“I am laird now,” he reminded her. “I release ye from that oath.”
“I willna betray that sacred trust.”
“What sacred trust? The one my sire and yer father unfairly made an inexperienced lass swear to through intimidation?”
Her heart skipped several beats. “Ye know about it?”
“My father carried a great deal of guilt after ye wed John. His missives are quite detailed. I doona think he ever intended for me to read them. Not the ones pertaining to John’s life, and yer marriage.”
“If ye know the truth, why are ye forcing me to say it?”
“Because I want to hear yer words.”
Keely dinna like reliving the past, but everywhere she looked forced her to remember, to rethink her choices, to face her greatest sins. She’d lost five years with the people she loved, including her father and brothers. It made her heart hurt. She walked to the edge of the loch, scooped a handful of rocks from the dirt, and threw several. Ripples formed in the tranquil water. Even the winds were quiet today.
“Marrying a second son dinna appeal to my father.”
“Did it please ye?”
She refused to answer.
“Keely?”
“My feelings dinna matter then, and surely doona matter now.”
“I’ll have an answer.”
“I did as I was told.”
“Until ye faced the marriage bed.”
She whirled around. “Did ye bring me here to humiliate me or find a solution for our problem? John is buried. Ye’re the new laird. And everything can be settled if ye just send me home where I belong. Let my da deal with my bad choices, Alex, not ye, not Clan MacKay.”
Once again, Alex came to her, framing her face with his hands. His eyes were void of tenderness but not purpose. “Sending ye home would be a sign of my failure. It isna possible.”
She dinna step out of reach, but stood there blinking, wondering why. Had the council demanded she be held prisoner? That Alex punish her? “Why?”
“There’s consequences for everything we say and do, no?”
“Aye,” she answered shakily.
“Do ye remember our last encounter here at the loch?”
She could never forget it. Never. That memory had burned a fresh path from her aching heart to her troubled mind over and over again. Especially since the day she crossed into MacKay territory and discovered the burned village. How she wished to go back and rethink her decision to flee Dunrobin Castle. “Aye.”
Alex caressed her cheek with his thumb. “We pledged our hearts and souls to one another.”
“We were young.”
“We were in love,” he said.
No. Lust. Passion. Desperate need. Hunger. Anything but love. Seeing him in the sunlight, with his bright, green eyes focused on her, that chiseled jawline, straight nose, his shoulder-length hair, and muscular form—the way his tunic hugged his body, the way his tartan clung to his hips, revealing powerful thighs… that’s what muddled her mind five years ago on a warm summer night. She could see it clearly, smell fresh heather, feel the soft grass underneath her, remember Alex’s warm touch on her face and breasts, the way he pulled her gown up her legs, then parted her thighs with his knee…
“Let me show ye how much I care, lass, how much I love ye.” He’d whispered those words so tenderly. “I give ye my heart, my body, and soul, Keely Oliphant. Do ye promise to be mine, to honor me with yer life, by being my wife?”
And she’d utteredaye, her mind and body filled with everything Alex. It had been a mistake– at least she thought so now. “Love and desire are often mistaken for the same thing,” she said.
He chuckled, and she thrust her hands on her hips.
