“Och, wot are ye doing?”
Malcolm raised his head and found one of the stable lads standing at the doorway, holding his lantern high. “I’m saddling mah horse,” Malcolm said calmly, motioning for Edna to continue. “We have been called back tae our land urgently.”
The lad narrowed his gaze. “I dinnae believe ye. That is the laird’s intended. I’ve heard the news.”
“Aye, she is,” Malcolm continued in a calm voice. “But she has tae go back tae her land first. Her da, he’s ill. Go on, ask the laird. He will tell ye.” He truly didn’t want to run the lad through with his sword.
The lad’s arm that held the lantern started to tremble. “I will go if ye do.”
“Oh, enough of this,” Edna said, exasperated before she swung the water pail at the lad’s face, catching him off guard. He crumpled nearly instantly, and Malcolm swore as the lantern fell as well, the flame catching hold of a bit of hay on the floor.
Stamping out the flames, he then glared at Edna. “I had it under control.”
She rolled her eyes, dropping the pail with a clang. “Wot were ye planning on doing? Talk him tae death?” She motioned to the horse. “It’s ready.”
Malcolm moved the lad out of the way, propping him up in the hay before taking the reins and leading the horse out as quietly as possible before mounting. Reaching down, he swung Edna up in the saddle with him, letting her settle herself against his body before they slowly made their way out of the sleepy village and onto the road leading back to the McGregor land.
“That was too easy,” Malcolm murmured, guiding the horse over to the right side of the road so that they could blend more with the tree line.
“Far too easy,” she breathed. Malcolm tried and failed to ignore the way her body pressed against his, how her arse was nestled between his legs and her arms brushing his as he gripped the reins. The lass, she had infiltrated his dreams now, her wide smile beckoning him close, and no matter what he did to attempt to stop himself from moving to her, he found his arms around her small waist, nearly close enough to share a kiss before he woke.
Hard as a rock.
Now, this closeness wasn’t helping either, and it was far from a dream.
Biting back a groan, he urged his horse to a fast trot the moment they were far away from the village. The nightfall was going to conceal them all the way to the border, but once the laird learned of Malcolm’s treachery, they wouldn’t be safe.
“Where are we going?” Edna asked after a moment, her words soft in the still night.
“Tae yer da,” Malcolm replied.
“Nay!” she answered, causing Malcolm to stop the horse abruptly. Edna twisted to where he could see her eyes and saw the fear in them. “We cannae go back. Not like this.”
Malcolm was confused. He hadn’t seen the McGregor ill-treat his daughter, and she seemed to be loved by all at the manor. Why wouldn’t she want to go back?
“I dinnae understand,” he said.
“I cannae remain unwed,” she told him, her voice now frantic. “It was far too easy for Neacal tae take me, and if ye hadn’t come for me, he would have wed me. If I remain unwed, he can do it again.”
“Yer da will deal with him,” Malcolm said calmly. He doubted the burly Scot was going to let something like this go without retaliation on the laird.
“Ye dinnae understand!” she said, frustrated. “I won’t be safe. They all want me tae wed, tae forget aboot James, and I cannae. I cannae wed.” Her eyes then widened, and Malcolm felt a thread of concern pull loose in his body. “Ye can marry me.”
He stared at the lovely lass before him. In another time, in another place, he might be inclined to do so, but this was Edna.
James’s Edna. The lass his friend talked about relentlessly. In his mind’s eye, Malcolm could see James’s grin as he spoke of his beloved, how he would recount something she said or did until Malcolm would tell him that he didn’t wish to hear any more stories about the lass.
Now that he had met her, Malcolm knew why James spoke about her so much. She was infuriating.
She was vastly irritating.
She was...well, she was someone Malcolm had never encountered before. But he couldn’t allow himself to dwell on her at all.
“Nay, lass,” he stated, grounding his jaw. “I wilnae wed ye.”
Her expression fell, and he felt the pull in his chest at her response. He didn’t want to hurt Edna at all, but this wasn’t something that could be avoided.
He couldn’t marry Edna.
