Eowin retreated from the alcove, his boots landing heavily on the stone floor. He didn’t go far, but it was enough to make the pair feel as though they had been granted some privacy. Though the two had already been standing close to each other, James moved closer still. A gentle hand reached up to caress the side of her cheek, holding her in his touch.
“I should never have brought yet back here,” he sighed. “I should have left ye to live yer life, just as it was. Content and complete.”
“I was nae content and complete. Nae entirely,” she whispered back, letting her head settle into the palm of his hand. “It was nae this, but there were still pieces missing. But none of that matters now. Ye did what ye thought was best. Ye did whatye thought ye must. I cannae fault ye for that. I did the verra same thing when I left. I thought that was my only option.”
“I see now that it was. I should have left it alone. I should have gone after Laura instead.”
“Go to her now. Go save her,” Taryn pleaded. “Ye can do nothing for me here. But ye can still save her. Ye must go to Laura. She needs ye.”
James didn’t answer as he gazed down into Taryn’s bright blue eyes. He had once thought them naive and innocent. Now he saw an entire world in them, one that spoke of secrets he knew nothing about and longed to explore.
“Had I nae been so foolish, so stubborn…” he started to say, berating himself.
Taryn reached out a hand and pressed it into his chest, silencing him.
“The only way I will be able to bear this is if I ken that ye are going after Laura. And that ye dinnae blame yerself for this. None of this is yer fault. Please, James. I refuse to spend our last few moments together arguing about all the things we could have done differently.”
As if her words had struck them both at the same time, the couple realized that this would indeed be their last time together. She would return to her cell to await her fate, and he would go off searching for Laura. By the time he made it back, she wouldn’t be here. Taryn pulled back, the epiphany striking through her heart harder and faster than anything else she had realized today.
Logic and reason screamed at her to step out of James’ arms, to let him go. They cautioned her not to get more involved than she already was. But her heart was whispering to let caution, logic, and reason be damned. Her days were numbered. Things couldn’t get much worse than they already were. She didn’t want to die with regrets.
Moving before either of them could put a stop to it, Taryn braced herself, putting her hands on James’ chest, rose to the tips of her toes, and pressed her lips against his. Having never kissed anyone before, she didn’t quite know what she was doing. James didn’t move a single muscle. Her heart pounded, a rush of embarrassment and awkwardness washing over her. Just as she was going to pull away, apologize, and run back to her cell, James moved.
His hands went first to her arms, holding her in place, before they reached around her back and pulled her into him. He didn’t stop until every inch of her was pressed against every inch of him. As if the contact broke through his stupor, James kissed her in return, showing her just what it felt like to be a woman kissed by a man who loved her.
For that brief moment, nothing else existed. There were no angry Englishmen, vying for her head. There were no sisters to save, no families to return to. There was nothing but Taryn and James. She felt, for once, as though she were a normal girl free to live the life she dreamed. And he was the man she had chosen to pursue, the man she had longed to call hers.
Breathless and flushed, Taryn pulled away first. She hoped that the memory of that moment, when James still had his eyes closed and his hands clutching her waist, his lips swollen and rosy, would keep her company in the lonely days that were sure to follow.
“I always dreamed that ye would be the first man to kiss me,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “But my dreams could never compare to reality.”
Slowly, James peeled his eyes open and looked at her. His eyes were glowing a bright, rich green.
“Time to go, lass,” Eowin announced, coming from around the corner, his words full of regret.
This time, Taryn went willingly, leaving James behind her.
In a daze,James stood in the corridor, unmoving. He watched as Taryn’s skirts disappeared down the hallway, Eowin ushering her back to the cell James had rushed to get her out of.
Everything within him screamed that this was wrong. This shouldn’t be happening. The moment he realizes and finally admits to himself that he is in love, the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with is being escorted to her death.
I love her.
The thought threatened to knock him off his feet. Perhaps that was just the rush he still felt from kissing her. When they were younger, he might have entertained the idea a time or two that they would wind up together. As he got older and had more understanding of the way the clan worked, he knew it would never happen. Yet now, all the stars and fates aligned only for him to taste bliss before it would be ruthlessly ripped away from him again.
Shaking himself out of his own thoughts, James turned and ran through the castle. Nearly colliding with more than one distraught clan member, he was sure he looked insane. He had no doubt that everyone he passed was convinced he had lost his mind. James thought that maybe he had. But if it meant he got the chance at a future with Taryn, then he was happy to be labeled insane.
Eowin had been right, James thought tersely. The entire clan was in a state of panic. Several of the people he passed were in tears, while others were shouting at each other. It seemed as though everyone was just as conflicted as James was, even if it was for different reasons.
The brisk, cold air hit James in the face as soon as he stepped outside, but he didn’t let it slow him down. He raced for the stables, saddling his horse in record timing.
“Please forgive me, Ma. I swear I will make it back for breakfast one of these days,” he spoke into the wind.
Kicking his horse into a run, James sped through the village, taking note of the way news of the Baron’s new demands spread like wildfire. It was sheer chaos. Chaos that James didn’t have time to contemplate or analyze. He needed to act and act quickly.
He rode hard, despite the fact that he hadn’t entirely made up his mind as to just where he was headed. Taryn’s life was in grave danger; a fact that James couldn’t stand by and let happen. But Laura also needed saving from the English, especially before tensions between them got any worse. And if a war was going to break out between his clan and the Baron, he needed to be here, fighting for his homeland.
How could he possibly emerge a victor in all of this when there was no one to stand and fight beside him? He alone had gone after Taryn, just as he alone was trying to save her. In three years, no one had dared to try to get Laura back. After talking with the Laird that morning, James was convinced that Laird McGregor had all but forgotten about his sister. And the rest of the clan was too busy arguing with each other about what to do to start building up their defenses.
