“And if you had not? If you had been further afield, if Kenneth had not been with you, if Katie had not come to find you. Goodness knows where I would be because you are forcing us to stay apart.”
“That is what ye agreed to.”
“Don’t I know it!” Leah cried. “I am sorry for believing this sham of a marriage could ever have actually meant something to you.”
With that, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Magnus deflated, watching the closed door and willing her to come back through it. He then turned to Iona and Betty.
Iona was almost comically still, holding a bowl of a sweet-smelling paste that she had been mixing when he entered the room. Betty, on the other hand, was staring at him with her eyebrows raised.
She crossed her arms over her chest and jutted her chin. “Ye are a fool, Magnus Shaw,” she said softly. “And ye will lose that girl if ye dinnae change.”
“I dinnae want her!” he shouted, feeling the lie explode into the air like a gunshot.
Now it was his turn to storm out of the room. He wanted to find Leah, beg for her forgiveness, hold her in his arms, take back everything he had ever said to her, and take her to his bed.
But he did none of those things. He would not. He had to protect her.
CHAPTER 24
Leah ran up the stairs,hot tears streaming down her face as she wiped them away irritably with the back of her hand.
She had never been so incensed in her life, never more furious with herself or with Magnus.
She could not believe that she had allowed herself to be taken captive so easily. She realized now that she had had a rather more impressive view of herself in her mind than existed in reality.
In her stories, the maidens always fought off the men who attacked them or fought off the monsters that came to claim their lives. She had never felt so helpless as she had today.
The feel of the knife at her throat had been truly terrible. It had paralyzed her. Even if she had tried to fight him, he had been ten times stronger than her. She could not have hoped to overpower him. It was an unpleasant reality to be faced with.
He had lifted her onto the back of the horse like she had weighed nothing, her hands bound behind her back. He could have done anything to her, and she would have been powerless to prevent it.
As she approached her rooms, the weight of her guilt fell over her like a shroud as she remembered what she had said to Magnus. She was furious that he was sending her back to England—it was true, but she was also grateful to him. Without him, she might not be standing here now. Being held in his arms, safe and warm, had been the best feeling in the world.
She threw open her bedroom door in a fury, ready to pack her things immediately, but stopped short when she saw Katie sitting by the fire, an ugly bruise across her cheek and tears in her eyes.
“Katie!” she exclaimed, running to her, and the two women embraced fiercely.
“Oh, Leah, I was so frightened,” Katie sobbed as she clung to her desperately.
Eventually, Leah pulled back, stroking a finger gently beneath the cut on Katie’s cheek. “Are you hurt?” she asked.
“No. It is painful, but I am just glad you are alright.”
They went to sit by the fire, both of them taking a little time to process what might have happened if Magnus had been unable to get to Leah in time.
“Do they know who he was?”
Leah shook her head. “Magnus killed him.”
Katie gasped, putting a hand over her mouth in shock. “In front of you?” she asked.
“Yes. He asked him who he worked for, and the man simply said that his Laird thought that Magnus would have learned his lesson the first time.” Leah clenched her fists again. “Magnus has insisted that I go back to England.”
There was a long, ominous silence.
“You do not agree?” Katie asked softly.
