She touched her neck, flinched, then dropped her hand. “Pete.”
“Willnae be a problem anymore.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, something steeled behind the fear. “Ye found the ribbon.”
“I did.” His voice roughened. “Good thinking, lass.”
Silence stretched, and he stared at the wall rather than her mouth, rather than the mark he could not stop seeing.
“Nay one can be trusted,” he said quietly. “Especially pirates. I should have ken better than to think any of it changed.”
Emma pushed herself up on her elbows. “You are doing it again. Judging everyone because of one person.”
“I have to.” He met her eyes. “It keeps people alive.”
She held his gaze. “You are not cruel, Logan. I see that clearly now. You killed him for touching me. But I want more than protection. I want you to bepresent. I want you looking at me even when you do not need to kill for me.”
The words landed like blows he could not block. Something in him leaned toward them, toward her, toward the hand she had braced on his blanket, inches from his own.
But he stepped back.
“I am afraid ye want the wrong man,” he rasped. “Whatever ye think ye see, I am worse than ye ken. The closer I get, the more damage I do. To ye. To any bairns we might have.”
Her breath hitched. “So what, then. Ye will kill men for me, then keep yer distance?”
“Aye,” he uttered. “This marriage is what we said—protection. Ye will have safety and status. Ye will also have a good name. For now, it is best if that is all.”
She stared at him, eyes bright in the firelight. “I would like to visit my friend Melody,” she said finally. The politeness in it hurt more than anything. “For a time.”
Everything in him wanted to say no. To hold the door, to hold her, to holdsomething.
He nodded once. “David will ride with ye.”
Emma swung her legs off the bed. She swayed, caught herself, and did not ask for his hand. She dressed slowly, each tie and button a small wall raised between them. At the doorway, she paused.
“I just want you to know that you saved my life,” she said. “And you are breaking it in the same breath.”
She did not wait for his response before leaving.
Logan stood in the empty room, the smell of the woods still in his lungs. He had done the right thing. Love was a storm he could not afford.
He tried telling himself that over and over, but he felt nothing but devastation.
32
Spending a full week at Melody’s did not help Emma at all. While this place was quieter than MacLellan Castle, it didnotfeel calm.
She sat at the small table by the front window, both hands wrapped around a cup that had gone cold long ago. Melody moved through the room like she always had, as if nothing about Emma was cracked.
“Drink it, or I shall throw it out,” she urged, setting a warm cloth beside her. “I will not have you staring at my tea all afternoon.”
Emma let out a thin sound that wanted to be a laugh and was not. She took a sip because Melody would not leave it alone.
“You took me in,” she reminded her. “You knew what you were getting.”
“I took in myfriend,” Melody emphasized. “Not a ghost.”
Emma tried to smile, but it tugged at sore places. “I do not feel particularly solid.”
