She gathered up her skirts and ordered the boy, ‘Take me there, Alasdair. Quickly, if you please.’
They scurried along the path to where it crossed the main road and Cat discovered that wee Alasdair was right—Aidan and Munro were involved in a vicious fight there for all to see. Knowing she must stop them, she ran up to where they now rolled in the dirt and called out their names.
Now close enough to see them, she saw the blood streaming from Aidan’s nose and from a cut over Munro’s eye. She began to call out to them again when the ground beneath her tilted and she had to fight to remain standing.
It took only a moment more of witnessing the bloodiness before her for her world to go dark. She heard Aidan screaming out her name and then her world went silent, too.
Chapter Nineteen
Aidan saw Catriona crumpled to the ground and tried to reach her, but Munro grabbed him by the hair and pulled him back to the fight. He used the motion of Munro’s action to swing around and punch his former friend in the jaw. A satisfying crunch told him that he’d broken something.
That satisfaction was short-lived, for Munro was the best fighter with fists and feet among his group of friends and a well-delivered blow to his stomach reminded Aidan why he needed to stay at least a pace away in a brawl. Landing on the ground again, he pushed to his feet and tried to reason with Munro.
‘Munro, I must see to her,’ he argued.
‘You bastard! Why her? Why could you not leave her be?’ Munro yelled at him as Aidan tried to get past him to Catriona. Why had she fainted so?
‘I love her, Munro.’
‘My father loved her! She was his wife!’ Munro tripped him as he took a step towards her and kicked him back to the ground. ‘She was just a game to you. You should have listened when she said nay, you...you did not!’
‘Munro!’ he called out again. ‘I order you to cease this now.’ Aidan backed up his demand with his own fists, gaining his feet and pummelling the man until he fell back a step.
‘You are good at giving orders, are you not, Lord Aidan. You ordered him away so you could seduce her. You ordered him to his death. And she does not ken the truth of it, does she?’
Aidan paused in shock at hearing his sins exposed and that brief moment allowed Munro to knock him down. He waited for the next blows and instead saw Munro grabbed and pulled away by Young Dougal. Climbing slowly to his feet, he looked around and realised that others had probably heard his claim. Dougal kept hold of Munro while Aidan ran to Catriona’s side.
‘This is not something to settle in public, Aidan,’ Dougal warned. When Munro began to argue, Dougal shook him and warned him off. ‘Bring her and finish this between you in private.’
Dougal dragged Munro down the path that led to Catriona’s house. Muireall reached his side and tried to help him, but he brushed her off.
‘I will see to her, Muireall.’
The woman looked as though she wanted to say something more, but she nodded and let him pass. Catriona did not rouse as he followed Dougal down the paths and lanes to the edge of the village. Dougal kept Munro outside when Aidan carried her in and laid her on the bed. Sitting at her side, he stroked her cheek and whispered her name.
‘Catriona, open your eyes and look at me.’
He went out to the common room and found a cloth and brought the jug of water with him into the bedchamber. Pouring some cool water on the cloth, he touched it to her face and neck and watched her rouse. She tried to sit up, but fell back, clutching the air.
‘Here, now,’ he whispered. ‘You are on our bed,’ he soothed. ‘Lie in ease and get your bearings first.’
‘Aidan?’ she asked as her eyes seemed to clear and she met his gaze. ‘You and Munro...fighting...’
‘You fainted, love,’ he said.
His stomach churned now, not from any damage done in the fight, but from knowing that he could not avoid her learning the truth. Munro would not let it lie and, unless he took drastic measures and got Dougal to drag him away now and remove him from Lairig Dubh, Catriona would find out the terrible way in which their love had begun.
‘Where is Munro? Why were you fighting?’ she asked, pushing herself up to sit next to him.
Did he stop it now by telling her the truth? Would it be worse if he did it or if he was exposed? Was there a better way to tell Catriona that he’d manipulated her life and caused Gowan’s death? As he realised the inevitable results now of his stupid shallowness and lust then, he knew he was facing the end of...them.
And, though knowing he did not actually cause the man’s death and though knowing he’d tried to make things right after it, Aidan knew that the true consequences of his acts faced him now. He’d gained what he wanted only to watch it, and her, be torn apart.
Would she survive this betrayal? He looked at her face, her eyes widened in confusion and fear, and he prayed that she would not pay the price for his selfishness. But how many times could a person’s world be shattered for them to fall apart themselves?
