Page 44 of Reviving Her Highland Spirit

“Then ye have already made ye choice,” Maggie turned to go again, but Callum danced around in front of her, forcing her to face him. He tentatively laid his hands on her upper arms and was relieved to see that she didn’t shrink away.

She wasn’t afraid of him, not really.

“I asked ye if ye would run away with me,” he murmured. “If there was a war. Well, there is going tae be a war.”

“There’s no war yet,” Maggie countered. “This could still be resolved peacefully.”

Callum shook his head. “I don’t believe that. Rufus doesn’t believe that. It doesn’t take two tae make a war - just one tae attack and one tae defend.”

“What are ye saying, Callum?”

“I’m asking ye to run away with me. I’m asking ye tae leave, now. I won’t betray Rufus, but I don’t think I can fight for him again. I’ll go to warn him, and say goodbye. I’ll leave him tae fight his war, and ye can leave your family tae meet him in battle. This doesn’t need tae drag both of us in, Maggie. We can leave now, and leave it all behind us. It won’t be a perfect life - we’ll not live a life of luxury behind the walls of a keep, but at least we’ll be together. That must count for something, mustn’t it? Come with me, Maggie. Please. Leave them all tae it.”

Maggie stared up at him, her mouth a perfect o of shock and confusion, her brows pulled together in a frown. She didn’t reply for a long time, and then her eyes slid off Callum’s face, looking at something over his shoulder, behind him.

Callum turned automatically, and his blood froze.

One of the McAlister girls stood there, Maggie’s cousin. Amilia, if he remembered correctly. She was only ten feet behind him, her face a mask of horror and anger.

There was no need to ask whether she’d heard. She’d clearly heard all of it. Who Callum really was, and what he intended to do.

“Amilia…” Maggie began, starting towards her, but the girl turned on her heel and began to run as if the hounds of hell were after her. Maggie sucked in a breath. “She’s gone to tell Uncle James and Aunt Lyla. Ye need tae go, Callum. Ye need tae go now, or they’ll kill ye.”

“Not without ye, Maggie!”

Maggie spun around to face Callum, her face a mask of anguish. “I can’t go with ye, Callum. I can’t abandon my family like that.”

“They don’t care about ye, Maggie. Rufus said…”

“Everything Rufus said about my family is a lie. Who knows my family better than I do, Callum? We’re not perfect, of course not, but we’re good people. Uncle James has sacrificed so much for his people, to keep them safe and in peace. There’s been no plagues, no famine, no war since he became Laird McAlister. My Aunt Lyla is said tae be the greatest healer in the whole of the highlands, and she heals anyone for free. They’re good people, Callum. I don’t know what Rufus told ye about us…” Maggie stepped closer, her hands skimming up Callum’s upper arms, resting gingerly on his shoulders, “But it’s not true. Do ye really think I’m a monster? Do ye think Bonnie, Aunt Lyla, or Amilia are worthwhile sacrifices tae put Red Rufus on the throne? There’s a reason the people won’t rise up behind him, Callum.”

Callum swallowed hard. “Ye don’t know what ye are talking about.”

She stepped back, putting more and more distance between them. Only a few feet away, but there might as well have been a bottomless ravine between them. Callum couldn’t go to her, and she couldn’t come to him.

“I’m sorry, Callum,” Maggie said softly. “I love ye, I truly do. But if ye make me choose between ye and my family… I…I can’t accept that.”

“If ye loved me, ye would come with me,” Callum said, wondering at the new, painful ache in his chest.

“If ye loved me, ye wouldn’t make me choose,” Maggie answered. “I don’t think I’ll ever recover from ye, Callum. But I will tell ye tae leave, because I think Uncle James and my Da might kill ye, and I couldn’t go on living in a world where that happened. So run, Callum. Run now, and run fast.”

With that, Maggie turned on her heel and ran towards the distant keep, and Callum was alone again.

Or perhaps he’d always been alone and had never quite realized it.

18

Maggie ran as if her life depended on it.

Well, perhaps it did. Perhaps someone else’s life depended on her speed, too. Her feet slapped against the cobbles, the sound echoing around the courtyard. Servants leaped out of her way, or Maggie zigzagged around them. Her breath came hard and her vision was swimming before her eyes, but she kept going. She barged past the soldiers on guard at the entrance to the keep and kept up her speed along the quiet, dark hallways.

She kept imagining she could hear footsteps running after her, or the echo of Callum’s voice calling after her along the hallways.

It was just her imagination, of course. Whenever Maggie risked a glance backward, the hallway was always deserted. If he had any sense, Callum had chosen a horse and was riding away right now.

She’d never see him again.

Maggie made a choked noise, half gasp, half sob, and bit her lip until she tasted metal. She would never see Callum again. He’d told her that he loved her and begged her to come away with him, to leave all of this behind, and she’d said no. Where could they go from there?