“Ye are presuming far too much,” she accused hotly.
“And ye are pretending far too hard,” he countered. “But then, aye, I’d fail to recall him as well, for how humiliating it must be to ken yer own intended stood frozen in the orchard while ye were dragged away—about as useful as a bow with nae arrow, that one. Christ, a man with half a spine would have leapt with nae thought.”
“Thomas was startled—as was I—”
“But ye still had the guid sense to scream,” he reminded her, their argument growing louder.
“He was fri—he has nae yer experience in war, Jacob, and dinna imagine that ye are any—
“Jesu, I was terrified as well,” Jacob shot back. “So was every man there. Fear isnaea justification for doing naught.”
“He had nae weapon,” she said quickly. “It all happened so fast—”
“He failed ye,” Jacob cut in, his voice hardening, “He showed his true self in that moment.”
The words hung there, heavy and unmistakable, the silence that followed sudden and harsh.
When she spoke again her tone had softened, though not with fondness so much as obligation, by Jacob’s reckoning.
“Thomas is a decent man,” she said. “He is kind. He meant nae harm.”
“I’ve nae quarrel with his kindness,” Jacob said magnanimously. “But kindness dinna save ye. And decency dinna stop those men from putting hands on ye. Dinna pretend he’s worthy of yer defense.”
“That is cruel,” she said, though without much heat.
“'Tis honest,” he replied. “And let’s nae be otherwise, so dinna pretend still that ye dinna want me to kiss ye. Dinna insult me by expecting me to believe ye would have stopped me.”
Elena chose to ignore this part, and give further pointless defense of Thomas Hamilton. “What would ye have had him do? Throw himself at armed men and be cut down?”
“I would have had him try,” Jacob said simply.
Softer still, she said, “Ye speak as though courage is a choice that can be summoned at will.”
“I speak as a man who watched ye taken, Elena,” he said quietly, the anger still there but banked now, glowing hot beneath the words. “Who watched the man who should give his life to protect ye do naught.”
Her defense faltered then, thinning into something dutiful rather than heartfelt. “He is nae... ye,” she said.
Jacob’s mouth twisted, though there was no triumph in it. “Nae,” he agreed. “He isna.”He is the man who will take ye to wife.
The silence that followed was different from the ones before—not brittle, not evasive, but heavy with truths neither of them could unhear. Jacob turned forward again, loosening his grip on the reins only slightly, aware that he had crossed a line and unwilling to pretend he regretted it.
They rode on after that, the space between them filled once more with only the scrape of leather and the measured sound of hooves, and yet, with every steady mile that passed beneath them, he could not rid himself of the idea that he hadn’t said everything that needed to be said, that he should have said to her.
I wanted verra badly to kiss ye, Elena, he wanted to tell her.I would have traded every tomorrow for one moment of your lips against mine.
