Page 50 of Her Highland Prophecy
“I found this in me bed this morn, Tamas,” he growled. “Do ye ken anything about this?”
“Ye’ll have to read it to me. Ye ken that I never learnt.”
Gordain had forgotten that little detail so he recited the two sentences that he had memorized, his voice a low growl. Tamas sat back in thought, the tips of his gnarled fingers touching lightly in a pensive gesture.
“Ye kent that this day would come,” Tamas said after a tense moment. “Someone within the Clan will challenge ye and yer Faither for control of the Clan.”
“Aye, but I didnae think they would try to kill me,” Gordain replied in an acerbic tone. “Have ye heard anything new?”
“I will speak to some people, discreetly, of course. I havenae heard talk of anyone gathering support from the Clansmen. Who was with ye when ye went hunting?”
Gordain shook his head. “Me cousin and a few friends from the Clan. But the arrow that hit me wasnae one of ours. I didnae recognize the fletching, so we thought it was an accident.”
Tamas put one knobby finger on the parchment that still lay on the table.
“Why now? They didnae try something like this when ye were betrothed to one of the Scottish lasses. Maybe someone has a grudge against yer Sassenach.”
Gordain broke out in cold sweat at his words. Could this actually be about Diana? They had, very publicly, announced their betrothal and it must have been known by then that her family was a wealthy one. It wasn’t outside the realm of thought to think that someone from the Clan held a grudge against the English and that they would try to mislead them in this manner.
It was something to consider, and if they went after him with so little compunction then he doubted that they would hesitate to threaten her life as well.
“Find out if anyone in the Clan kens anything about this. I want to ken about anyone who might be a threat. Do ye understand?”
“Aye. I’ll take care of it,” Tamas said.
Gordain strode out of the tiny cottage, his mind in turmoil. He was uncertain of what he should do. Now, more than ever, the betrothal charade had to stand to the Clan’s scrutiny, but he also wanted with every fiber of his being to protect her in any way that he could.
But how?
His brain whirred in a thousand directions as he crept back to his room and he was not liking the conclusions he was coming to as it went against everything he wanted.
They would need to be careful for the next three weeks to ensure that nothing happened to her and then he would take her back to Ballachulish so she could return to her own time. Until then, he would keep her at arm’s length, interacting as little as possible with her and maybe whoever was after them would leave her alone. He would not endanger her life for his own selfish desires.
So why did his decision hurt, even knowing that he was making the best one for both of them?
18
Diana sighed with exasperation as she sat down at the table to eat breakfast. Her eyes looked to the door she had seen Gordain disappear through a moment before, hoping against hope that he would return to speak to her, even knowing that it was futile.
The last few days had all followed a similar pattern. She would enter a room only for him to find an excuse to leave, often even before she was able to speak with him. The night before he had not even come to dinner and, when she went to his room to find him, it was empty.
“Dinnae fash, Diana,” Mabel said from where she was sitting next to her. “I dinnae ken what is wrong with me brother but he will get over it in a few days. He always does.”
Diana smiled back at her weakly.
“Thank you, Mabel. I just wish he would tell me what’s wrong.”
“He will. Me brother may be a clot-heided idiot sometimes, but he willnae spoil what it is between ye.”
“I hope so,” she replied.
Diana picked at the bannock that she was eating, her stomach tied up in knots even as she cursed herself for her reaction. She should not feel this way over a man, especially one that she would never see again in a few weeks. Why should it matter if he was no longer speaking to her?
And yet it did matter to her. After the moment in the corridor and then again in his chambers when she had thought he would kiss her, she had considered for a second that maybe they could make it work. Clearly, it had not meant the same to him as it had for her, but she had not expected him to pull away from her completely in the aftermath.
She felt anchorless, like she was floating in the middle of a deep loch somewhere in the wilds of Scotland with nothing to keep her from drifting away. Things had been much simpler when it was just the two of them in the wilderness. Now that they had returned to the Castle everything was different and it was disconcerting for her to realize how much she had come to rely on having him there to guide her after only a few days.
Determined to ignore everything for the time being, Diana turned to Mabel.
