Page 60 of Highlander’s Forbidden Fruit

After what felt like a long time, Evanna patted her father’s hand and kissed his forehead. Tears were bathing her face, and she looked stricken. Aleck stepped forward to help her, but John held her steady. She stared at John like she was seeing him for the first time. Aleck had a bad feeling about the whole situation. It was a throbbing pain in his gut.

John walked Evanna away from the Laird’s bed. Evanna avoided Aleck’s eye. They went out of the room and after a moment’s hesitation Aleck followed.

“Yer Laird has regained consciousness,” Evanna explained to the gathered nobles and sworn men at arms. “He is still weak, but he begs ye nae to worry too much about him. He will be back on his feet before Christmas day.”

The men murmured amen.

Evanna paused as if she was deeply reluctant to say what she had to next. She glanced at John who nodded, his smile tight. Then Evanna did something that was akin to a thousand knives stabbing Aleck in the heart. Their eyes met, and the longing in her eyes, the bitter sadness in them, spoke everything there was to say between them.

Aleck was grateful for that look because it prepared him for what was coming next.

“Earlier this afternoon, Mr. Winchester asked for the Laird’s blessing and my hand in marriage. The Laird is happy to announce that he has given his wholehearted approval to the match. He wishes ye to congratulate his daughter and her betrothed and to make preparations for the wedding.”

The murmur now was of shock and a little disgruntlement. A lot of the nobles were not for a union with an Englishman. If the Laird were to pass on, they would have an Englishman ruling over Glenlivet, and that was unsavory to them.

“That is all.” Evanna concluded. “The Laird is resting, and if ye’ll excuse me, I need to change.”

Picking up her wet, mud-caked skirts, she walked down the hall and towards her room. John accepted the congratulations of the nobles with the sense to show they were happy with the union, even if they did not approve of an Englishman leading them.

Aleck was suddenly tired. He had known their sojourn in the cottage had been too good to be true. Nothing beautiful ever lasted in Aleck’s life. He was destined to love Evanna from afar. But now that he knew she loved him too, it would be much harder.

When his love had been unrequited, he had consoled himself that his love was impossible. Now he knew it was not only possible, it was a fact. Evanna loved him. She loves me, she loves me, she loves me. But her station and her circumstances did not allow for her to marry for love.

Was he bitter? Yes.

Did he blame Evanna? No. The lass had little choice. Aleck had had little choice when his dying father had taken the oath of loyalty and fealty to Laird Julius MacLeod from him when he was just a child. He knew Evanna was facing much the same. Duty came before all else when you were the Laird’s daughter, or a noble’s son. Duty was the honor code they lived their lives by.

Once in his chambers Aleck removed his dirty clothes and cleaned himself up with cold water from the basin, his thoughts churning like a sea storm in his head. He knew he couldn’t stay here anymore. It was one thing to have Evanna so close and not to be able to love her like he wanted to. It was another to see her wed to another man.

Sitting on his bed he made a decision. He would leave and offer his services to the East India Company. That would get him as far away from Glenlivet as it was possible to get. He would ask the Laird’s permission to leave his post first thing in the morning.

Lying down he steeled himself for the nightmare that had haunted him since childhood—only this time it would be much, much worse.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tears dripped gently into the bath. Evanna sat in the hot water hugging her knees. She had been so close to her heart’s desire, she had tasted it, had been embraced by it, only to have it snatched away from her. There was no need for life to be this cruel. It felt like a personal blow, a mean trick God had played on her, and she couldn’t bear it.

When David had told her that her father had fainted, Evanna had nearly collapsed herself. For a frightening moment she had thought she would walk into a castle in mourning, never having had a chance to say goodbye to her father. But he had been alive; weak, and frail, but alive.

John had stood by her. He had been a pillar of strength, even though what she had needed was Aleck by her side.

“I have given my blessing, Evanna. He will keep you safe.”

It had not gone unnoticed by Evanna that he did not say John would make her happy. Did her father know on some level that she was not in love with John? Or was it his notion that an Englishman could not provide her happiness?

Whatever the reason, she was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Her father had given his blessing to John who had proposed marriage. Laird MacLeod was anxious to see them married before the year was out.

But where did that leave her newfound love? Where did it leave her aching heart?

She could have lived a life of domestic contentment with John knowing that Aleck did not love her. It was impossible to do so now, because at every turn in her marriage, she would wonder what it would have been like with Aleck who loved her.

There was nothing she could do about it. The announcement had been made. She had made her bed the day she ran away from home; now she must lay in it.

Accepting the inevitable had never been her strong suite. Her first instinct in these situations was to run away rather than face her problems. She had run away from Glenlivet, she had run away from Aleck into a maze, she had run away from John when things got too serious on the Continent and she did not know how to handle his romantic gestures and advances. All the loving words and actions she had hoped for from Aleck were now uncomfortable coming from John.

Now she had nowhere to run but to face her demons head on. And she would. She was Laird Julius MacLeod’s daughter after all.

But tonight—tonight, she would mourn the loss of a love she had only had for one day.