Page 40 of Reviving Her Highland Spirit

He shrugged. “It was a long time ago. It taught me a valuable lesson.”

Maggie frowned. “Not tae steal?”

“No, not tae get caught,” he said, grinning wickedly. “Right well, I floated. Now what?”

“Now ye can try a dog paddle.”

“A what?”

“It’s the easiest stroke tae do. It’ll not serve ye well for a long stretch, but tae get ye to the other side of a riverbank, it’ll be just fine,” Maggie explained, launching forward in the water to demonstrate. She pulled herself along strongly, splashing around. She surfaced to find Callum looking strangely at her.

“Come on, ye try. It’s shallow here, ye will be fine.”

He swallowed hard, still looking at her with that odd expression on his face.

“I…”

“What is it, Callum?”

Callum drew in a deep, shuddering breath. “I shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t be here.”

Before Maggie could respond, Callum turned, splashing desperately out of the pool. He stumbled up the rocky bank, feet slipping on the mossy rocks. He headed towards the neat pile of dry clothes he’d left further up.

“Callum? Callum!” Maggie splashed after him, completely at a loss as to know what had gone wrong. Had she said something wrong? Had she done something that made him uncomfortable? “I didn’t mean tae look at ye, Callum. If that’s what ye are upset about. I am sorry. It was wrong, and…”

“It’s not that,” Callum said, obviously agitated. “Ye don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand?” Maggie stepped out of the water, thick rivulets running down her skin. She shivered, the water making her wet clothes feel like ice, and soaking up all of her body heat.

“This is wrong. All of it. I shouldn’t be here,” Callum muttered, snatching up an old blanket that he’d presumably brought to dry themselves on. “Maybe ye should just ride alone, Maggie. Maybe it’s time, don’t ye think?”

A spike of panic went through Maggie. “What? No! Why? I don’t want our rides tae stop.”

“Ye have tae ride alone sooner or later.”

“Aye, but not yet! If I’ve offended ye, Callum…”

“Ye haven’t. I mean it, ye haven’t. But it’s common sense, isn’t it? Ye have tae ride alone sooner or later, so why not just get it over with? Why drag out the inevitable?”

“I don’t want it to stop,” Maggie repeated firmly. Callum wouldn’t turn to look at her, so she marched around to stand in front of him, forcing him to look at her. “Anything could happen. There… there could be a war tomorrow, for all we know.”

Callum went very still. “A war? What?”

Maggie could have bitten off her tongue. She shouldn’t have said that. Why had she said that? The words had slipped out before Maggie even knew what she was saying, and now she couldn’t take them back. Callum had pulled off his wet shirt and was about to put on his dry one. He’d frozen in place, water dripping down his skin, staring at Maggie with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Maggie?” he prompted, voice low and quiet. “What war?”

Maggie closed her eyes. “I wasn’t meant tae say that.”

“Ye have tae tell me now.”

She sighed. There was a large boulder just beyond where Callum had placed his dry things, and Maggie sat down heavily on it. She felt exhausted.

“Did ye ever hear of Red Rufus McAlister?” she said.

Callum’s expression didn’t flicker. “No.”

“Well, he was my father’s half-brother. He was the fourth McAlister boy, born to a different mother. His mother wanted tae put him on the throne, but of course, he’d have to walk over four bodies to get tae the throne. He grew up spoiled and vicious. There’s a tale of him getting a kitchen maid pregnant, and killing her when she threatened tae tell Laird McAlister.”