She sighed and turned her head so her cheek was resting against his chest. “I never would have been alone if he hadn’t died. I wouldn’t have been alone on that road or in my cottage.”
Iain’s heart twisted, and he wanted to say that she wasn’t alone now, but he thought better of it. Now wasn’t the time. She was too vulnerable and too angry to accept him as a substitute for John.
“Ye didn’t see him. He thinks he’s invincible. He thinks he can do anything and nothing will happen to him.”
He was finding it a bit difficult to follow her train of thought, but he figured she was speaking of Donaldson again. “He’s not invincible. Not on my land.”And not with my woman.
“I’m afraid,” she whispered. “And I hate being afraid. I don’t want to be afraid. I want my life back. It was simple and uncomplicated.”
Was her life more complicated now because he was in it? Was she accusing him of turning her life upside down? He’d forced her from her comfort and made her face things she’d turned away from for years.
“I’m sorry you’re so afraid,” he said. “I want you to feel safe again.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible anymore.”
“It is, and I will see that it happens. For now, know that you’re safe here.”
“I don’t think any of us are safe anymore.”
—
He found the English captain in the study, drinking a Scottish whiskey and thumbing through a book on animal husbandry. Iain went straight to the whiskey, poured a shot and downed it, then poured another while Palmer watched.
He was shaken. More shaken than he wanted to admit. To watch Cait break down had been heartbreaking and frightening, and his hand was trembling as he raised the glass to take a drink.
“What do you know about a Lieutenant Donaldson?” he asked after a third shot that didn’t even come close to calming his nerves or blunting his rage.
Palmer hesitated, and in that hesitation Iain had all the information he needed.
“He threatened one of my people,” Iain said.
“Threatened how?”
“He told Cait Campbell that he would come by her cottage tonight and that she had better be there. He even kissed her, and I have no doubt that he has intentions of raping her. What the hell is that all about?” He wasn’t couching it in nice words. He was too raw for that right now.
Palmer looked at him sharply. “He told her he was going to rape her?”
“He told her if she cooperated, then he would protect her. If she didn’t, then things would go badly for her. I don’t know what else you would call that.”
“He’s a good soldier.”
“He’s a bloody bastard. No one threatens one of my people and gets away with it.”
Palmer held out his hand. “I think you need to calm down.”
“He wants to bed her, Palmer. He was very explicit about it.” Iain’s anger was rising again. “He kissed her.He demanded that she become his mistress. He didn’t ask. He demanded. I don’t care if he’s a bloody lieutenant in the bloody English army. He doesn’t treat my wom—my people like that.”
Palmer eyed him with interest. “Think before you act, Campbell. Donaldson is a bastard, I’ll give you that. But he has connections.”
“They give him no right to threaten to rape women.”
“I doubt he said he would rape—”
“No?” Iain asked quietly. “Then why is Cait Campbell upstairs, afraid to go home? Why did she fall apart upstairs, so frightened she can barely talk?”
Palmer appeared decidedly uncomfortable, and Iain wondered what it was about this Donaldson that had Palmer warning him away.
“You and I are going to Cait’s cottage this evening, and we are confronting Donaldson. The English army may let him run wild, but I won’t tolerate his behavior on my land or with my people.” Iain had worked himself into a rage again. He’d never seen Cait so frightened. Not when she had a house filled with runaways and the English at her doorstep, and not when she was healing the sick and injured.
