She shook herself at the familiar voice.
Why is there another in the sea with me? Where am I?
Slowly, she opened her eyes, frowning when she found herself quite safe, lying in her bedroom in the castle. Katie’s concerned face hovered above her, and a wet cloth was on her forehead.
Magnus stood beside the fire, watching Katie tend to her. His gaze was as grave as she had ever seen it, and his brow furrowed in deep thought.
“It’s alright, you’re alright. You fainted,” Katie was saying.
Leah pushed her hand away, trying to sit up.
“Now, now.” Katie sounded alarmed. “None of that. Come on. You need to rest.”
As Leah tried to rise from the bed again, her strength left her, and she collapsed back into the pillows with a sigh. She watched in dismay as Magnus growled from his position by the fire and swiftly left the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
Leah turned to her friend, expecting her to reprimand her for her foolish choices, but was surprised to find a faint smile playing across Katie’s pretty features.
“You have quite outdone yourself, Leah Anderson. When I said to follow my lead, I did not quite envisage you smuggling yourself onto a laird’s island and hiding in the depths of the Scottish Highlands.”
Leah rolled her eyes as her thoughts became a little less muddled. Slowly, she was coming back to the world. She could remember her father’s fury, the anger and wrath he had aimed at Magnus, but what for?
She racked her brain, trying to remember the events just before she had fainted, and when she recalled them, she grimaced.
“He said he would not marry me,” she whispered.
She expected to feel relief at the knowledge but instead felt a strange sense of disappointment.
“He did say that,” Katie confirmed, tenderly wiping Leah’s forehead with the cloth. “But you did not see him, Leah. Thatman will not allow your father to whisk you away. You mark my words.”
Leah shook her head. “He does not want a wife,” she muttered, feeling the bitterness at the back of her throat at the expression she had seen on his face. “He would rather see me leave. I asked him once what marriage meant to him, and he said he saw it as a curse.”
She knew the truth in those words even as she said them, thinking back to that passionate kiss in the dining room.
She remembered the strange hypocrisy in MacWatt’s actions. On the one hand, he told her he believed marriage to be a curse, and yet in the next second, he had advanced on her, taking her into his arms and kissing her as though he would kill any other man who ever touched her.
If he does not want me as a wife, then why did he hold me in such a way? Why does he look at me as though he cares for me?
As she contemplated her predicament and Katie gently soothed her, the headache returned in full force, and she could feel the pounding of the waves at the back of her skull again.
As Leah put a hand on her hot forehead, the door to the bedroom opened, and Betty came inside, followed by Iona. They both looked at Leah with thinly veiled concern, and Katie took a step back as Betty made for the bed.
“Now then, child, what has the master got ye into this time?” Betty asked, touching Leah’s forehead with a cool hand as she tutted and waved her fingers in a vague gesture at Iona.
Clearly, Iona understood that instruction, and she pulled out a small vial from a bag around her waist. She handed it to Betty, who unstoppered it and brought the rim to Leah’s nose.
Leah was expecting the unpleasant tang of smelling salts, but instead, she was greeted by a gentle mix of lavender and eucalyptus.
“That’ll calm yer mind, me dear. We dinnae wish ye to be more agitated than is needed.”
Leah wanted to stay awake to ask her where Magnus had gone, but as she opened her mouth to speak, the darkness took her once more.
Magnus walked swiftly back to his ‘guests’ before the lass’s father began destroying his castle.
He listened to the thudding of his own footsteps, which seemed to match his rapidly beating heart. He had not felt so panicked in all of his life, and he could not see a way to overcome it.
I cannae marry the lass.I willnae force her into this life. She didnae choose it—she fell into it because she hid inside acarriage. That is nay way to pick a husband, any more than threats are a way to win a wife.
He pushed through the door and advanced on the Earl and Laird MacIrvin, who were waiting for him, their expressions grim.
