“IkilledBennett. I did it this morning. In the woods.”
Her brow furrowed with confusion. He stared down at her in the dying firelight, waiting for her to say something.
Anything. But she did not speak.
Herolledoff her, onto his back.
“I don’t understand,” she final y said, sitting up andpullingher shift down over her legs to cover herself. “You told me they werestillsearching for him.”
“They are.”
“But do they know he’s dead?”
“Nay.”
She considered this. “So no one knows youkilledhim?
Your militia is scouring your lands, searching for a dead man? Why didn’t youtellme this before, Duncan? How could you let me…?” She paused, and a hint of anger found its way into her voice. “What happened? Pleasetellme that you were defending yourself.”
He could not lie. What he did was an act of rage, brought on by the nature of Bennett’s threats and the horrors of his cruelties in the past. “Nay. He was unarmed. I had already taken his knife.”
Duncan reached into his boot andpulledit out, then tossed it onto the floor with a noisy clang. It bounced end-over-end toward thewall.
She clutched at the neckline of her shift, holding it tightly about her neck. “If he was unarmed, why didn’t you simply bring him back here and lock him up again?”
“That’s what I meant to do. I had the rope in my hands, but…”
“But what?”
“Something came over me. I couldn’t listen to the things he said. I can’t even begin to explain it to you.”
“Try.”
Duncanswallowed over the bile that rose up in his throat.
“He said vile things about you, lass, and about Muira—things I do not care to repeat. It started a fire in my head, and I lost control. I didn’t even realize what I’d done until it was over.”
She slid off the bed and went to stand in front of the window. “How did youkillhim, Duncan?”
“I took off his head.” It was the bitter, hard truth, delivered without hesitation, and strangely he felt no shame. He even reveled in the words as herecalledthe silence in the woods—when Bennett had final y stopped talking.
For a long moment she stood without moving or speaking, and Duncan knew she was repulsed by what he had done.
Sickened by it. As he had expected she would be.
Amelia faced him. “How do you feel about it? Are you atalltroubled by what you did?”
He swung his legs to the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. “I wish I couldtellyou that I am. I wish I could say I’m drowning in guilt and remorse, and that I spent the day on my knees, praying for God’s forgiveness, but that would be a lie, lass, because I do not regret it.”
“You feel no remorse whatsoever?”
He looked up at her. “Nay. I’m glad I did it, and I would do it again if I found myself back there now.”
She headed for the door, but he sprung from the bed and blocked her exit.
“How could you do something like that and feel no regret?” she asked. Her voice quavered with shock and anguish. “You had the chance to bring him back here so that he could face Colonel Worthington’s court-martial, but you took it upon yourself to act as his judge and executioner. Youkilledan unarmed man in cold blood. I cannot imagine the savagery of it, not after the past few weeks, when I have seen another side of you—a side that gave me hope. I began to believe it might be possible for me to forgive everything else, and love you.”
Lovehim.
