Page 33 of Saved By the Cruel Highlander
Holly thought about searching for fresh clothes to change into, but the cabin was too intriguing. She exited into the central courtyard, observing more business around her. Most people walked straight past, not knowing who she was. That suited her just fine. She liked that the Laird had requested the marriage ceremony be perfect, but she didn’t want any attention.
She slowly strolled through the courtyard, wanting to find the path the maid had spoken of but also interested in what people carried. Mostly, it was furniture, flags, and banners in the clan colors—blue, green, and yellow.
She finally disengaged herself from the castle’s bustle and slipped out of the west exit. It was exactly as Eliza had said. Deer had trampled a small path. She followed it through the trees, the light filtered by the thin branches and heart-shaped leaves above. She didn’t have a shawl to put on, but she didn’t need one, with the sun beating down on her.
There was a small scurry to her right, and she looked in time to see a white hare bound through the undergrowth. Silver birchtrees surrounded her, and taller oaks grew by the castle walls, but she had passed them long ago.
“Ye were right, Eliza.”
She stood at the fork in the road, two paths extending from the one she stood on. To her right, Rhododendron bushes were in full bloom. She smiled, knowing that she had followed the instructions to the tee, but as she stepped toward the bushes to pass between them, her happiness melted like ice in a summer stream.
She had been so caught up in getting to the cabin where the Laird was that she hadn’t stopped to think about what it meant. Eliza hadn’t wanted to tell her about the cabin, so it could only be bad.
Is that where he takes his mistresses? If so, I willnae let that upset me.
Yet, as much as she tried to tell herself that it did not upset her, it did. He was the Laird of the castle and clan, and he could do as he pleased, even after they were wed. Holly was under no illusion why they were marrying, and it was certainly not love. Yet, as much as she wanted to accept the situation that currently resided in her head, it gnawed at her like a dog with a bone.
It wasn’t that he had a mistress or that he might lie with her—it was that he might kiss a mistress the way he had kissed Holly the previous night. The kiss was a secret she wanted to keep all to herself. The Laird had made her feel something she didn’t knowshe could feel, and she greedily wanted it all to herself. For him to share that with someone else would dilute the feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Och, blast it all! Why am I so caught up in where he is? What business is it of mine?
Holly marched through the bushes like a soldier marching into war, her heart providing the drum beat. She couldn’t stop him, but she wanted to let him know that she knew his secrets. She would hold her head high and tell him that she oddly tolerated it, but she wouldn’t have him go behind her back. She would?—
Holly stopped dead when she came upon a sight she hadn’t expected.
“The cabin?” she whispered.
The cabin was not before her, only part of it was. The cabin would have stood there, but it had been razed to the ground, leaving a blackened rectangle on the forest floor. Wooden foundations rose from the ashes, but they were almost ashes themselves. The wood was blacker than the night, some walls standing taller than her but ravaged and cut through like a small child hungrily eating a slice of bread.
“What is this?” she muttered.
She couldn’t understand the situation. What had happened to the cabin?
She stepped forward.
Did he ken I was comin’? Did he burn it down so I wouldnae ken his secrets?
Holly reached out and touched the burnt wood, expecting it to still be warm. It wasn’t. In fact, it felt cold to the touch. However, the cold didn’t come from the temperature of the wood, but from what it had once held. She shivered, feeling something long dead in the area.
A crack of wood sounded behind her as someone stepped on a dead branch.
What am I doin’ out here by meself!
CHAPTER TWELVE
Holly gasped when she saw the man before her. That gasp turned into a long breath when she saw it was Elias. For the second time in less than a day, she had thought an attacker had come for her, but it was her betrothed.
She was glad to see him, and for a moment, with him standing tall, surrounded by greenery, she couldn’t help but smile. She couldn’t help but think that they were alone and might kiss again.
Holly quickly shook the thought out of her head.
“What are ye doin’ out here?” Elias demanded.
The rage he had left in the previous night had only strengthened. She cowered a little under his question, not liking the way he glared at her.
She could not tell him the truth. She had promised Eliza she would not reveal that it was her who had given the information. She looked behind at the burnt cabin and then back at the Laird.
“I was out for a walk to clear me head,” she replied. “I needed some peace because there is so much goin’ on in the castle. Thank ye for organizin’ much of our weddin’.”
