He grimaced. ‘Aye, but ‘twas a kind of dogged devotion, twisted by greed and the idea of ownership, along with a fair measure of pride. How could you not love the great Jasper Glendenning, I thought? What a fool I was.’
‘We are all fools for love.’ She bit her lip and said, ‘Does this mean you forgive Seaton?’
‘I forgive you. Him, never. When a man strikes at another man’s heart, it is a perpetual rift, a wound that will not heal.’ He shrugged. ‘I regret it, but it cannot be undone.’
She looked down at her feet. ‘I wish that were not so.’
Jasper wanted to be away from her and from the past. ‘I must not keep you prisoner here, talking to me. I have said my piece, and now I’d better go before Grimm comes in search of you.’
She took hold of his arm to stop him. ‘What has changed in you, Jasper?’
He grinned. He could not stop it. ‘I have found another heart to join with mine, a far harder one than yours. But I am in love.’
‘So you are a new man?’ she said with a smile.
God, that smile had once brought him to his knees, but not anymore. ‘In the essentials of my character, aye, maybe I have been reborn, Brenna.’
‘Then you would not know anything about the twelve head of cattle taken from Bannerman land last week.’
In reply, he shrugged, and Brenna smiled at him - warm and beautiful with the sun striking her hair. He had always loved that hair. In the old days, he would have lingered, trapping her in conversation and trying to steal a kiss. But now he wished to be far away from her. Looking at Brenna was like being confronted with his old self – the humbled fool holding out his heart to be spat on. He despised that man.
‘I must go. So I bid you good day,’ he said, knowing those were the last words he would ever say to Brenna Bannerman. There was no sadness in his heart at the thought. He had once felt that a shadow of his love for Brenna would always lie over his heart. But now he was free, and all he wanted was to find Rowenna and stop on the way home to Kransmuir to lie her down in the spring grass and make love to her with the sun on his back.
Sometime later, he found Rowenna and kissed her so hard that she was left breathless.
‘What was that for?’ she said.
‘For being the most beautiful lass in all the Marches,’ he replied with a choke in his voice.
‘Is it my new plaid?’ she said, whirling it around. ‘Does it please you so much?’
‘It pleases me, aye, as do you. Let us go. I have an urge to be home.’
She smiled brightly, and they went in search of the horses.
After a long ride, as they were about to pass by Fallstairs, he bid her stop. Jasper stared down the hillside at the house.
‘Why are we stopping,’ she said. ‘I have no wish to visit with my father after his treachery.’
‘Nor I. But do you remember when I brought you home from the market that day?’
‘Aye. You forced me to accept your escort.’
‘I forced you to do many things, Rowenna, to my eternal shame.’
‘What is wrong, Jasper? You seem distracted.’
He let out his breath in a great heave. ‘I am happy with you.’
‘Yet you look grave, my love.’
‘That is because happiness is fleeting.’
‘It is. And don’t you have to hand me back to my father at year’s end if I am not with child?’ she said, teasing.
His love burned in his belly. With great certainty, he said, ‘Bairn or not, I will never hand you back. I will never let you go, Rowenna. You must know that by now.’
She gifted him a little smile. Rowenna was achingly lovely when she smiled. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘But saying it more often would not hurt.’
