Page 63 of Taken By the Heartless Highlander
“It is nae important, either way because they will all be leavin’ Scotland soon?—"
But as he said the words, he stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing the implications of his own marriage proposal.
There was no longer any truth or certainty in that statement. Keira might not be leaving after all, not if she accepted him.
Why did I nae realize that would be the case? And why do I feel so happy at the prospect?
He stood up abruptly, beginning to pace before his sister in agitation, unsure how to feel as he processed this new future he might have created for himself.
“Noah?” Amelia asked gently, her face a picture of calm. “What is going on? This isnae like ye.”
Noah snarled in frustration as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“She has brought nothin’ but trouble to me door. She willnae take orders, despite orderin’ me about on a whim. She’s too clever for her own good and insists on leavin’ when she doesnae have a penny to her name, or any place safe to go. It was hardly me fault I couldnae?—”
He stopped, swallowing back the words that he had almost let slip, but Amelia folded her arms above the swell of her belly and gave him a hard stare.
“Couldnae what? As if I dinnae ken.” He spun around, frowning at her in consternation. “I didseethe lass, after all. She is uncommonly beautiful. And here I was believin’ me braither had nay use for women.”
“I dinnae!”
“But…?”
Noah growled in frustration. “She has some kind of a hold on me…I dinnae ken!” he sighed as he rubbed a a hand over his forehead. “Her braither saw us together.”
“Och, Noah.”
“I ken, I ken.” He sat back down beside her with a heavy sigh. “I’ll have to marry her. I’ve betrayed her honor. At least it’ll keep her safe. She can be protected in me castle, and I can continue on as before.”
The silence beside him was ominous, and it took him a long time before he could look at his sister. Amelia’s gaze was contemplative.
“Ye deserve to be happy, brother,” she said softly, “is that what she will bring for ye?”
“How should I ken,” he muttered. “She is a nuisance.”
Amelia’s eyes turned warm. “Yet ye saved her life and took her from her village, ye’ve protected her and her siblings from harm, and now, to protect herhonor, ye have proposed to her?”
“And?”
“I am just sayin’—for a woman who is a nuisance; ye are goin’ out of yer way to keep her in yer life. Ye deserve love, Noah. More than anyone I ken, but ye are nae always the wisest at seeing its path.”
“This isnae love, Amelia. I am doin’ it to help her. She’ll be me wife in name only.”
“And her brother caught ye together doin’ what exactly?”
Noah glanced at her impatiently, and she smiled.
“Ye could be happy if ye allow yerself to be,” she whispered, startling him as she placed a gentle kiss on his cheek before rising and starting back toward the castle.
“What if ye’re wrong?” he asked desperately, feeling a knot tighten in his chest as he thought of the terrible end to his mother’s life.. “What if I am just as me faither was. Possessive, crazed with jealousy. I have feelin’s for her sometimes I dinnae ken what to do with. What if the madness in him runs in me veins, too?”
Amelia turned, a hand resting on her belly. She gave him a long stare that reached into something deep inside him that only she could see.
“Ye are talkin’ of someone who isnae me brother,” she said simply. “Yer faither would have left her on that pyre to burn, make nomistake. Ye prove ye are better than him every day. Go to yer healer , Noah; it’s clear to me that’s where yer thoughts are anyhow.”
CHAPTER25
“Why are ye lookin’at me like that?” Noah asked Callum, as he dismounted upon his arrival at MacAllen Castle. It was late morning and the sun was streaming over the cobbles, reflected in the puddles left by the rain the previous night.
