Page 91 of Sutherland's Secret
She turned until she was facing him. “I believe about half of that.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You don’t believe I’m concerned for your welfare?”
“That’s the half I believe. You have to know that I will be well protected with Sutherland and Campbell at my back and you at my side. Blackwood may be able to discount the Scottish chiefs, but he can’t ignore a powerful man such as yourself.”
He grinned. “Now you’re appealing to my vanity.”
“I’m speaking the truth.”
His grin faded and he looked down at the sea rushing past them. “I don’t like your relationship with Sutherland. It’s unseemly and…”
“Beneath me?”
He glanced up at her but looked away quickly.
“I’m ashamed of you, Thomas.”
Color tinged his cheeks, and it wasn’t from the northerly wind. She would like to think it was from chagrin.
“Our parents brought us up better than that. Were we not taught to accept all people?”
“And what do you think Father would have done if he knew that you and the Sutherland…that you two…” He looked away again.
Eleanor pressed her lips together because she knew Thomas was correct. Their parents might have preached acceptance, but they did not live what they preached when it came to their children. ’Twas the reason her suitors had been well vetted.
“I love him,” she said.
Thomas flinched.
“I love him because he’s an honorable man. He’s kind and honest and…” What else could she say? That he was saving half of Scotland one man at a time? She couldn’t reveal that. “He’s far more honorable than most of the men in London.”
Thomas sighed. “We have to return to London, Eleanor.”
“I know. But that’s my burden to bear. Not yours. These were my decisions. Not yours.”
He looked at her squarely. “And the consequences, if there are any? Will they be your burden to bear as well?”
She lifted her chin. “If so, then I will gladly bear it.”
“You’ll be ostracized. Talked about. Doors will be closed to you. Invitations will stop arriving. People you thought were friends will no longer be friends.”
“Then they weren’t true friends to begin with. I’ve lived and died a thousand lives here in the Highlands. Some of it was horrific, but most of it was beautiful. My life before all of this, it’s not who I am anymore. Balls, teas, musicales mean nothing to me. I like who I’ve become. Oh, Thomas if only you knew the things I saw, the things I’ve been able to do…” She swallowed the rest of what she was about to say, because she couldn’t tell him of assisting at the birth of a baby or her crucial role in helping people start a new life in a new land.
Thomas pushed away from the railing and looked down at her. He seemed more at peace than he had since Brice pulled him off the horse and away from Blackwood.
“If you’re happy, then I’m happy, and I will stand by you whatever happens.”
She smiled up at him and gave him a hard, quick hug. “Thank you, Thomas.”
He patted her back awkwardly and pulled away, never one for overt affection. “I can’t say the same for Mother and Father, though.”
“I know.”
Thomas ambled away and Brice was suddenly at her side. He looked just as comfortable on the sea as he did on Galad. The weak sunlight glinted off the gold in his hair and the red in his short beard.
“That looked serious,” he said.
“Thomas doesn’t approve of us,” she said.
