Highlander Enchanted(62)

“Because Cade left you,” Isabel said absently.

“I would not let him stay. He and his kin would have died if they did.”

Fatima was tall and trim with her hands clenched in front of her. The pretty woman sat opposite them, eyes on John’s features.

“I am grateful to you,” Isabel said and bowed her head.

“She is my wife,” John said quietly.

Isabel hid her surprise. The Saracen woman had a shy smile and common carriage lacking the training and confidence Isabel had gone through as a lady. She was not nobility. The moment she considered all John’s wife had done for him, Isabel’s disapproval fell away. This woman had saved his life, brought him back to her. Her birth, and lineage, did not matter when John was alive.

“’Tis an honor to meet you,” Isabel said. “You are a great lord and let your wife live in such a place?” She turned to her brother, eyebrow arched.

“I do not care for finery,” said Fatima in halting English.

“John knows better,” Isabel replied. “You also know not to kidnap your sister on her wedding night.”

Her brother shook his head. “I wanted to rescue you. Laird Duncan and the clans allied with him were to attack after dawn.”

Alarm shot through her. “I was safer there than in Saxony!” she retorted. “Are you certain Laird Duncan meant to attack?”

“I know it,” he said. “I remained after you left the Hall and heard them talking. Cade’s mercy made an enemy of Duncan before you escaped. He hoped you would keep Cade busy for the night, if not another day and night, while he destroyed the keep where the MacDonald’s were.”

Isabel rose. “Then we must return.”

“Did you not hear me, Isabel?”

“I did, and I wish to return.”

“You do not belong at war.”

“I belong with my husband, do I not?”

“And what will you do?” John challenged. “Aside from causing him to worry?”

“Then I will go to the MacCosse lands!” she said. “With the rest of his clan.”

John studied her. “You care for him?” he asked.

Isabel had no real answer. She had been alternately drawn to and frightened by Cade and his magic. “Is it not my duty?”

“You had a duty to stay in Saxony and left,” John pointed out. “We have both changed. The sister I left several years ago would never have left her station or home let alone agreed to wed a Highlander.”

“He has been kind,” she said awkwardly. How did she explain her mixed feelings about Cade? Now that she knew he was not lying about her brother’s death, she began to view him differently. If she asked it of John, he would take her to England. They had the influence to have the wedding annulled, and no English noble would fault her for it.

But no part of her wished for this solution. Cade was surrounded by hostile clans with a chance he did not survive, assuming he awoke at all, and she had no desire to be elsewhere.

Aware of her brother’s scrutiny, she took a deep breath to help her refocus her thoughts. “Will you escort me to my lands?” she asked. “I know this is not your struggle. I do not ask you for more than safe passage.”

“How do you say this?” he asked, irritated. “You are my sister. Your struggle is mine. I owe Cade a life debt, but I will not lose you in order to honor it.”

She smiled warmly at him. “You will never lose me now that I know you are alive,” she promised him. “I do not know what to think of Cade, but I cannot fathom the idea of returning to Saxony. If you do not claim it, then there is nothing for me there.”

“I cannot give you an answer!” he bellowed suddenly and rose, agitated.

Taken aback by the outburst, she gazed at him uncertainly. He paced then went to the door and tore it open, striding out into the cold night.

Isabel watched him go.

“He fears what he will do around others,” Fatima explained quietly. “Since he healed, he has difficulty controlling his temper.”

Isabel released the breath she was holding. “It pains me to know he still suffers.”

“He always suffers.” Sorrow was in the eyes of John’s wife.

“He is a good man. This has not changed.”

“He is honorable.”

Isabel paced in the tiny space, desperate for some word on Cade. “There is a village or keep near here?” she asked.

“Very close, yes.”

“I need to leave.” She faced Fatima. “What happens to Laird Cade is of great concern to me.”

“I will speak to John.” Fatima rose and left the cottage.

Isabel sat beside the fire to wait.

Not long after she left, Fatima returned. “John says we will all travel to the MacCosse lands.”

Isabel sprang up and grabbed her soaked cloak.





Chapter Twenty


The same evening, from the forest, Cade witnessed the walls of his temporary home burn. He whispered a spell for the rain to fall harder in sheets, partially to stop the fire from spreading and partially to shield him and his cousins from sight as they fled. One of the wounds in his stomach had opened and was bleeding heavily, and he held a fistful of cloth over it. He had come out of one fever soon after Laird Duncan’s men attacked early this morning but felt his weakness and knew – without a seillie healer – he was at risk of collapsing into another before they reached the MacCosse lands.