“All right,” Duncan said in a hard voice. “I loved ye with all my heart, but I knew ye for the spoiled lass that ye were. Ye were used to having everything come easy and just as ye wanted it. Ye liked your jewels and silk gowns, servants to wait on ye hand and foot, and sitting at the high table. I couldn’t give any of that to ye.”
“Ye left me so I could have silk gowns and servants?” Moira could not believe she was hearing this. “Thatis why ye deserted me?”
“Ye hadn’t suffered a day in your life,” he said. “Ye would have left me in a week.”
“I would never have left ye.”
“Ye could not have lived the kind of life we would have had, ostracized from our clan and living from place to place while I fought for whoever could pay me most.” Duncan rested his hands on the door on either side of her head and leaned his face close to hers. “I’m telling ye, I had no choice.”
“No, Duncan. You made a choice,” she said, tapping her finger against his chest.
“Leaving ye was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Duncan said, his voice strained. “It nearly broke me.”
“I would have lived anywhere, gone anywhere, just to be with ye. That’s how much I loved ye,” she said, choking back tears. “But ye had no faith in me.”
“I didn’t have faith in ye, and I wasn’t wrong,” Duncan said, his eyes fierce. “You’ve changed, Moira. Perhaps ye would be willing to make those sacrifices today, but not then.”
“Ye never gave me the chance,” she said. “Ye should have.”
“All I wanted was for ye to be happy,” Duncan cupped her cheek with his palm. “I couldn’t be responsible for making ye suffer.”
“That is precisely what ye did,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Your father doted on ye so,” Duncan said. “I believed he would marry ye to a good man, when the time came.”
“Well, he didn’t.” She shoved him away with both hands and jerked the door open.
Chapter 28
Duncan’s hopes and dreams were crumbling beneath his feet as Moira opened the door. He was losing her again, and this time it would be forever.
“Don’t leave me.” He grabbed her hand and dropped to his knees. “I’m sorry for the unspeakable things that happened to ye after I left for France.”
Though Duncan had not meant for any of it to happen, he understood why she blamed him. He had been too concerned about defending his decision, when he should have apologized to her from the start.
“I would never hurt ye on purpose,” he said. “Ye know that.”
Moira’s eyes were swimming with unshed tears, but her back was stiff, and she still had one hand on the door.
“I love ye, Moira MacDonald. I always have,” he said. “We have a son we should raise together. I’m asking ye to trust me and give me another chance.”
“I can’t be with ye, unless ye trust me as well,” Moira said.
Duncan had no notion what she meant, but if Moira was setting conditions, instead of refusing him, that was a very good sign. He got up off his knees, reached around her, and closed the door.
“I love ye,” Moira said, her eyes flashing, “but I will never again be with a man who does not respect me.”
She loved him.Duncan had feared he would never hear her say those words to him again. Despite her angry tone, they were a healing balm to his soul.
“Tell me what ye want,mo leannain,” my sweetheart, he said, taking her hand again, “and I’ll do it.”
“I’m no fragile flower. I fended for myself for seven long years without ye,” she said. “Don’t ye dare treat me as if I were a spoiled lass who could not survive without fine gowns and silver cups.”
Did he think of her that way still? Duncan reflected on how he had found her in Ireland, battered and lying in a pool of blood; the dangerous trip to Skye, which she endured without complaint; and her foolish, but brave attempt to reach Dunvegan Castle by walking all night on her own.
“Ye said I am a stubborn man, and you’re right,” Duncan said. “Ye have changed, and I’ve been slow to accept it.”
“I mean it, Duncan,” she said, pinning him with a hard look. “I won’t have ye thinking of me as an irresponsible child who will run when things get hard.”
