Page 17 of Bewitching her Highland Savior

“How would I ken?” Muriel asked. “He only sent me a letter every few months, nothin’ more. I ken nothin’ about his business.”

Naturally, her father had kept her away from it all as she was growing up and now that she was older, nothing had changed. If anything, she would hear from him even less now that she would be a married woman.

She would be someone else’s problem.

“Once we are in Lewis, ye must contact him,” Liam said. “Ye should find out if he kens anythin’ about this.”

At the mention of reaching Lewis, Muriel couldn’t help but sigh — a heavy, morose sound. She hadn’t thought about Lewis in a while – her mind occupied with the horrors of the night before but now that the first shock had passed – her despair at the prospect of reaching Lewis had returned.

“Do ye ken anythin’ about me husband?” she asked. “Have ye heard any rumours about him?”

Liam gave her a small shrug. “Nae,” he said. “All I ken is that he’s a laird. I’ve never met him, so I donnae even ken what he looks like.”

Muriel hadn’t even considered the man’s looks but that was the least of her concerns. What she feared the most was that he would be unpleasant or even downright cruel to her.

And what if he’s an old man?

She wouldn’t put it past her father to force her to marry someone decades older than her. As long as he was rich and powerful – that was all that mattered to him.

Muriel didn’t speak much after that – she was too lost in her thoughts about Owen Macleod. She imagined him as an old man, as a young man, as a kind man, as every man she could possibly think of but even in the best of ways she could dare imagine him – it merely didn’t seem good enough. She wasn’t ready to get married. She wasn’t ready to give up everything else for a man she had never met.

By the time the sun started to set, they had covered a lot of distance but they were in the middle of nowhere, and with the next village too far away to continue their journey. Liam stopped the wagon when they found an abandoned croft with a small house that was still standing – for the most part. It wasn’t the best place for them to sleep but it would have to do since there were no inns around.

It was warmer inside the house – the walls protecting them from the wind. Liam gathered some wood and started a fire just as darkness enveloped them and Muriel was glad to have some extra warmth as she moved closer to the flames.

“I wonder who used to live here,” she said; mostly to herself. “I wonder why they left.”

“They probably went to a town.” Liam shrugged; coming to sit next to her by the fire. “It’s easier to live there noo. Havin’ cattle all by yerself is too much work.”

“Ye’ve worked with cattle?” Muriel asked.

“Me? Nae,” Liam said with a soft laugh. “With horses, a little. But nae, I was always meant to be a soldier.”

“A soldier, hm? Nae a warrior?”

“Do warriors have to take orders?” he asked.

Muriel watched him; the way the question seemed to weigh on him. “Ye dinnae like takin’ orders?”

“Does anyone?” Liam asked.

“Och, I dinnae ken. I think some people might. Some of me faither’s men wouldnae ken what to do without someone givin’ them orders.”

If anything, Muriel assumed that most people wanted to be told what to do – to take the pressure off having to choose for themselves. But Liam seemed to be different; crumbling under someone else’s control.

“Then I suppose it doesna make ye happy to be takin’ orders from me faither,” she added.

“Weel, these orders are simple enough,” he said. “Keep ye alive, take ye to Lewis. But if ye’re askin’ if bein’ a mercenary is somethin’ I enjoy doin’ – then nae, it’s nae. I like the travellin’, though. The job takes me all over.”

“I always wanted to travel,” Muriel said. “I wanted to see the whole world but I also kent that I couldnae.”

Liam didn’t ask her why. He seemed to understand her position; a woman, especially the daughter of a laird, had no business travelling around the world on her own. It didn’t matter how much she wanted it. She would never be allowed to. She was lucky as it were – having the chance to live in Edinburg for a while and see a part of the world, no matter how small.

Liam’s only response was to give her food, as he always seemed to do whenever her spirits were low. It made her smile a little, because she wondered who had taught him to do that, if his mother had given him a treat every time he was sad and it had stuck with him into adulthood.

She took the pieces of bread and cured meat and nibbled on them; once again having little appetite and by the time she was done, she was more than ready for the day to end. She looked around the house, wondering where the best place to sleep would be but she was reluctant to leave the fire.

“I dinnae suppose there’s a separate bedroom here,” she said. Even if there was, she doubted it had a bed.

“Why would ye want to sleep away from the fire?” Liam asked. “Besides, I’m nae leavin’ ye out of me sight tonight. I dinnae want to risk somethin’ happenin’ to ye.”

Muriel could hardly argue with that. She would feel safer with Liam next to her, too. On the other hand, sleeping next to him made her feel uneasy. It wasn't much different from their first night together but something seemed different – as if they had crossed some sort of line. They'd both opened up to one another. He wasn't a complete stranger anymore, so sleeping next to him seemed more intimate.

Still, she didn’t refuse. It was the only way she would manage to get some sleep without worrying that someone would come to kill her while she lay asleep and defenceless.

Muriel lied down and so did Liam; facing her. For a moment, she closed her eyes but then she opened them again, just a little, to see if he was looking at her.

He wasn’t. His own eyes were closed but a strange heat still coiled in Muriel’s stomach, one that she didn’t welcome. She despised the way Liam made her feel at times, embarrassed and shy like a little girl, and she turned away from him to avoid thinking about it.

Only it didn’t help. All it did was make her even more curious to know if Liam had cast any glances her way, if he even gave her a second thought. It kept her up for a long while until her exhaustion prevailed, and sleep claimed her.