Page 72 of Abducted By the Highlander
He’d always been so mindful of her reputation. Was it possible he had been so formal and dismissive because he didn’t want any of the earl’s men, let alone Freyja and Alasdair, to suspect how close they had become?
Ecne stiffened in her arms and gave an excited little yap and there, walking across the courtyard to the stables, was Hugh with the earl. Her heart skittered in her chest, and she put Ecne on the floor and hastily pulled on her boots and found her shawl before she took her place by the window again.
She didn’t want to interrupt whatever Hugh and the earl were doing, but when she saw them return, she would hasten downstairs and pretend to accidentally cross Hugh’s path. Surely it wouldn’t be too difficult to request a few private moments with him? And if he brushed her off again, at least she’d know the truth.
It seemed they were gone for an interminable length of time. Maybe they’d decided to go riding? But surely they’d need to cross theforecourt first, and leave through the gatehouse? She nibbled her lower lip and pressed her cheek against the glass, hoping for a better view of the stables.
Finally, she saw the earl striding back. But Hugh wasn’t with him, and panic churned through her. Where was he?
She hurried to the door, Ecne at her heels, and made her way downstairs. The earl entered through the double doors and strode across the great hall and as soon as he was out of sight, she ran out of the manor. It was most unseemly, but she didn’t care. If Hugh was preparing to leave, she had only moments before he would ride out of her life forever.
Unheeding of the few servants who were around and gave her curious glances, she rushed to the stables and looked inside. Deagh Fhortan was still there, and she spun about, to catch sight of Ecne trotting happily away from the manor, his tail wagging, to where Hugh had come to a halt, his gaze fixed on her.
There was no sign of the blood that had drenched him the last time she’d seen him. A terrible vision that would haunt her for the rest of her life, even if it hadn’t been his blood. But even worse than the blood had been the dead expression in his eyes, and it took more nerve than she’d anticipated to meet his gaze.
Relief flooded through her. Although weariness filled them, his eyes no longer sent chills skating through her, and their incomparable blue reminded her of the first time she had ever seen him as he’d strode across the forecourt of Sgur Castle.
“Lady Roisin.” He bowed his head, and her relief turned to alarm at how formal he was being. “How are ye?”
She took a few steps closer as Ecne pawed Hugh’s boot, and he crouched to give her wee lad a scratch behind his ears. Was she wrong? Or was Hugh still trying to protect her reputation behind a masquerade?
A furtive glance over her shoulder reassured her that they werealone, and so she took another step closer. He straightened, and although he didn’t move towards her, he gave a faint smile that turned her insides to warm honey.
“I’m perfectly fine,” she said. “Thanks to ye.”
An awkward silence fell, and she dropped her gaze to Ecne, who suffered from no such frustrating constraints, as he flopped on the ground, his muzzle resting on Hugh’s boot.
This was foolish. There was so much she wanted to say to Hugh, so much she dearly wished to hear him say to her. But she didn’t even know how to begin.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell ye the truth.” The words burst from him, and he exhaled a harsh sigh. “I know I can trust ye, Roisin and whatever happens, I want ye to know, although I must ask ye to never breathe a word of what I’m about to share with ye.”
“Ye have my word.” And because Hugh couldn’t move with Ecne using his foot as a pillow, she took yet another step nearer to him, until they were almost close enough to kiss.
“’Tis likely ye’ve already guessed,” he said in a voice so low she could scarcely hear him. “I was spying for the earl this past year, and that’s why no one knew where I was.”
She hadn’t guessed, and she tried not to look shocked by his revelation, since he clearly thought she should already have drawn that conclusion. But if she pretended, wasn’t she simply making things more complicated between them?
And so she shook her head. It felt better than pretending she had known something she hadn’t. “I had no idea,” she confessed. “Even at the end, when ye suddenly tossed his name at me.”
Although she had wondered what the earl meant, when he’d told her Hugh was always in his favor, the truth had never occurred to her.
“It’s the reason why I couldn’t send yer letter to Lady Isolde. I was using the earl’s network to communicate with him, and there are safeguards if anything’s intercepted. But I couldn’t send yer letterthrough his channels, and I couldn’t risk sending it by normal means.”
Ah, her letter. She had all but forgotten about it with everything that had happened since, and now it seemed such a small thing to have been so upset over.
“I understand, Hugh. Please don’t concern yerself with it for another moment.”
“But ye were right. I shouldn’t have let ye think I’d sent it. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I see now I misjudged ye. Ye’re not a fragile flower, Roisin, and maybe ye never were.”
Unaccountably touched by his insight of her character, she smiled. “Well, thank ye. I’m gratified ye think so.”
He released a ragged sigh and before she could think better of it, she reached out. He met her halfway and threaded his fingers through hers, a simple touch that warmed her to the core of her being.
“When I took ye to the camp, I thought I’d need to protect ye there at every moment. But ye forged yer own way with the women, and I cannot tell ye how deeply I admired that. I’m glad they left before the earl found them. But by God, I wish Symon had gone with them. He only stayed because of me.”
Sorrow twisted deep in her heart. “Ye cannot blame yerself for that, Hugh. It wasn’t yer fault. Symon was a good man, from the little I knew of him, and he made his own choices. If ye don’t accept that, it will drive ye mad.”
“When I was in Eire, ’twas only the thought of ye that kept me from going mad.” He sounded hoarse, and her heart squeezed at the pain in his voice. “But the longer I remained in that twilight existence, the less likely it became that I could ever offer ye the life ye deserved.”
