Page 59 of Captured By the Highland Devil
He pulled his hand away but his gaze pierced right through her. Massaging her arm, Paige took in a trembling breath. “I found Norah in the herb garden and joined her because I—” she tookin a long breath. “I wanted to tell her about the man who almost abducted me.”
“Ye didwhat!” Ruben roared.
Fury transformed his face into that of a snarling wolf, his eyes narrowed and spitting fire. The beast she once thought him to be was truly coming out. “Did ye lose yer senses woman? Why would ye do such a thing!”
Paige marshaled her wits. “I thought it would make her ken that she wasnae alone. I understand that nay, I cannae fully ken what she’d felt in those moment when she was taken, but I hoped?—”
“Hoped forwhat?” His blistering gaze roved fiercely over her. “That ye could build some connection with her? Are ye foxed or mad, lass?” he demanded with outrage.
“It’s absurd to even suggest?—”
“On that we agree.” Ruben’s cold words.
Paige wondered whether there would be any possibility of arguing her way out of this. She could not think of any.
“I just wanted her to ken that she was nae alone. That of anyone else, I have seen the eyes of the devil and feared death.” Paige said miserably as she sunk to a chair. She gazed at the floor. “I dinnae think she would react this way.”
“Because ye dinnae think at all,” Ruben snarled the stalked out of the room.
“Wait!” Paige called out loudly, stopping him as his hand rested on the door latch. He did not turn, but he did not move either. “Is there nay any way we can talk this over? Please.”
“…Nay,” he said, pushing the door in and stalked through them.
Night was falling but Ruben was hardly finished. His powerful arms sliced through the water as he swam the breadth of the loch, shore to shore.
Despite the beating thrum of range heating his blood, he forced himself to keep to good form. The tide had come in so the lake was higher than normal but he was not afraid of deep water.
He couldn’t believe that Paige had something so foolish and risky as forcing Norah to face her demons. Holding on to the dark rock on the further side of the loch, Ruben hauled himself up and took a perch on the edge of it.
“I need to take Paige out here one day to teach her to swim.” Or so he’d planned, but at the moment he couldn’t look at Paige without seeing Norah’s haunted face. And he couldn’t look at Norah without seeing Paige’s protective care for her.
The moon was out, casting its light over the and turning the lake into a sheen of faceted silver over the glistening waters of loch. It was a breathtaking sight, but Ruben was blind to it.
He was in turmoil.
Seeing Norah like that had cut him deeply—but it was the first spec of true emotion he had seen from her in years. From the moment he had had found her in the field, tied up and unconscious, Norah had walked around with one expression on her face— haunted emptiness.
“I willnae ken how she is until she wakes.” He sighed to himself. “But what if this makes her retreat more than the abduction had—” his gaze flittered to the horizon. “—is it fair to be angry with Paige at all knowin’ she might have broken through to me sister?”
A cutting wind made the water ripple and Ruben shook his head; he’d been out there for half a day. It was time he returned. Diving back into the water, he swam over to the shore that led to the castle. There, he quickly dried off, dressed and went to the horse waiting on the shore.
Heading to the castle in the dark, he felt the steel of his sword in saddle bag under his thigh. Dark shapes scurried across the road at time, most likely brown rats or shrews, but he made it to his home with no attack.
“Me laird,” Galan said. “Correspondence from the archbishop has arrived. I’ve placed it in yer meetin’ room.”
The bishop had acknowledged the marriage—it was now real.
“So now we tear the beddin’ off the mattress and fly the bloodied sheet out the open window to show yer completion of the marriage vows.” Galan grinned.
A twist of apprehension turned Ruben’s stomach on itself.
“I ken that look,” Galan sighed. “What is the matter now? Do ye nae want to prove to the whole town yer love for yer wife?”
“Love?” Ruben’s head snapped to his second in command. Eyes narrowing, he grated, “Who said anythin’ about love?”
Dropping in step with Ruben as they strode deeper in the castle, with servants bowing and sidestepping them.
“Nay one had to say it,” Galan said as they came to the room. “It’s plain as day. Almost every guard who were with ye when she was almost abducted saw the fear in yer face. It was clear how ye wanted to tear the men limb from limb.”
