Page 69 of Abducted By the Highlander
Freyja’s hand dropped to her lap, and she gazed at Roisin as though she had never seen her before. “Ye’ve changed.” There was a note of awe in her voice. “’Tis not a criticism,” she added hastily. “Truly, Isolde and I were terrified that ye wouldn’t survive such a dreadful ordeal, but it seems ye didn’t merely survive. Ye thrived.”
“Ye are giving me far too much credit. ’Twas Hugh Campbell who rescued me from the brigands, remember, and he took his oath to protect me most seriously, I can assure ye.”
“I’m relieved to hear it.” Freyja’s gaze turned curious, and Roisin silently sighed. Why had she brought Hugh’s name into the conversation? Yet she’d had no choice because without Hugh the brigands would have taken her to Fergus, and she didn’t want to think about her fate had that happened. “At least we know why none of us heard from Hugh after he left Eigg. Although it doesn’t explain why he became an outlaw.”
“’Tis no good asking me. I don’t know why he did, either.”
Freyja looked thoughtful. “Ye know I don’t believe in such fanciful things as destiny and soulmates. But I cannot help thinking that, if I did, there seems to be a strange connection between ye and Hugh, after all. ’Tis quite something that he was the one to find ye after the brigands attacked ye, don’t ye think?”
She had once been so certain Hugh was her soulmate. And afterthey had made love, she was convinced of it. But after his dismissal earlier today, she didn’t know what to think.
“It could all be pure coincidence and nothing more.”
Freyja looked pensive. “I cannot believe I’m seeing a connection when ye are not. Did something happen between ye and Hugh, Roisin?”
She wasn’t ready to talk about what had happened between them. Maybe she never would. “Ye know I always wanted Hugh. And I still do. But I don’t think it’s ever meant to be. Even Amma, who arranged for Isolde to wed William because of dreams she had and who knew Alasdair was yer destiny from the moment she saw him, never believed Hugh Campbell was the man for me. Even when she shared my dream of the Highlands, she never saw me with him. So what do ye make of that?”
“I don’t believe in dreams foretelling the future.” Despite her words, Freyja sounded a little shaken by Roisin’s revelations. “I believe in what I can see and what I can understand. And whatever ye may think, Hugh did not want ye to leave when we were in the forest earlier.”
Roisin stared at her sister in disbelief. Freyja was the practical one, and yet here she was, imagining things that, if their positions were reversed, she would be chiding Roisin for harboring.
“I think I know what I heard him say, Freyja.”
Freyja made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “Aye. And when people are sick, they say all kinds of things. But it’s the way they hold their body, the look in their eyes, even how they breathe—that’s what tells ye the truth of the matter. And the last thing Hugh Campbell wants is to never see ye again.”
Hugh wasn’t sick. They both knew that. And Roisin knew that wasn’t the point her sister was making.
She desperately wanted Freyja to be right. But with all that had happened during the last two weeks, she couldn’t help fearing thatAmma not having a vision of her and Hugh sharing a future together was an omen.
And then one of her grandmother’s favorite sayings whispered in her mind.
One must keep perspective in all matters to be a fair judge of the truth.
How many times had she heard Amma tell Isolde that, and Freyja, too? But although Amma had never said it to her, it seemed her memory was replaying the message with purpose.
She had never been able to keep her perspective when it came to Hugh. From the day she’d met him in Eigg, and then when he had caught her fleeing in the forest, she had been blinded by her feelings for him.
To see the truth, she needed to let go of her wounded sensibilities. Yet what of Amma’s visions?
“But the dreams,” she began, but Freyja interrupted her.
“Ye speak of dreams I know nothing about. But what if the reason Amma didn’t see ye and Hugh in the Highlands isn’t because ye aren’t meant to be with him, but because his destiny is with ye at Sgur Castle?”
Dumbstruck, Roisin gazed at Freyja as the revelation spun around her mind. It had never occurred to her before, although Freyja could certainly be right. But that wasn’t why eerie shivers scuttled along her arms.
It was the uncanny certainty that her future did not lie on the isle of her foremothers.
Chapter Twenty-Six
After Roisin left,the earl merely nodded at Douglas before giving Hugh a thoughtful look. Hugh ignored it. He had the damning certainty that if he opened his mouth, the words that came out would condemn him for all time.
Instead, he hauled Symon’s body to his horse. He’d ensure the man had a proper burial and to hell with what the earl might think. Without a word, Douglas grabbed Symon’s legs, and they placed him over his horse, as the rest of the men gathered the bodies of Darragh and his two men.
The journey back to the glen was interminable, and when they arrived, Hugh didn’t ask for permission to halt. He simply did, before dismounting and kneeling by the river to scrub his hands clean.
Symon’s blood stained the water but no matter how hard he rubbed his hands over sharp stones, it seemed there was no way for him to scour the evidence of his guilt from his skin.
Finally, he stood, and only his own blood streaked his knuckles and fingers. In silence he mounted Fhortan, aware that everyone’s eyes bored into him. Let them. None of them knew how he had survived for more than a year, or what he’d done, and therefore they couldn’t understand and were not fit to judge him.
