A past.
Memories together that I’ll never have with her.
I stop beside a low stone wall separating the castle lands from the open moor. In the distance, I can still see the lights from the Highland Games and hear music drifting across the wind.
Ragnar settles beside my feet, warm against my leg.
A sheep understands me better than anyone else right now.
Pathetic, Finn.
Truly pathetic.
“You know what, Ragnar?” I say out loud because there’s nobody around to judge me anyway. “I fell in love with her while I was supposed to be pretending. And now I’m jealous of a guy who grew up with her, makes her laugh, and gets to belong in her life without needing a contract or some stupid arrangement.”
Ragnar lets out a soft bleat.
“Thanks for the support, my friend.”
I stay sitting on that stone wall for a long time, with only a sheep for company, watching night fall over the Highlands.
I need to stop this.
I need to end this arrangement before I completely lose my mind.
Ragnar presses his muzzle against my knee like he can read my thoughts.
And maybe he can.
Because he knows what it feels like to be misunderstood too.
In the end, that grumpy sheep and I are more alike than I’d like to admit.
And honestly, that’s not reassuring at all.
CHAPTER 26
MARY
The Veterinarian, the Vengeful Sheep, and the Lie That Hurts
(Or How to Lose Everything in a Single Conversation)
“Nothing serious, but he won’t be able to compete today,” I say while gently palpating the chestnut horse’s front left leg.
Jamie straightens beside me and nods. He was already here when I arrived, bent over this horse with a suspicious limp.
“That’s what I thought too.”
It’s six-thirty in the morning, and I’m already at the paddocks, soaked with dew and nursing the faint headache reminding me I may have had slightly too much whisky during last night’s festivities.
The Highlands are breathtaking at this hour, wrapped in pale mist slowly dissolving into the morning light. In the distance, I can already hear preparations for the Games beginning: voices, laughter, the clang of metal against metal.
The cottage was empty when I left earlier.
Finn had already gone. He’s probably been at the medical station since dawn.
Or maybe he’s avoiding me.
