Page 107 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
All except one, which was open a crack.
He moved closer to it, and the open window in the room came into view. So did Keira.
And Hudson.
He paused.Hudson?What was he doing here?
Her man-at-arms was standing before her, cornering her between his body and the wall. His stance sent a shudder down Evander’s spine.
Something was happening here. Something evil.
Evander couldn’t hear their conversation he moved closer, making sure his feet were light on the floor.
The murmurs slowly grew louder and transformed into coherent sentences.
“’Tis a good thing that the former Laird was killed. Had ye chosen to marry me by then, this wouldnae have happened,” Hudson said, raising his hand to stroke her cheek.
Keira felt her heart stutter. “Died,” she corrected. “Ye mean died.”
“Nay.” Hudson’s response was quick and absolute. “I meankilled.I did it for ye.”
Keira swallowed, the ringing in her ears growing more deafening by the second. “Hudson? What did ye do?”
“I killed Fletcher. I had him poisoned for ye, Keira.”
Not M’Lady, butKeira.
Something about the way he said her name sent a chill down her spine.
“I could have killed yer second husband, too. But ye chose him over me. Ye chose to savehimoverme.”
Keira swallowed against a dry throat. Her eyes flicked to the open window behind her and then returned to Hudson’s predatory stance. Now was not the time to be confrontational, that much she knew.
“Hudson, look. Ye’re Lesley’s braither,” she started. “And I have always considered ye as me braither as well. I never asked for yer protection, and ye ken it. Nae from Fletcher, and certainly nae from anyone else.”
Hudson took a step closer to her, which made her heart sink to her stomach. “But Fletcher was a terrible man,” he pointed out.
“I ken what he was.”
“He probably would have killed ye like he did his first wife. Do ye nae see? I made his heart fail for ye. After he died, I thought ye would finally see me. I thought we could finally be together. But then—” He broke off. “But thenhearrived and ruined the whole thing.”
Keira turned her head to the open window this time, subtly inching closer to it.
“Ye would choose anyone over me, would ye nae? And me love for ye would go to waste.”
“Hudson, I need ye to think very carefully about what ye’re doing.”
“Oh, that is all I have done over the past four days. I realized it would never be me. Would it? It would be someone else. It wouldalwaysbe someone else.”
Keira swallowed, stark realization crashing hard into her.
“It would be someone else.”
Those were almost the same words he had uttered to her the day he had escorted her to the dungeons. The last words he had said to her when he shut the gates in her face.
“Was that why ye have been trying to get me to run? So ye could come with me?”
“I thought this was our chance to start over,” Hudson explained. “Then he was saved.”
