Page 66 of Healing the Highland Sinner
As the waves crashed with a thunderous roar, Ellair threw his head back and screamed until his throat was raw and his voice hoarse. He sank to his knees and bowed his head, feeling like his heart had shattered into ten thousand pieces and there was no way to put it back together again.
CHAPTER 29
“Fer what it’s worth, I believe him,” Ciar said.
“Ye cannae be serious.”
“I can be. And I am.”
As she always did when her heart was troubled, Rosalind had sought out Ciar. Though fierce in battle, he had a calming presence that always soothed her. That always helped to stop the spinning of her mind and heart. He never failed to provide her with sage counsel, which aside from his skill with a blade, was one of the things she valued most about him. He was as wise as he was ferocious. But the fact that he was agreeing with a traitor boggled her mind.
“If Ellair’s mission had been tae hurt ye—or worse—he had plenty of opportunities tae dae so,” Ciar said. “Instead, he’s protected ye. Kept ye safe from more than one blade, eh?”
Rosalind opened her mouth to rebut his words with a cutting, acerbic remark but closed it again without saying anything. She could not refute it. Ellair had taken several wounds, a few of them serious, in her defense. It was a fact that angered her deeply.
“Still daesnae make him deceivin’ me right,” was all she managed to come up with.
“Nay. It daesnae make it right,” he said. “’Tis nae what I’m sayin’.”
“Then what are ye sayin’?”
He sighed and didn’t answer her for a moment. Instead, he turned and watched the men and women bustling on the docks around them. The sun was slipping toward the horizon, casting the sky in fiery shades of red and orange. To the east, the dark veil of the night was beginning to be pulled over the world. It would be full dark soon and Rosalind had a decision to make. It was a decision so heavy, she felt like she was being crushed beneath it.
She studied Ciar’s profile for a long moment. He was quiet, far quieter than usual, for he was a man who never failed to have an opinion on anything. He was rarely at a loss for words and more rarely still, did he hesitate to share those thoughts with her. As she watched him, a realization dawned on her that turned her stomach.
“Ye kent,” Rosalind gasped. “Ye kent he wasnae who he claimed tae be and that he was daein’ the biddin’ of Torrin Gunn.”
Ciar turned back to her and he nodded. “Aye. I kent. I had some suspicions and finally decided tae follow him. I saw him meetin’ with Gunn in a tavern,” he said. “I gave him the option tae tell ye himself or tae let me dae it. I’m glad tae see he opted tae be a man about it.”
“How could ye nae tell me, Ciar!”
“I only found out fer sure the other night. And like I said, I told him tae tell ye himself or I was goin’ tae dae it fer him.”
“But why didnae ye tell me.”
He sighed again. “Lass, I’ve kent ye fer a while now and I’ve never seen ye… well… the way ye are with Ellair.”
“What is that supposed tae mean?”
“It means that fer the first time since I’ve kent ye, I’ve seen ye happy,” he said. “I’ve seen ye smile more in the last few weeks than in all the years I’ve been by yer side.”
She shook her head and turned away, her mind spinning. She couldn’t refute what he was saying, but she wasn’t going to admit it to him either. Truthfully, she had felt happier with Ellair in her life these past few weeks than she could remember being in quite some time. Perhaps ever. Which made the sting of his betrayalcut so much deeper. She felt like she’d taken a punch to the stomach so hard that no matter how much she tried, she could not regain her breath.
“Ye should have told me,” she said.
“If I thought we were in true danger, I would have,” he said. “But Gunn is nae our enemy. And he’s nae the one holdin’ yer braither. That’s Sinclair. And the way I see it, if Gunn can find a way tae weaken Sinclair, it gets us out from under his thumb, which is good fer us.”
Rosalind wanted to respond but couldn’t think of anything to say to that. As usual, Ciar’s logic was sound. Gunn, though no friend of theirs, was not their enemy either. And Sinclair definitely was. It didn’t make the bitter pill of Ellair’s betrayal any easier to swallow, but Ciar wasn’t wrong. If Torrin Gunn was able to weaken, or even better, kill, Sinclair, that would benefit them. At least in the short term. She had no way of knowing what Gunn would do if his power was unchecked by a foil like Sinclair. People like her might be run out of Thurso for good.
But none of that mattered. That was all extraneous and not worth thinking about at the moment. All that mattered was Ellair and his staggering betrayal. She’d trusted him. She’d opened herself fully to him and he’d repaid all of that by driving a dagger into her back.
“Ye love him, Rosalind,” Ciar said. “I see it in yer eyes. I see it in the way ye look at him.”
She gnawed on her bottom lip and turned away, saying nothing. There really was nothing for her to say.
“And he loves ye back,” Ciar said. “I’ve seen it in his eyes the same way I see it in yers.”
“It daesnae matter,” she replied, her tone bitter. “This is one of those times when love isnae enough. He betrayed me, deceived me.”
