“Leith, Mum will see me, and if she does?—”
I shake my head. “Come to my place. I’ll ring Islan and we’ll get you fixed up, alright?”
She nods, and as we park the car, she smiles at Cairstina. “You should stick around,” she says. “I think he’s a lot softer when you’re here.”
Cairstina shoots me a furtive look, then quickly averts her eyes. She isn’t here to stay, and we both know it.
And could a woman ever be with a man like me? Even if she wasn’t here temporarily, I’m the head of the Cowen Clan, and I can’t offer her what a woman like her needs.
Islan joins us in the house, and I call Mum to tell her we’ve got Paisley, and she’s fine. She’s at my place because she wanted tospend some time with Cairstina. It seemed to work, though I’m not sure Mum buys it.
Still, she doesn’t ask questions.
The girls clean Paisley up and help her get dressed. Islan has some staff members bring us dinner, and we eat at the small table in my kitchen. Cairstina, as usual, eats a huge bowl of stew and several large, hearty rolls topped with butter. Paisley seems better, as she joins us for dinner and tells us more about what happened.
Islan’s furious. “Why didn’t you kill him, Leith? Why?”
I blow out a breath. “Our way isn’t to murder for retribution, Islan. A man like him deserves a far worse punishment than that.”
Cairstina’s eyes widen, but she only dollops more stew in her bowl.
“Agreed,” Islan says. “But then eventually you must make sure he pays the ultimate price.”
I look sharply to Cairstina, who’s intently focused on eating her roll.
The girls finally go back to the house. I’ll have a chat with Mum later, but Dad doesn’t need to know what happened tonight. I don’t like making the decision for him, but I don’t trust him with his heart condition. There was a reason he stepped down as the Captain of our Clan. Paisley’s safe now, and we’ll see to it that ex of hers gives her no more trouble.
The girls go back at night, Islan planning on telling Mum Paisley’s tired and needs some rest. We’ll deal with this all another day.
When the girls have gone, I build a fire in the fireplace and beckon Cairstina over to me. She looks at me shyly. She’s discarded the wig and changed into a pair of lounge pants and a soft sweatshirt, wearing fluffy socks instead of those heels she shed in the field earlier.
“Come here.”
She comes to me and sits beside me, and gives a sharp intake of breath when I tug her onto my lap.
“Thank you for today,” I tell her, grateful for her help.
She nods, and pulls out her mobile.
I’m glad we found her. The poor girl was traumatized.
I nod. “Aye, she was, and I’m so grateful, I can’t even tell you.”
She smiles.I know.
I laugh. “When you took off like that, I had no idea where you were going or why.”
Well, I was afraid we didn’t have much time, that if I’d taken the time to text you, we’d miss our chance to find her or something. And it seemed more important to find her than tell you why I was running. It was probably silly, though, I mean we could’ve driven. You trusted me, though.
“Aye, lass, of course I did.”
She cradles my face between her hands, holding my gaze for long seconds before she kisses me. I sigh. This feels like a reunion, like a part of who I am reignites when we’re together.
“You’re such a brave lass. Such a brave, brave lass. You know that?”
She nods and texts again.Thank you. But it isn’t true. I was so afraid when we went into town today, I could hardly breathe the right way. I almost lost my mind when I heard my brother’s shouting.
“He won’t hurt you again.”
