The sound of the door slamming against the wall as it was thrown open cut off whatever Niall was about to say. Two men barged into the small room but came to an abrupt stop when they saw Niall and Annie alone. But it was worse than that. Niall and Annie looked as if they’d just been doing exactly what theyhadbeen doing.
Instinctively, Niall moved around to stand in front of her, as if he could protect her from what was about to come. But it was too late. The knowing look that passed between the two Campbell soldiers said enough.
“Sorry to interrupt,” the first man said. It was hard to see his mouth behind the heavy dark beard, but Annie suspected it was curled in a smirk. “We were looking for the healer.”
Both men had obviously been in the brawl earlier. The second man was holding a blood-soaked cloth up to his face that explained their purpose.
Though there was nothing overtly suggestive in the soldier’s voice, it was clear the men had guessed what they’d very nearly interrupted.
Annie’s cheeks flamed with mortified heat, realizing exactly what the men would have seen had they walked in a few minutes earlier. Unfortunately, her blush did not go unnoticed and only served to confirm their suspicions.
“She was just here a minute ago,” Niall said, trying to salvage Annie’s already-ruined reputation. She should have told him not to bother. Now at least there would be reason for the gossip. But she would not—could not—regret it. Even if they had no future together. “The healer went to fetch something. I’m sure she’ll be right back.”
“I’m sure,” the first man said, sounding anything but.
Niall turned to her. “Wait for me outside, and I will escort you back to your room.”
Annie guessed what Niall was going to do, but no amount of “persuasion” on Niall’s part would stop the inevitable flow of gossip from these two. Knowing he would try anyway, she shook her head. “That isn’t necessary.” Embarrassment forgotten, she turned to the two Campbells with a smile. “We were finished anyway.”
Niall frowned at her word choice, which seemed to confirm the soldiers’ suspicions, as the two Campbells did their best to smother their snickers. But she wasn’t going to bow her head and slither away in shame. Not anymore. She was a MacGregor, and it was time she remembered it.
Let them gossip. Let them say what they wanted about her. It didn’t matter. She knew the truth. She had done nothing for which she should be ashamed.
She would not hide away any longer. It was time for Annie MacGregor to put what had happened behind her. All of it. For good.
CHAPTER NINE
What the hell was that about? Niall didn’t have time to ponder Annie’s strange behavior. Did she want everyone in the castle to know what they’d been doing?
He would have gone after her, but not five minutes after leaving the two Campbells in the infirmary with very detailed and gory threats of what would happen to them if Niall heard a word about finding him and Annie together, one of Niall’s men tracked him down as he was making his way across thebarmkin.
A short while later—just long enough to change into his armor and gather his weapons—Niall was riding out the gate, hell bent for leather. Or rather, bent for hell. For that was where his prey would soon be headed.
He didn’t tell Annie where he was going. He knew she would be furious and try to stop him, and he didn’t want to lie to her. Promise or not, this was something he had to do.
* * *
Annie refused to let them see her pain—or her humiliation. Just when she was beginning to forgive him, Niall deserted her without a word.
And it didn’t escape the notice of anyone.
She’d come downstairs the morning after their interlude in the infirmary, expecting to see him, and had been unable to hide her shock to learn that he’d left the day before. Her brother and sister-in-law had seen her reaction, and Annie didn’t know what was worse: Patrick’s fury and threats to kill the bastard for hurting her again or Lizzie’s heartfelt sympathy.
Annie’s vow not to be the object of pity or scorn anymore had taken a drudging. Each day that she entered the hall, it was harder and harder to hold her head high and her shoulders square under the onslaught of stares and whispers—some kind, some cruel.
“What did she expect… that he would marry her?”
“Of course he left. He got what he wanted, didn’t he?”
“Poor lass, no one will ever want her after what happened to her.”
“It’s no more than she deserves, carrying on like that—what man wants a woman who dresses like a man and tries to learn warfare? It isn’t natural.”
She couldn’t believe that after what they’d shared in the infirmary, he would just leave her like that. He’d helped her find her passion again. Something that she’d thought irretrievably lost. But Alys had been right. In time, with the right man, Annie would heal.
There had to be an explanation. But why would Niall leave without a word?
Finally, after eight days, Annie couldn’t stand the stares anymore. She had to get away. Escaping the stifling confines of the castle, she made her way down to the banks of the loch under the watchful gaze of her brother’s guardsmen who were patrolling the battlement. She’d brought a pole for fishing and found a quiet spot near the bank to sit on a rock while waiting for her line to jump.
