Page 48 of Saved By the Cruel Highlander
Elias laid out the blanket and placed two plates before balancing two clay mugs. He brought out oatcakes, cheeses, cured and roast meats, fruits, nuts, honey, jam, butter (lots of butter), and pastries. There was a small flagon of ale and a sheepskin of water. The water from the loch was far better than any water in the sheepskin.
“Looks braw,” Holly said as she returned. “I’m nae hungry yet, but I’m sure I’ll be famished soon enough.”
“Come and sit for a while,” Elias said. “I like to look out at the loch on days like this.”
“Ye come here a lot, do ye nae?” Holly asked as she sat beside him. She laid her head on his shoulder.
“Aye, I do,” he replied.
Her head on his shoulder was a simple act, yet it filled him with warmth, more than he’d ever gotten from his horse.
They sat in silence for a while, gazing at the clear water. Elias knew that large trout inhabited the loch. Deer and hares roamed the mountainside behind them, and the sweetest birdsong always came from the trees near the loch.
“This is really nice,” Holly said after a while. “I’m glad ye brought me here.”
“Aye, I am, too. I thought we should get to ken each other more afore we are wed—and to tell ye the truth, I like spendin’ time with ye.”
“I like spendin’ time with ye, too.”
“We still need to decide what to do with the lad,” Elias reminded her.
“Aye, I ken.”
Holly didn’t say any more than that, but he could see she had taken a shine to the boy. When they were married, he would give her children of her own to care for, and she would love them so much. She treated Cole so well that there was no doubt in his mind that she would treat their children better than anyone else ever could.
As he thought about it, a shiver ran through him. His family was gone. His brother had snapped one day and gone insane, and because of what? He would never know.
Can I do it? Can I start a family? After everythin’ I’ve gone through, can I take that risk?
Elias felt the past churning inside him. His future sat beside him. They were in battle in the present, and he didn’t know which way the battle would go. He only knew that he couldn’t go through pain like that again, nor subject anyone else to it.
“Are ye all right?” Holly asked. “I can feel the tension in yer body.”
“Me maither and faither used to take us here.”
The words surprised Elias. He had not meant to say them out loud and had only been thinking them until she spoke. Now that they were out, there was no taking them back.
“When we were bairns, and still when we were bairns nay longer. That’s why I come here—to remember them.”
Holly took his hand. “It’s good to remember the past.”
“Nay, I dinnae want to remember it,” Elias growled. “I dinnae want the pain.”
Holly squeezed his hand.
“He killed them,” Elias said.
As soon as the words were out, he wanted to take them back. He didn’t want to talk to anyone about it.
“Who?” Holly asked.
It felt like witchcraft. She spoke softly and held him tenderly, and her words teased out his as if he were under a spell.
“Me braither,” Elias admitted. “He killed them both.”
Holly still held his hand but didn’t reply.
He knew his body was tense, and he could feel the tension in hers. He looked out over the loch—the water was pulled as taut as his skin.
