Page 88 of Captured By the Cruel Highlander
I hope you, Freya, and Mother are doing well.
I am in a better place than I was. I have met a healer with whom I am staying. She is teaching me her craft, and I am safe.
I am not yet ready to return, but I will send word once I am settled.
Please do not try to avenge me and continue to live your lives. I just wish for you all to be happy, and when I return, we can be a family again.
Laura.
Adam lowered the letter, looking up at the darkness of the castle and the deceptive stillness all around him.
“It’s too late now, Laura,” he muttered into the night. “For both the things ye’re askin’.”
His sister spoke of them all beinghappy,but Adam couldn’t imagine ever being happy again. Emily was furious with him, and he had failed to protect her family. He could not protect his sister, or keep her safe, and had been too distracted to focus on his clan as he should.
He read the letter again, more slowly this time, looking for any parts of it that might hint at Laura’s location, but there was nothing.
He was pleased that she was safe, but he wished, above all else, that he could go and find her and bring her back. Freya cared forEmily a great deal. He could not imagine that Laura would be any different.
He folded the letter back up and placed it in his pocket, feeling the weight of the signet ring bump against his fingers.
He could not get Emily’s face out of his mind, the memory of her form crumpled on the floor and broken with grief. Suddenly, he saw a figure moving through the passageways of the castle behind one of the windows, as though materializing from thought alone.
It was undoubtedly a woman, but it could not have been Freya—she was too small. Making up his mind, he rose swiftly, walking into the castle and following the line of the corridor.
Emily was ahead of him; he could see the light of her candle fading as he hurried after her. Upon hearing his approach, she turned, the candle illuminating her lovely face, making shadows dance over it so she looked even more like a pixie.
Adam stopped as they stared at one another.
“I ken ye dinnae want to speak to me, but I simply wish to ken where ye are goin’,” he said softly.
Behind her, the faintest spark of dawn could be seen on the horizon, even as the moon still hung in the sky.
Emily raised her chin with the same look of anger she’d had in the study. “I couldnae sleep, and I heard a crash from downstairs.”
“That was me,” he admitted.
“What did ye do?”
“Nothin’ ye need to ken about. Where are ye goin’? I placed guards outside yer room for a reason. How did ye slip past them?”
“How do ye think?” she asked indignantly.
Adam held back a curse as he realized she had used the rear passages that led from her room.
Her expression hardened. “Freya showed me how to organize the library. I cannae sleep, as me faither’s finger is lying in yer study, so I am goin’ to go and sort some books to quiet me mind.” She turned to fully face him. “Or is that forbidden? Should I remain in me room until ye order me to leave it?”
“There are guards outside yer room for yer protection.”
“Well then, send them down here. I am nae lyin’ in me bed, waitin’ for dawn.”
She spun on her heel and took the last few steps toward the library. As her hand rested on the handle, Adam swayed forward almost against his will, and she glanced back at him.
“I buried it.”
Emily frowned.
“Yer faither’s… I buried it.”
