Page 80 of Highlander’s Burning Touch

Niven watched Rory with surprise.

“I was going to marry someone else in the clan to the lass,” he said.

Now both Niven and Deva looked at each other.

“Who?” asked Niven, as Deva was surely thinking the same. Together, they watched him closely.

Rory’s face contorted in a grin. Neither of them expected this, and Deva looked almost shocked.

“Ye,” said his uncle, an odd smile twisting his lips.

“I was going to ask if ye wanted to marry the lass. I was working my way up to it when it seemed… ye had already thought of it…”

His uncle’s eyes were everywhere – a confusing mixture of wry amusement and undiluted rage. Niven’s mind was overwhelmed.

“What?” he said.

His uncle looked at him sadly. “Why didn’t ye tell me, Niven? Been honest from the start? I thought I could trust ye… it’s nae about what ye did. Och, I can understand that she’s an attractive lassie. It’s about ye nae respecting me and laying it all on the line for a wee fumble…!”

There was a silence as the wind blew around the glen several times. Niven stared wide-eyed at his uncle. But before the wind let him speak, Deva got in.

“Ye think that was it?” she asked. She sounded angry, and when Niven looked at her face, she was glowering with rage.

“That it was nae more than a…” her voice broke off, angry. Now Rory looked questioningly at her.

“Well, I dinnae ken, do I?” he said, pointedly, “No-one bothered to tell me…”

His eyes reached searchingly into his and then hers. Deva was shaking, her emotion palpable. Something in her must have convinced his uncle that she was real.

Now, for the first time, Rory paused, looking at her more gently.

Slowly, he dismounted from his horse and went to fetch her down from hers. Shaking, Deva fell into his arms.

“We are in love, sir,” said Niven. He brought his arm around her tight, feeling her shaking beneath his grip. His heart thundered incredulously.

All of Niven’s emotions were unleashed, and he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Instead, he concentrated on her. She was so distraught, and this whole ordeal was taking its toll.

For one moment, Niven didn’t care what Rory might think. He already knew it all. He held Deva close. She shivered in his arms as the wild wind dredged up every arrow it could to sling at them.

Before him, Rory looked uncertain for the first time.

“L…love?” he said, shaken. His poise had fallen away. Now he gazed at them as if he had never considered such a thing.

“Aye, sir,” said Deva, regaining her voice, “We are serious. We wanted to be together so much, it was tearing us apart. But Niven wanted to do the right thing. He came to end it with me, just before what… ye saw…”

Her voice trembled with emotion. Deva’s clear blue eyes pierced into the heart of Niven’s uncle. Now Rory blinked back at both of them.

“I see,” he said slowly. It looked like he was thinking. Niven felt his own heart rate raise. Softly, he stroked down the back of her shoulders.

“An’ when did it start?” Rory’s question went to Deva, standing wretchedly in front of him.

Niven looked at her; he wanted to protect her from this. “Ye dinnae have to,” he began, then bit his lip.

“Nae,” said Deva, with a shake of her head, “I do. We owe Rory that much. So, well, sir, it started… ah, back a week or so just afore the tournament…”

Rory looked at her as if she was mistaken. “Afore the tournament?” he asked, uncertainly, “Surely ye mean, after the tournament?”

Rory screwed up his eyes in an effort to understand. For a moment, Niven thought of coming over to offer assistance, but something in Rory’s demeanor told him not to.