Page 113 of Bride of Ice
“If ye’ll fetch Rauve,” Colban said hoarsely, “he can convey me to my new quarters.”
He stepped aside so she could pass without touching him.
Her heart was breaking as, with a stiff nod, she sidled past him. She didn’t trust herself to look at him. Or speak. Her eyes filled with unbearable loss. Words failed her. And then it was too late for farewells. The door closed behind her with a dull thud, like a coffin lid.
She moved soundlessly along the corridor. But in the privacy of the stairwell, she sagged against the cold stone wall. She couldn’t face the clan like this. Not now. Not when her soul was laid bare and her nerves were raw.
She needed to be strong. For her clan. For her parents. For her siblings.
Her siblings.
Her throat closed as she thought about Isabel and her matchmaking ways. How happy her little sister had been to learn that her predictions had come true. That Colban had turned out to be The One. That Hallie and Colban were going to be married. This would crush her.
She thought about Ian, who had taken such delight in teaching Colban to read and impressing him with his inventions. The lad would be crestfallen when the Highlander left.
She was certain Brand would be disappointed as well. Fascinated by Colban’s techniques with the claymore, he’d been so eager to learn from the clever warrior.
Even Gellir had lost his sullen distaste for the hostage. Though he’d never admit it, he now looked up to the Highlander, regarding him with respect and admiration.
Hallie realized she was not the only one losing Colban an Curaidh.
There was nothing she could do to change that. But perhaps she could help to soften the blow.
It took several moments to don the emotional armor she required. She had to push the dreams of the last few days to the back of her mind. Put them under lock and key. She had to forget about any personal connection to Colban. As far as her parents were concerned, he was a hostage, no more.
But despite that status, she had no intention of tossing him into the dovecot or the stables. She had another idea.
The instant Hallie walked out the door, Colban’s chest caved into the hollow abyss where his heart had been.
His legs buckled beneath him, and he slumped onto the bed. His eyes burned with the injustice of a cruel fate that would tempt him with Paradise one day, only to cast him into Purgatory the next.
When Rauve finally came for him, he had no strength left for even a vague greeting. Without a word and with no prodding, he followed the burly guard along the corridor.
They’d gone but a little way when Rauve stopped in front of a door and rubbed an anxious hand across his black beard.
“Listen to me, Highlander,” the man growled. “’Tis Hallie’s mercy that you’re staying here tonight. She refused to let you sleep in the stables, considering how you saved her and all. But I don’t want you thinking you can try anything. I’ll be making my bed outside this door, and if you so much as lift a finger to hurt anyone, I’ll chop that finger off.”
Colban didn’t understand completely until Rauve swung the door open onto the bedchamber of the Rivenloch lads.
“Colban!” Ian cheered, rushing forward. “Did you hear? Our parents are home!”
Gellir rose from where he’d been poking at the fire and gave Colban a brooding glare. “I don’t think he’s exactly happy about that, Ian.”
“Why not?” Brand asked from where he was standing on the bed. “Once Ma hears how you took on the whole Rivenloch army just to save Hallie…” He leaped from the bed to the floor and mimed slashing with a sword.
Though Colban’s heart was breaking, he gave them a bleak smile.
They didn’t know. They didn’t realize how close he’d come to being their big brother. And how, after today, he may never see them again.
Perhaps it was best this way.
What good were hopes when they could be so easily dashed?
Yet he recognized that Hallie had placed him here in her brothers’ bedchamber as a kindness. She was showing that she both cared for and trusted him.
He had turned down her final kiss. She had to understand why that had to be. Why it was folly to spend another single moment together.
Instead, she was giving him the next most precious thing she had to offer. What she knew he would treasure the most. One final pleasant memory of Rivenloch.
