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“It’s really not all that bad. It gives your face character,” she said.

“Thank ye,” Douglas said.

There were many qualities that surprised him about her, but the one that had captured his attention most of all was her compassion. Despite everything he had put her through, she was still willing to sit with him and talk with him and comfort him about his insecurities. The fact that he was even willing to share his insecurities with her spoke a lot about the effect she had on him, and he was once again astounded at how comfortable he felt with her.

It was all too easy to forget that she was English and to forget that they were currently sitting in the home that he had ransacked.

“Dae ye want a family?” he asked.

Lyndsay nodded. “I do, and not just because it’s been expected of me. To be honest with you, I have always dreamed of falling in love with a man and having children borne from our love. The whole tradition of arranged marriages never sat well with me, and I was dismayed when my father insisted that I should have to endure such a thing.”

“Did ye ask him tae dae something else?”

“Oh yes. I begged and begged him to reconsider. I hoped that he would offer me some kind of consolation in allowing me to have some choice in the man who would become my husband, but he thought he knew what kind of man was better for my future than I did.”

“At least ye dinnae hae tae gae through with that,” Douglas said.

“No, and all it cost was my family, my friends, and my home,” Lyndsay sighed.

Douglas suddenly felt uncomfortable and shifted his position, clearing his throat.

“All I’ve ever wanted is a home and a family. I don’t care where it is, as long as there’s love all around me. I never thought that was too much to ask, but I’m beginning to think that I set my ambitions too high.”

Douglas wanted to say something that would reassure her. He wanted to give her the same kind of comfort that she had given him, but he was unable to find the right words. He was yet to decide what was going to happen with her. If she were found, then she would be abused and killed, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. If Laird Wallace knew that he had spared her life on top of disobeying his orders to set the estate ablaze, then he would be seen as a traitor, and Laird Wallace would show him no mercy, and the same fate as before would fall upon Lyndsay anyway. He was beginning to see that the only way she could be safe was if he smuggled her away somehow and let her roam free, but that went against everything he believed in. Furthermore, he wasn’t keen on the prospect of parting ways with her.

They had been thrown together in such chaotic, strange circumstances. He was the predator, and she was the prey, and yet she had touched a part of his heart that had been hidden underneath the murkiness of the anger and rage that coated his soul. There was a connection between them, a kinship that went beyond their blood, yet he was afraid of acknowledging this because he didn’t understand how she could feel the same when he had killed her family. She had every right to hate him as much as he hated the English for taking his parents from him, and yet still, her heart swelled with kindness.

She was remarkable for this and for so many other things. Perhaps it was the effect of the whiskey that made his mind swirl with all these sentimental thoughts, but when he thought of a woman worthy of being his wife, he could envision it being Lyndsay. They were dangerous thoughts, though, and he knew he should stop them before they dared take deeper root within his mind and muddled his ambitions to an even greater degree.

“I think it’s time that we got to bed,” he said.

He stripped off his clothes again and slipped underneath the blanket. Lyndsay was still tentative, still timid, but she did not try to resist when he slipped his arms around her. He pulled her close and had to fight with himself to kiss her, but he knew it would be unwelcome. The scent of whiskey was on their breath, and it made the air warm. She closed her eyes and fell asleep swiftly, her body so gentle and frail in his arms. He lay awake, staring into space as he thought about what to do, his heart conflicted in so many ways.

When Douglas awoke, he found himself gazing upon Lyndsay’s beauty once again, and his breath was taken away. His fingers melted against her waist, and there was something about this that seemed so right and natural, something that made him want to experience it forever and ever.

But he knew he couldn’t.

Lyndsay was meant to be loved by an honorable man, by a man she could love back, not one she would look to with fear and trepidation. Not one who would remind her of such a gruesome tragedy as what had happened here. She had been nice to him because she was his captive, and it was necessary in order for her to survive, and Douglas wasn’t going to allow himself to fall victim to something that was never going to happen. However, he also couldn’t bring himself to kill her. It was a lack of ruthlessness that his uncle would probably look upon with disdain if he ever found out, but there were many qualities aleaderneeded, and one of them was mercy.

After all the sorrow he had plagued Lyndsay’s life with, the least he could do was give her the chance to reclaim her independence and find happiness elsewhere, even if it was away from this world of nobility and finery.

He caressed her cheek to wake her. She stirred and opened her eyes. When she did so, her lips twitched into a smile, a reflexive action that was as quick as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings as it took flight, but it had undeniably been there. As their eyes locked, it felt as though the moment was going to last forever. He could easily have gotten lost in those sapphires of hers, but he knew that time was of the essence.

“Good morning, lass. I wanted tae say something tae ye. I wanted tae tell ye that I…I will see ye tae safety. Ye dinnae hae anything tae fear from me.”

With this, he rose and left her in bed before she could say a word. He pulled on his clothes and slipped out of the room, trying to think about how he was going to manage this without anyone noticing. As he shut the door, he turned and noticed Fergus standing on the stairs. For a moment, panic flared in Douglas’s chest as he worried that Fergus had seen Lyndsay, but if he had, then Fergus didn’t make any mention of it.

“I was just coming tae fetch ye,” Fergus said. “There is a messenger from Laird Wallace.”

Douglas followed Fergus down the stairs with a band of tension running around his forehead. He knew that Laird Wallace would not have been pleased with his refusal to burn the estate, but he had hoped for some time before he was to be chastised for it.

The messenger was a fresh-faced youth who was slaking his thirst on wine. His cheeks were as red as the wine he was drinking, and his chest heaved.

“What is this about?” Douglas asked brashly.

“Laird Wallace haes sent word for all of ye tae return tae the Highlands. The response from the English haes been quicker than he anticipated. They hae already formed an army and hae been ordered tae kill any Scot they find on English lands. Gather what goods ye can and come home. We will be safe and protected in the Highlands,” he said.

Douglas was concerned because the more they rushed, the less time he had to save Lyndsay, but if the English were coming in force, well, he had no choice but to obey. He glanced at Fergus, who had an inscrutable expression. How Douglas wished for a man he could trust as much as Laird Wallace trusted him. He barked out orders and told the men to prepare to leave, while in the back of his mind, he was still trying to figure out how he was going to save Lyndsay.