The sound of chopping filled the air as ropes were cut, the two ships already drifting apart as Conall settled her and Colin on the floor of the boat with his arms like a protective shield around them.
Yet a few moments later, Gavin reappeared at the railing holding something in his hand.
“Catch, Conall!A wedding gift—though it’s only half of the sultan’s treasure.I’m not a fool!”
Conall did, snagging a small cloth bag tied with a strip of leather that Gavin had tossed high into the air.“Sultan’s treasure?”he echoed, glancing at Lisette.
“I’ll tell you all, husband,” she murmured, but the crackling of flames drew her gaze back to the ship.
Black smoke spiraled upward from the doomed vessel as a blood red sail was unfurled on the other ship and billowed in the wind.
Gavin’s ship, Lisette sending a prayer for him heavenward though she didn’t know where he was bound or what might have happened to him to choose the perilous life of a raider.
Not a devil at all…but an unforeseen avenging angel who had restored her family, her fingers entwining with Conall’s as he leaned over to kiss her.
Chapter22
“Forgive me, lass…forgive me.”
As Conall pulled her close in their bed to hug her fiercely, Lisette didn’t know what else she could say to him that she hadn’t said for the past week.
Each morning had been the same, his apology the first thing he said to her when he felt her stirring from sleep.
He blamed himself still for what had happened to her and Colin, especially that he hadn’t questioned the presence of the priest that had accompanied them to their new home.
Father Philip with his pale blue eyes and over-inquisitive manner and strange interest in the cloak she wore, and who as it turned out hadn’t been a priest at all but pretending to be one.A similar ruse that Conall had employed only weeks ago in Dumfries!
All of this had been discovered after a messenger had been sent to Cameron and Aislinn with the jarring news of Lisette and Colin’s ordeal.
Outraged and with the two blaming themselves as well, they had queried every servant and discovered a tenant farmer had been seen speaking near the kitchen with the priest and the serving maid—the man confessing the entire scheme after he had been dragged before them.
The three conspirators sent there by Euan MacCulloch, who had sailed north with Isabeau aboard the ship that Gavin had set afire…
Lisette shuddered at the memory of her half-sister’s blazing eyes when she had tried to shove her and Colin over the railing.At once Conall drew back to look at her, his fingers caressing a dark tendril from her face.
“Lisette?”
“She hated me so—ah, God, how will we ever move beyond what happened, with you still so tormented?It’s done and past, Conall!I don’t blame you at all and never would, but when will you forgive yourself?”
Tears had filled her eyes and she saw moisture in Conall’s, too, which made her throw her arms around him to hug him tightly.
“I’m here with you and safe,” she whispered fervently against his ear.“Our sweet Colin is safe, too.”
“Aye, but if anything had happened tae you…”
Now Conall shuddered against her, her courageous and fierce warrior so vulnerable at that moment, Lisette thought her heart might break.All she could do was to hold him and kiss his damp cheek even as he turned his head to find her lips…his impassioned kiss taking her breath away.
She could feel the tension easing from his body as if convinced—at last!—that he must forgive himself just as she had pleaded with him.
Just as she must forgive Isabeau, for how else would she ever be free of painful memories Lisette only wanted to forget?
Heaven had blessed her with all she had ever hoped for—the miracle of love so profound and deep that she trembled in Conall’s arms, murmuring, “Je t’aime…je t’aime!”against his lips.
“J-Je t’aime, lass,” he answered her, his French awkward with his Highland burr no matter how heartfelt, which made her draw back from him, giggling.
Conall laughed, too, as she pressed her hands to the sides of his face to look into his eyes.
Joy brimming in those deep blue depths that matched her own as she felt his arms tighten around her.
