Edna let out a sob, and he tugged her toward him, enveloping her into his embrace. “I’m vera sorry.”
“Quit saying that!” she admonished, clenching his tunic. “’Tis not yer fault, Malcolm, and it’s time that ye realized it.”
Malcolm drew in a breath. All this time, he had blamed himself for James’s death. If he hadn’t invited him to ride with his group or left him to hunt down those that had fled, James would be the one holding Edna right now—not him.
But then again, they would be in a different moment altogether. “Ye cannae wed Neacal,” he murmured into her hair. “I wilnae let ye.”
Edna pulled back, and he saw the tears in her eyes. “I have tae, Malcolm. Neacal, he will attack otherwise. There’s no other option.”
“There has tae be,” Malcolm said desperately. “I wilnae give ye up. I wilnae allow him tae take ye from me.”
Edna reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. “Ye are mah protector all along. I thought that James was helping me from beyond the grave, but I now know ye were the one.”
Malcolm swallowed. “Aye, lass. I would protect ye with mah last breath.”
He barely got the words out before Edna was rising on her toes and pressing her lips to his. Malcolm growled low in his throat as he wrapped his arm around her, pressing her body against his. He had been prepared for all sorts of responses from her, from disgust to perhaps some forgiveness, but this Malcolm hadn’t anticipated.
Her lips moved across his, and he let her control their kiss, just grateful to have her in his arms, kissing him. He could kiss Edna every waking minute.
His hand slid to the back of her neck, and he deepened their kiss, feeling her gasp in his mouth before he tasted the recesses of her mouth, desperate to have more.
He wasn’t going to let her go. He wasn’t going to let him have her.
“Wot in the bloody hell is going on here?”
19
Malcolm tore his mouth from hers and pushed Edna behind him as Neacal walked into the study, his eyes dark with anger.
“Ye!” the laird growled, pointing at Malcolm.
“Aye, ’tis me,” Malcolm growled.
Edna watched as her father and the laird walked in, not at all surprised to see Malcolm in the study with her. When Erik had told her that she was wanted in the study, she hadn’t expected to see Malcolm either, nor was she expecting the tale he had just finished telling her.
He hadn’t killed James, at least in the way that she had thought. He had done it so that her beloved wouldn’t suffer, and he had honored his vow to James in protecting her.
All this time, she thought that James had been her protector, but it had been Malcolm instead.
Now she had to protect him from Neacal.
Neacal. He had ensured that she had been given a chamber next to his, with his guards posted at the door so that Edna wouldn’t consider escaping again. Her own mother wasn’t allowed to attend to her, and she had been given a quiet servant to help her dress for the evening festivities. As much as she had wanted to show tonight in a burlap sack, Edna had allowed herself to be preened for her intended. He had wanted to have a gathering so that the clan could see them together and announce their impending wedding, but the moment Edna had stepped into the study, she knew that the wedding likely wasn’t going to take place as smoothly as Neacal wanted.
Not with Malcolm at the keep, looking very much like the fierce warrior she knew him to be.
“Seize him!” Neacal was ordering to the guards that had joined in on the melee. “He accosted mah intended.”
“Accosted?” her father replied with a wry smile. “It looked like they were enjoying a kiss.”
Edna’s cheeks colored, but Neacal wasn’t amused by Erik’s retort.
“Edna, come tae me now.”
“She wilnae go anywhere near ye,” Malcolm growled, keeping one arm behind him to hold Edna in place, the other grasping a dagger that she hadn’t seen him pull. “She doesnae belong tae ye.”
“Yes, she does,” Neacal sneered. “Tell him. Tell him wot ye have agreed tae.”
“I dinnae care!” Malcolm fought back. “She did nothing tae earn her spot next tae ye.”
