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“Even if I promised to not tell them everything you told me?”

Douglas shook his head. “It’s nae a part of the plan.”

“Then what are you going to do with me?”

That was another difficult question to answer. Douglas had no idea. He wasn’t supposed to have saved her, but now it had happened. It would have been easier had he just killed her on sight like all the others, but now he had created trouble for himself, although he didn’t want to admit to her exactly what he had done.

“I’ll let ye know in the morning. Safe tae say yer life will nae be the same.”

“Before you came today, there was a part of me that hoped something would come along to change the course of my life. I wasn’t happy at all. But now…now I wish that I was already in Baron Adam’s arms.”

The mention of this other man made a pang of jealousy shoot straight through Douglas’s heart. It came unexpectedly and made him prickle all over.

“Well, ye are in my arms now,” he said, suddenly feeling fiercely protective of her.

“Did my father really try to sell me to you?”

“Aye, lass, he did.”

“I suppose I should hate him for that,” Lyndsay replied.

“I cannae tell ye how ye should feel. What happened tae yer ma?”

“She died a long time ago from an illness. I thought she was getting better, but then it got the better of her, and she…she died. Father said he would always take care of me, but in recent years, the only thing he’s done is try and get me married. I always wanted Ma to be around longer. I miss her terribly, but now I’m glad that she died the way she did, otherwise she would have been a victim of this attack. The way she died was peaceful. None of us are going to have that luxury.”

Guilt flashed in Douglas’s mind, another unexpected sensation that he didn’t like. It occurred to him that he was no better than the Englishmen who had killed his parents. In one short burst of violence, his life had changed, and they were responsible, but now he had done the same for Lyndsay. He attempted to push the feelings aside because they made him uncomfortable. He knew that the easiest thing to do was kill her while she slept so that she never woke up. Then she could have the peaceful death she desired and be reunited with all her loved ones, and he wouldn’t have to explain why he kept a single girl alive when they were supposed to kill everyone.

When the morning came, Douglas was supposed to leave with the others and rendezvous with Laird Wallace, but he couldn’t very well take Lyndsay along with him. He had gotten himself into a tangle, and it had been entirely of his own making. If he struggled with this problem, then how was he going to be a good king?

He waited for her to go to sleep, and then he fell into slumber himself, hoping that the new day would bring clarity along with the dawn.