The Highlander's Runaway Bride

by TERRI BRISBIN

  ’Twas past time for her to get out of the bed, so she tried to ignore him as she pushed herself to the edge and eased down to the floor. Gingerly, she put some weight on the injured foot and ankle and found she could bear it.

  ‘Here now,’ he called out as he rounded the bed and reached her, now fully dressed. ‘Do not stand on it completely yet,’ he urged. He slipped an arm around her waist and helped her to move to the stool near the bed.

  ‘It feels much better this morn,’ she said, holding it out and wiggling it. ‘Your sister’s ointment was a wonder.’

  ‘Remember, that is between us. She cannot know,’ he said, winking at her as he passed her to approach the bed.

  He tugged the top layers back, exposing the sheets. Before she could guess his intentions, he’d drawn his small dagger, pulled back his sleeve and sliced the skin just below the inside of his elbow.

  ‘Rob!’ she said, standing to go to him. Only when he held the bleeding wound out over the middle of the bed did she realise what he was doing—marking the bed with blood.

  ‘I wish no questions asked about what happens between us, lady.’

  He spilled blood because a virgin bride would shed on her wedding night.

  He thought to shield her from any embarrassing questions of nonconsummation, while this action would simply humiliate him when he discovered the truth. And it would give him one more reason to hate her when the truth was out. Eva sat back down, unable to stop him without explaining the real consequences of presenting this sheet to her father.

  Clasping her hands on her lap, she waited as he allowed several drops to mar the whiteness and then he covered the wound with his hand and walked to the corner where Nessa had left the fresh water. She did not have to turn to see what he was doing—he tore a strip from one of the cloths and then used the rest to staunch the bleeding. After dropping it in the bowl, he held the strip out to her and walked closer.

  Without a word, he knelt next to her and held out his arm. Taking the strip, she wordlessly bound the wound so that no one would see it. Inwardly, she wanted to cry at his actions...again on her behalf. And Eva knew that she must do something to keep him from being the object of derision and laughter.

  ‘I will see to our arrangements before breaking our fast. Wait here for me,’ he said, pulling his sleeve back into place. ‘Remember to ask Nessa, and I will speak to your father.’ He glanced at her mouth as though considering whether or not to kiss her, but he turned and left instead.

  Eva sat for a few moments before standing and limping to the bed. When a knock came, she blocked the view of it with her body and called to enter. Nessa opened the door and entered, carrying garments for her and this time curtsying before going about her tasks. As she moved around the bed, the girl noticed the bloody stain and gasped.

  ‘Are you well, my lady?’ she asked. ‘Can I get you anything?’

  ‘I am quite well, Nessa. So much so that we need not speak of that again,’ Eva said firmly. ‘Will you stoke the fire for me? I feel a chill in here.’ Eva forced a shiver and waited for the girl to do it.

  ‘Oh, aye, my lady,’ Nessa said. She knelt before the hearth and cleared away some of the ashes before kindling a new flame. Once it took, she added a few more logs. Once the flames took, she moved away. ‘I forgot, my lady. Your husband told me to bring something to you and I left it in your old chamber. Let me get it now.’

  Eva nodded, not believing her good luck in this. As soon as the girl left, Eva pulled the sheet free and balled it up. With halting steps, she made it across the chamber and tossed the sheet to the back of the hearth where it caught fire and flared up as it burned. She stood there, even when Nessa returned, watching it be destroyed. Then she faced the young woman and invited her to serve her in her new home.

  Nessa’s reaction was the best thing to come of all of this mess. The joy and excitement at the girl’s desire to travel past the borders of Tongue and to see other places and meet other people was almost catching. And it took the girl’s attention off the sheet. Sending her off to pack, Eva finished dressing and waited for Rob to return.

  She noticed the stick lying on the bed as she leaned against it. Nessa had brought it back but had been so taken aback by the invitation that she’d forgotten it once more.

  ‘I thought it might help you walk until your ankle and foot heal completely.’

  He’d done it again. Surprised her with a kindness she did not deserve. Her list of sins grew with each passing day, and she knew she would pay for each and every one of them.

  ‘And once more I thank you,’ she said, turning to face him as she gathered her nerve.

  ‘The sheet?’ he asked as he looked past her to the bed.

  ‘Seen to,’ she answered quickly. Placing the stick in her right hand, she leaned to test it. ‘Oh, Nessa would like to accept your invitation. She seemed quite pleased about it as she ran off.’

  ‘I saw her as I returned from the stables. I may regret it at some point, but she will be good company for you on the journey,’ he said, offering his arm to her. ‘Come let us break our fast and begin the journey while the sun shines.’

  * * *

  The next hours passed in a whirlwind as they made their final preparations and then took leave of Castle Varrich and Tongue...and everything she’d ever known.

  Though Rob tried to engage her in conversation as they made their way down the hill from the keep and then along the edge of the kyle, all Eva could do was look back and pray that the Almighty would look after her bairn now that she would not.

  Her heart broke a little with each passing mile until Eva was certain there was not one left within her.

  Chapter Nine

  Try as he might, she sank into a melancholy mood with each passing hour and day. His wife was not belligerent or unpleasant, for she answered any question put to her and accepted any task he asked of her along their journey. But the quiet despair he’d witnessed several times in her gaze kept its growing hold over her.

  The maid, Nessa, was quite the opposite. Her excitement over the journey and her attempts to learn more about her new home were filled with a joy and enthusiasm he wished Eva felt.

  The only query Eva made was to ask about their distance from Tongue and Durness. And then she would turn and stare behind them with a sadness that made even his heart hurt. Was this what Arabella meant when she’d said that he would not face leaving his home as women did? He’d not given much thought to it before now, before watching it affect someone in his life. Especially when he was the reason for it. So, he used every bit of patience he had within himself in dealing with her during their travels.

  Rob knew his forbearance surprised her—it had surprised him. After the anger of finding her alone, disguised, injured and ill in the cave and those few days in the cottage, most of it had seeped away. Certain it would return when he discovered the truth about whatever she held hidden from him, he let it be for now.

  Secrets were kept for many reasons, he knew, but mostly to protect yourself or someone else. There was certainly no love lost between Eva and her parents. Her father wanted her gone, and her mother was clearly estranged from her, most likely at Ramsey’s behest. But what mother would not do whatever was necessary to protect her child?

  As they set up camp on their fifth day on the road south to Glenlui, Rob watched her yet again trying to gain some sense of what bothered her. Someone so young and sheltered should have no cares in the world. Yet she carried something inside that seemed to be as heavy as the weight of the keep from which she came.

  A clue came from the maid when she whispered a wish to her lady as they prepared the plain meal over a fire. The girl hoped that she would find a fine husband among the Mackintoshes so she could remain at Glenlui forever. Nessa’s expression as she spoke was filled with the wistfulness of a young woman wanting to be in l
ove.

  He stumbled at the realisation.

  Was Eva in love with someone in Tongue? Or Durness where he’d found her? It made sense. Her resistance to marry him. Her escape might not have been to avoid the marriage but to find her lover? Ramsey MacKay would never have allowed someone to get in the way of his arrangements. Had he sent the man away, and then Eva sought him when word came of their own match?

  It made sense and explained much of her behaviour and her father’s. Mayhap the man was not high enough or connected by blood or marriage to a clan Ramsey wished to align himself with? Or the older man simply had another objection to him?

  Eva passed him by then, seeking something in the wagon, and he watched her with the knowledge of this new realisation. It made so much sense. Her disappearance. Her resistance. Her surprise at the way her body reacted to his kiss. She’d not been inexperienced, she’d been surprised.

  His wife loved another man.

  Rob’s stomach rolled at the thought of it. Not that he loved her or even liked her, but taking another man’s cast-off lover did not sit well with him. Had she run to him, and he refused to take on her father and claim her? Had the man turned his back on her?

  That did not sit well with him, either. Though never pledged to another, indeed having never loved a woman, Rob did not claim to understand the intricate emotions involved. But as a matter of honour, he knew what should have happened.

  That, that was the very choice he’d faced with her. A sane man would have listened to his gut and walked away. A smart man would have turned and left when faced with the reality that she’d disappeared of her own volition for any reason. An honourable man stood by his words and pledge and did what he must do. At her approach, he glanced down at her face and eyes. Other than sadness, he saw nothing else there.

  ‘You did not hear Nessa call you to supper,’ she said, holding out a bowl to him. ‘Such as it is.’

  Meals on the journey were plain and simple and most times not hot. Oatcakes, cheese, nuts, dried fruit or meat. Porridge in the mornings. But they’d passed by a small village and had been able to buy some stew and fresh bread from the innkeeper. The smell of it made his mouth water as he accepted it.

  ‘Have you eaten yet?’ he asked, dipping the spoon and stirring it to cool.

  ‘Mine is over there,’ she said. She pointed to where the others had gathered, close to the fire.

  Rob followed her back and stood next to the log on which she sat. She was using the walking stick less and less and was not favouring her right leg any longer. The swelling was down, but Rob still offered to bind it for support before they mounted up each day.

  Though the days were growing longer and they could have travelled further each day, Rob chose not to push too hard. The paleness of her skin and the dark circles around her eyes told him she had not yet recovered from the fever that had plagued her. Nessa had told him, when Eva was not near, that the lady had been sick before she left home weeks ago. But the girl did not know the origin of the fever or type of illness.

  So, each day when he saw her begin to grow tired, he called a halt and set up camp. He did not think that arriving back in Glenlui and presenting a half-dead wife to his laird would be a good thing to do. That was the reason he gave to the men and to her and he tried to make himself believe it, but he cared even now more than he should. Once she finished eating, he took her bowl over to Nessa, who handled cleaning up after their meals.

  ‘Lady?’ he asked. ‘Would you like to walk a bit? There is a stream just over the hill. You could wash there?’ There had been little time or place for the usual care of herself, and yet she did not complain as most women, most ladies, would in similar circumstances.

  Though she looked as if her first reply would be no, she paused and, meeting his gaze, she nodded. With his help, she rose and then walked at his side away from the others. He kept a slow pace, knowing his legs covered twice as much ground in one step as hers did. Soon, they reached the crest of the hill and could see and hear the stream.

  She smiled for the first time in days.

  When the hell had he begun keeping track of her smiles?

  It was not deep or fast-running, but the water meandered at a nice flow. He walked her to the edge, seeking a dry, level place, and found it several paces upstream. She would be able to kneel and reach the water there. He took her hand and held her arm, guiding her to her knees and watching as she rearranged her skirts closer to her on the ground. Rob drew his dagger at the sound of someone approaching.

  ‘My lady,’ Nessa called out. ‘I brought you a cloth and some soap.’

  Rob took them and waved the girl off before she could offer to help. He wanted a measure of privacy with this woman he’d married. He had questions that he knew he must ask. There was no surety that he would like the answers he got, but they would gnaw at his insides until he did ask.

  He crouched next to her and offered her the cloth. She moved with a certain feminine grace that could not be disguised, not even by the garments of a lad.

  ‘Did you think your disguise would work?’ he asked.

  Eva stopped and looked at him, startled by the topic. She dipped the cloth in the water before answering him.

  ‘I stayed off the roads during the day and travelled mostly at nights. It worked when I needed it to,’ she said. Shaking out the cloth, she pressed it to her face and neck.

  The thought of her on the roads at night...alone...with no protection nearly drove him back to the anger. It must have shown in his face, for she sat back on her heels and watched him for a long moment before speaking.

  ‘I know, it was a foolish thing to do. I know terrible things could have happened to me, and some bad things did happen. And I could have ended up much worse if you had not found me when you did. As I told you, I believed I had no other choice.’

  Her words showed she understood now the foolishness of her act, but the reason for it was another question. It burned his mouth trying to escape and be spoken. Rob knew no good could come of it, yet he asked anyway.

  ‘Were you truly running from me or were you running to someone else, lady?’

  She gasped at his words and then pushed herself to stand, tossing the cloth to the ground. A myriad of emotions crossed her face as he watched. And then, she turned and ran. In her shock or fear or anger, she did not realise that he would not even have to run to catch her. Uncertain what he would say or do when he did, he followed her, but staying a good distance from her.

  He listened as she ran through the bushes and low branches. The sound of her breathing could be heard in the silence of the woods. Rob followed her easily and, when the sounds of her movements stopped ahead, he slowed his pace and listened.

  ‘Lady?’ he called out as he approached a clearing. Glancing quickly, he found her sitting at the base of a tree, leaning against it and breathing heavily. ‘Are you well?’ Walking to her, he looked at her leg. ‘Have you hurt your leg again?’ He crouched down next to her, but she swatted his hands away when he reached out to check her ankle.

  ‘It is not injured,’ she said. ‘I just needed to...’

  ‘Run away?’ he finished.

  ‘Nay, not run away. Just...’ she glanced at him and then away ‘...away.’

  ‘From me?’

  ‘From your questions.’

  ‘Why not just answer them? Surely, the truth cannot be worse than all the possible lies that I am thinking?’ He stood and took a pace back, giving her some space. ‘Running away never helps.’

  ‘Spoken like a man with choices,’ she muttered. ‘Would running away from or running to make a difference? I ran, sir. I ran.’

  When put that way, Rob wondered if it did matter. Running from was a personal insult to him. Running to meant her heart and possibly her body were filled with someone else. Either way, one of them suffered more
than the other.

  ‘Nay, lady.’ He shook his head and walked away.

  He needed to get back to Glenlui, where he understood the people and the rules. Where the effect she was already having on him would be minimised, and he would have tasks to see to, diverting his attention and his thoughts from her.

  He needed to return to what and who he knew.

  Rob did not abandon her, but if she would not answer his questions, he did not want to speak to her, either. He walked halfway back to the clearing near the stream and waited until he saw her stand and begin to move towards him. When she did not limp, he walked the rest of the way and waited there.

  * * *

  Eva wanted to answer him, to give him something, but whatever she said would only lead to more questions that she could not and would not answer. Though her leg and ankle hurt, it did not feel injured again as she followed him down the pathway. It was just unused to such activity, and she knew it would ache this night.

  She deserved it by the look in his eyes when he asked her that damn question. He had no idea about the bairn. He thought she was running to a lover, to another man. Though he would deny it, she could tell by the way he held himself that he braced himself to discover his wife had a lover.

  Why? Why would it bother him so? It should not. They had just met. They were otherwise strangers. She watched other married couples, and as long as the wife did as she was told and was in her husband’s bed when he demanded it, there was no trouble. He was different, and she needed to offer him something in repayment for all the patience he’d shown her.

  Eva noticed he’d stopped near the clearing. She continued on, not knowing what else to do. She owed him something—for in other circumstances, this marriage would be a welcomed relief from life under her father’s control. He’d worn her mother down, and he would do the same to her, if he could. If not for... She stopped before him and took several deep breaths to regain her sense of calm before saying anything.