For a moment, Innes thought he was going to swing it at her sister-in-law, leaving her to die there in the forest alongside the men she had used to try and kill her. But Isobel, it seemed, would not go down quite so easily
“Dinnae come any closer!” Isobel ordered as she leapt to Innes’ side, grasping her arm so roughly that her nails bit into Innes’ flesh.
Innes tried to wrench herself free, but her iron grip was imbued with the strength of a woman who knew that her last hope lay here.
“Let go of her,” Lachlan snarled, his lip curling up to expose his teeth like a wolf defending his pack.
“You think you can be happy with this girl, Lachlan?” Isobel demanded, as he closed the distance between them, sword still drawn, blood glistening in the moonlight that filtered down through the trees. “She doesnae understand you! Yer darkest sides, the parts of you that I knew.”
“You never knew me, Isobel,” he snarled, his eyes unblinking, voice unwavering. “You saw only what you wanted to see. Innes, she…”
He looked to his wife, his gaze softening.
“Sheunderstands me,” he continued. “Shemakes me want to be a better man.Shesees the good in me.She’s shown me peace that you could never. But I ken that you’ve found that withArthur, and I wouldnae want a mistake like this to mar the rest of yer marriage."
Isobel’s grip tightened.
“Think of yer husband,” he warned her. “We can resolve this peacefully. There’s still time. You dinnae have to go through with this.”
“Aye, we can end this now, Isobel,” Innes pleaded with her. “A moment of madness, we’ll tell Arthur. My brother’s a kind man, he’ll see his way to forgive you.”
Something in Isobel wavered. Lachlan’s sword was still drawn, ready to strike should she protest.
“I can hardly take the offer of peace seriously if you still have yer blade aimed at me,” she snapped.
Lachlan locked eyes with Innes, doubt written on his face. He clearly didn’t trust her, at least not enough to do as he was asked. But she nodded slightly. If they could not offer her this, then what reason would she have to believe that they were telling the truth about offering her a chance at freedom?
Lachlan sheathed his sword, and Isobel’s grip on her arm slackened. Innes pulled away, putting a few inches between them.
“See, sister?” she murmured, a wash of relief coursing through her body. “You dinnae have to see it through. We can be family, no matter what?—”
“I’ve heard enough,” Isobel snapped.
And, when Innes turned to look at her properly, her heart dropped.
She hardly recognized her, the way her eyes seemed to have darkened to a near-black, her face twisted with such hideous fury she looked almost as if she were wearing a mask of anger.
“That’s what you believe, is it? That’s what thisgirlhas you trusting in?”
Her nails sank into Innes’ arm once again. She looked back towards the river. The blood drained from Innes’ face as she suddenly realized what she was going to do.
“If I cannae have peace,” she growled. “Then neither can you!”
And, with that, Isobel dragged Innes roughly back to the edge of the bank. She mustered more strength than a girl her size should have been capable of, her rage driving her. Innes scrabbled to keep her footing, arms swinging as she searched for a branch to cling to, but there was nothing—nothing but the cold embrace of the water below.
And then, Isobel let go.
The last thing Innes remembered seeing before the water swallowed her was Lachlan. His lips were parted, and he must have been calling something out to her, but whatever it was, she could not hear it over the roar of the water.
For a moment, she seemed suspended mid-air, her blood pulsing around her body. She was aware of every heartbeat, the way it seemed to stretch on for a lifetime, like her mind was trying to make the most of the seconds she was still alive…
And then, the cold hit her, pricking into her skin like a million white-hot needles. Her cloak and dress sagged with water at once, dragging her downward, and the current buffeted her as her head slipped beneath the surface. Water rushed into her ears, her nose, her mouth, until it felt like there was nothing else in the world but this brutal, biting cold, nothing but the sound of the river screaming around her. Her arms swung out towards the bank, groping for anything that might give her some purchase to keep herself from being swept away, but she found nothing.
And her mind seemed to gift her something to take her away from the nightmare ahead of her; an image, so vivid she could have sworn she could reach out and touch it, of her and Lachlan.The two of them, dancing at the Fraser Keep. His arms around her, his eyes fixed on her, so full of love and adoration that it seemed nearly impossible for him to contain it…
And behind him, Arthur, laughing as he watched them, sitting at one of the large tables. On either side of him were a boy and a girl, the girl a little older, with light-brown hair that fell to her shoulders, the boy with a messy crop of curls that seemed fit to escape his head at any moment.
Her heart swelled; her children. She knew it. She had never imagined being a mother before, but she knew these were the children she would have had if she had only stayed in the Keep as Lachlan had told her.
