Page 33 of A Knight To Call My Own
“Nay, you do not, for you were not there, were you? You kissed me after the siege to Berwyck six years ago then left without even a backward glance. I am sure you gave little thought to what such a kiss would mean to me,” she said with a catch in her voice. “With a wave of your hand, I watched you leave Berwyck, never to return again, as you proclaimed, even though I wished differently.”
“You know why I could not stay.”
“Aye, you were in love with Amiria. How could I ever forget for even the briefest of instances that I was a poor substitute for my sister?”
“That is not true, and you know such talk to be a falsehood, Lynet.” Ian watched her in the moonlight. He had the distinct feeling he was losing another battle as he saw her slipping away.
She had a far off look in her eyes as she continued on. “Rolf was the captain of my guard since I was but a girl of ten and four. He was more than just a protector who Dristan assigned to safeguard me night and day. He watched me over the years as I languished away for a man who gave me no further thought ’til he needed a bride. He saw my tears and wiped them away. He saw my broken heart and tried to heal it with laughter. He made me try to forget you, but ’twas not easily done. In his heart, he knew he could never be the replacement of what you meant to me, even though he wished differently.”
Ian leaned a shoulder up against the tree, trying to not let the ugly emotion of jealousy get the better of him. “Yet, still you profess to love him.”
“You mistook my words when I said I loved him, since you did not allow me to finish my thoughts.”
“Then finish them now,” he said abruptly, but fearing what she might confess.
“Aye, I loved and cared for Rolf as my friend, but I was notinlove with him. There is a difference, as you well should know.”
Ian pushed off the tree and crossed the distance between them. He reached out for her, but she swatted his hand.
“I told you not to touch me,” she reiterated.
Renewed anger flared inside Ian. “You are in shock from all you have been through, but you are still my wife,” he declared.
“Mayhap, we made a mistake,” Lynet said solemnly.
“We made no mistake. Youaremy wife,” Ian growled.
“I want to go home.”
“Wearegoing home…to Urquhart. I am needed there, and as my bride, your place now resides in the Highlands, alongside your laird. You spoke our vows just as willingly as did I with no time restraint to our agreement.” Ian heard a low curse pass her lips.
“So, now I have become a prisoner again, only with a different master, is that it?” Her eyes flashed in fury, and Ian had to admit he liked this side of her more than when she had been weeping, even though he understood her grief. Such emotion gave him hope that, perchance, all was not lost between them.
Ian gave a casual shrug. “If that is how you wish to look upon our lives, then so be it. Master or laird, husband or enemy, you will resign yourself that you belong to me.”
He left her there as she blasphemed his name for not taking her back to Berwyck. His previous thoughts of how happy their lives would be flashed afore his memory, even as he realized he had a long road ahead of him in order to win Lynet’s heart. He prayed ’twould be worth the journey.
Chapter Eighteen
Mile upon mile of Scotland’sendless landscape passed afore Lynet’s eyes, like the never ending grains of sand that counted time in an hour glass. She had been bounced and jostled in the saddle for hours ’til she could no longer even remember what day it was. Each step of the horse beneath her took her farther and farther away from Berwyck and her family. ’Twas the only place she had ever called home.
She supposed her marriage would have been inevitable come the end of the games, and as such, she would have, in truth, traveled to wherever her new husband’s place of birth was located. That she moved at such a hasty speed because it may cost the lives of those she journeyed with, complicated that which troubled her most deeply.
She had put the rift in place between her and Ian. She could not blame anyone other than her own self for the silence that cracked like thunder between them. She had been furious with him for not attempting to return for Rolf, and for his claim of ownership over her. But as the day’s swiftly passed by whilst they continued to outrun their pursuers, her voice of reason began to at last take precedence over her accusations of him. He certainly was not a coward and had made the right decisions in order to save her life. She just had a hard time forming the wordsI am sorrywhenever she saw the stubborn expression in his eyes. Apparently, he had no plans to yield first and apologize, any more than she did.
Ian had been polite, if not downright unreachable, ever since. Lynet had tried to keep herself distant from him but that surely was near to impossible, given they were sharing a horse together. Every bump against him was a constant reminder this was her Ian, the man she had been in love with for almost her entire life. Her resolve to stay furious at him may be trying to rule her head, but her heart was a constant betrayal of her own feelings as it flipped end over end with his closeness.
Lynet had never been this far from Berwyck, and she watched as the scenery and terrain changed from rolling open moors to green mountains and valleys. She was taken aback when they at last came upon a large lake. Ian had whispered softly in her ear as they rode ’twas called Loch Ness, not that she had ever heard of such a place. The water stretched out for nigh unto fifty miles, or so he guessed. He appeared to be familiar with the territory, as he showed an unexpected eagerness whilst he began speaking of the place that had once been his home.
The sun had been lowering in the distant horizon as they traversed the shoreline when she finally espied it. Against a backdrop of a resplendent pink and orange sky from the setting sun, there stood a keep, rising majestically from the shore of the lake…Urquhart Castle. She sat up straighter in the saddle, as if this additional bit of height would give her a clearer view of the place she would now call home.
Lynet chanced a glimpse at her husband and noticed how he had been watching her most intently. A smile formed on her lips, and he returned her gesture with one of his own, as he was obviously pleased by her reaction upon seeing the castle for the first time. He halted his horse, and they sat in silence for a few moments, taking in the sight of the estate. She saw the keep was reflected in the water, adding a hint of mystery for what was to follow as her life now moved forward.
She reached up, trying to tame her unruly locks into some semblance of order. “I must look a fright,” she said hastily, feeling vain for the first time in her life. “What will our people think of a mistress who looks as if she has been dragged through the muck of life?”
Ian took his gaze from the castle in the distance to peruse her more intently. Reaching out, he took a lock of her hair and began rubbing the length between his fingers afore tucking it behind her ear. “I am glad to hear you make the reference of sayingour people. ’Tis most pleasing to my ears, Lynet,” he answered.
With a cluck of his tongue, the horse began to clip clop its way over the rocky riverbed. Towering trees lined the lake across from the keep, but those that may have been found surrounding the castle had been cut down to ensure anyone approaching the area would be easily seen.
