Highlander Enchanted

Chapter Fourteen

The next morning, Isabel kept her head low, disheartened by her visit to the Highlands. She was almost relieved to learn Cade had not killed her brother, because she doubted her ability to take his life. If he admitted to torturing and murdering her brother, would she have been able to stab him the night she had the chance?

A tiny voice inside her said no, plunging her further into her misery. Her desperate journey was doomed from the beginning, not because Richard would catch her, but because of her weakness. She was returning to her home to be beaten by the man she least wanted to marry – and with the knowledge she would never discover her brother's true fate.

"My lady." Richard's master-at-arms, a seasoned knight with bright blue eyes, held out a water bladder to her. "The journey will be hard. You must eat and drink well."

She hesitated, uncertain why his random kindness affected her. Richard was not a good man. How was it his master-at-arms was?

"Thank you," she said, accepting it. She sipped from it for his sake and handed it back.

"Can you handle a knife?" he asked, glancing towards the head of the column, where Richard rode.

"Not well," she admitted.

"The berserkers are wild and constantly at war. You may need this," he said and handed her a dagger.

The sheathed weapon was heavy. She hefted it before placing it into the pocket of her Highland gown. "Again, thank you for your kindness," she said.

"'Tis duty, my lady," he replied. "Your brother was well respected. Very able. I hope you found your peace with Black Cade. War is not fair to those who survive."

Isabel nodded. She had no chance to address him about her brother before he nudged his horse ahead of hers and took his place ahead of her in the line of horses leaving Cade's lands.

At least Richard had good men serving him.

She glanced at the sky. The clouds were as dark as her thoughts, though the rain had stopped. Cade's cousin, Niall, had seen them off, going so far as to give her one of the precious few destriers in the stables so she could keep pace with Richard and his men.

Cade, however, was absent from the quiet farewell. Why did this disappoint her? Why was she not instead relieved to avoid a man different than any she had met before?

His kindness from the night before, the claim he would honor her choice, saddened her. She had found such goodness in a man she wanted to hate.

They plodded through muddied roads away from the keep. Richard appeared cheerful despite the gloomy day, no doubt gloating over the title he had all but stolen. She was at a loss as to what to do next, aside from accept her fate beneath his fists, bearing his child and subsiding into a life of fearful domestic servitude.

Her gaze lingered on the squat form of the keep nestled between the verdant moors and the grey-black sky. Why did she think life here would be any different among the merry seillie with their songs and music? This place held magic that did not belong and a moody laird with no real home and naught to offer, except for his steely resolve not to fail his people.

She possessed all he did not – gold, lands, noble name – and left his temporary home empty and envious of his ability to carve his own path out of life. She had never known the wildness and freedom his clanswomen displayed or let herself imagine a life so unlike that which she was destined to live. Her fate as a noblewoman was set upon her birth. She had accepted it, if unhappily, until her father and brother passed. And then, she had been driven to avenge them, so desperate and alone, she had not considered how she would choose to live, if she had the choice.