Page 78 of Keeping Kate
“Kate. I took you out of prison,” he said. “There may be a way to help.” He reached out again.
She stepped back. “Perhaps you should leave tonight if you feel strong enough.”
He sighed. “Listen to me. You need to appear before the Court of Justiciary within a few days, and I am obligated to bring you there. If we do not appear, they will not stop searching for you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What would happen to you if I did not appear?”
“I might be arrested for treason, for aiding a spy. Colonel Grant would see to that. He wants you brought to justice not for spying as much as for humiliating him, I think.”
“I did not think that you might take the consequences,” she said, shaking her head. “Would you be sentenced?"
“Could be, I suppose. But I would find some way out of it.”
“And then?”
“I would come and find you.”
She lifted her chin. “To take me back and make me pay?”
“What do you take me for? To flee into exile, you and I.”
Catching her breath, she set a hand to her chest. “But you have so much here. A military career. The law. A family to consider.”
“You have family to consider too.” He reached for her hand, simply held it. “Kate,” he said, rubbing his thumb over her hand. “Marry me.”
Heart quickening, she felt a whirl of hope and panic, all at once. She wanted this, wanted to be with him, could hardly believe that he had said that, was thinking so. But she thought of the clan legends, of her determination not to marry, to avoid the demand of true love. What if her marriage brought bad fortune to her clan? “I cannot. Must not.”
“Do you need a finer proposal?” He indicated the coverlet. “I am afraid you will have to take me as I am, if you accept. Marry me, lass.” His thumb made warm circles over her hand and in her heart. Her breath came in gulps. She resisted throwing her arms around him, telling him she loved him, that she did not care about legends or arrests or what her family thought of red soldiers or what his family might think of a Highland spy. For too long, she had not done what she wanted, but what her kin needed. Fairy-blessed Kate had more constraints on her than Alec could have realized.
“We hardly know each other,” she blurted.
“With time, we will. I can better protect you if we were wed, Kate.”
She looked away, hand still in his keeping. “My kinsmen would not allow it.”
He tipped his head. “Since when do you go by what others say?”
“What my kinsmen say—I always consider that.”
“I know you do. I know.” He raised her hand to his lips, kissed it. “There are more than enough reasons. We have shared a bed, and what we have done there—behooves me to marry you.”
“Another obligation?” She shook her head. “Look at Jack and Jeanie. And still, she refuses to marry him.”
“Jean is not sure she trusts Jack.”
“Then she and I have that in common. I release you from any responsibility you might feel. There,” she said, squaring her shoulders. Pride was the only defense she had against her stubborn heart, which desperately wanted this. But if she made the wrong choice, her clan would bear the burden.
She loved him, she was sure—but she was not sure he loved her or if he felt guilt more than affection. And she did not know if what she felt was true love. Nor did she know if that even mattered. Her head was in a muddle over what to do.
“Marriage would give me more means of protecting you.” He let her hand go. “But I will not beg at your feet like a pup.”
She frowned, kept her gaze from his.
“But I care about you. Very much.”
Startled, she took in a deep breath. Was that enough to fulfill a legend? She thought not. “I cannot marry you.”
“When you were sitting by my bedside when I was ill,” he said, “weaving your bit of lace—I was fevered, and thought you wove a spell. And I thought you said something to me. What was it?”
