Chapter Twelve
Kerry felt utterly miserable. The walk north in the dark was freezing cold but that wasn’t why sorrow seeped into her bones.
Callum didn’t want her.
It was so obvious when she thought about it. She had tried to kiss him and he couldn’t leave the room fast enough. He’d obviously been able to keep the act going while he thought she was going home, not wanting to hurt her feelings by telling her he didn’t want her. Then she made the stupid mistake of staying and telling him she loved him.
How had he reacted? Told her the same and then presumably sat in a blind panic on the horse trying to work out how to get rid of her.
Edward had come along at the right time. She was clearly supposed to be with him, not with Callum. This was her destiny. Traveling hundreds of years back in time and Edward had still found her. As he’d said, they were meant to be together.
He hadn’t even yelled. Not once. He’d been sympathetic instead, hugging her and telling her it would be all right.
One kiss with Callum and he scarpered out of the door and straight out of the tavern. She only found out the truth when Edward knocked on the bedroom door.
She almost screamed when she opened it, seeing him standing there. “What have you done with Callum?” she managed to ask, already wincing, expecting a fight.
“Nothing at all,” Edward replied, passing her a note. “He asked me to give you this though.”
She unfolded the piece of paper and read it. It didn’t take long, consisting only of two words.
Go home.
“What does it mean?” she asked, unable to take in the words.
“He didn’t deserve you,” Edward said, stepping forward and taking the note from her. “Do you want to know what he said to me?”
She nodded although she didn’t really want to know. She was too numb to take in much of anything.
“I saw him in the bar, laughing with the others down there. Said he’d only wanted to get you into bed but couldn’t go through with it when he realized how fat and ugly you are. Can you believe he’d say that?”
“He said that?” Kerry asked, her voice little more than a whisper. There was a hint of hope to it, as if she wanted to believe it wasn’t true.
“I love you for who you are,” Edward said, slipping his hands into hers. “You know that, don’t you?”
Kerry was still numb. She was barely aware of his guiding hands as he took her downstairs and out the back door of the tavern.
As they walked north together in the dark, Edward continued holding her hand, saying nothing until the lights of the tavern had vanished far behind them. Only then did he speak. “I left him a note,” he said. “Told him he didn’t deserve someone as beautiful as you.” He squeezed her hand. “And you are beautiful, Kerry. Or at least you will be once you get out of those filthy clothes and into something more sensible.”
“Where are you taking me?” Kerry asked, looking up at him as he smiled in the gleam of the moonlight. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going home,” he replied. “Back where we both belong. Put the past behind us. Literally.”
“But what about Callum?”
“You mean am I angry about you running off with another man?” He shook his head. “I know I have every right to be angry but I’m not. I understand exactly why you did it, Kerry.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do. You thought you were stuck here in the past so you tried to make the best of it. Latched onto the first person who complimented you, isn’t that right?”
“No, that’s not what happened. I-”
He cut her off. “Yes it is but that’s okay. I don’t mind. Once we get home, we can just forget about it and carry on as before.”
“But…” Her voice trailed away to nothing and the sorrow began to seep into her. He was holding her hand too tightly for her to break free. Was it even worth trying? Where would she go? Into the mountains to starve to death? Callum didn’t want her. He had told her to go home.
She thought about their kiss. It had felt perfect. The feel of his lips on hers, the warmth that spread through her, the sensation that she had always been half of something and when they kissed, that half had connected with the missing half and she was made whole. She never wanted that feeling to go but within moments it was wrenched from her.
