How to Forgive a Highlander by Michelle McLean

Author:Michelle McLean
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Highland
Published: 2019-06-05T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

They rode up to the gates of Kirkenroch just after sunrise. A sleepy page ran to get his master and within a few minutes, they were met by John and Lady Elizabet.

“William,” John said, clasping him in a quick hug. He took a step back, keeping his hands on William’s shoulders to look him over. John frowned. “If ye’re arriving at the break of dawn, bloodied and weary, I can guess yer news.”

“Aye,” William said. “Ramsay is on the march. And close.”

John nodded and then turned at the sound of more feet clattering down the stairs.

“William?” Philip asked, hurrying toward them with Lady Alice.

She gasped and pulled Rose into a hug while Philip frowned. “What is wrong? What are ye doing here?”

“And why are you with him?” Alice added, looking at Rose.

John’s grave face said more than William needed to. John was the jovial cousin, always quick to jest, always with a smile. With his dour expression, Philip knew instantly what was wrong.

“Ramsay,” he said.

John nodded, and William put down the cup Elizabet had pressed into his hand. “He willna be far behind us. A day at the most. We rode as fast as we could but I wasna able to get away as quickly as I’d hoped. And with the horse carrying the both of us…”

Philip clapped his hand on Will’s shoulder. “Ye did well, lad.”

Will knew the lad was more a term of endearment than statement of his age, but he still cringed. His older cousins would probably always see him as the young lad they needed to protect.

“But how did the two of you come to be together?” Alice asked, frowning at Rose. “I left you on the docks at Dover. You were supposed to have returned to my parents.”

“I’d planned to, my lady. But then—”

“I took her prisoner,” Will said, knowing his tone suggested he’d been suffering for his actions ever since. But…he wasn’t wrong. That didn’t mean he hadn’t enjoyed at least some of that suffering, but he didn’t think it prudent to admit that to anyone.

“You did what?” Alice asked, taking a threatening step closer.

“It was a misunderstanding—” he started before Rose cut in.

“Because you jumped to conclusions and rather than wait two minutes for me to explain, you trussed me up and hauled me off for questioning. Thinking I was a spy for Ramsay!”

“What?” Alice gasped.

William sighed. They’d been getting along so well. That whole kidnapping thing would be biting him in the arse until the day he died. “Oh, for the thousandth time, woman, I’m sorry. Ye have no idea how sorry. It was the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my entire life. And ye’ve been making me pay for it for weeks now.”

“As well you should be! Just because you were off playing spy doesn’t mean the rest of us weren’t simply trying to mind our own business. And then you had to drag me into all of this, when I had strict orders from my lady—”

“Must we go over all this again?” William said, rubbing his face.

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