A Soldier's Salvation (Highland Heartbeats Book 7)(44)

He would’ve taken the most direct route back to his home, in a rush to catch up with his stepdaughter—that was, if he knew where she had gone. Perhaps Fiona and Kent had kept the knowledge to themselves. All he could do was hope they had feigned ignorance of where Caitlin had run to or to what purpose she’d fled.

Otherwise, Connor would pay a visit to Sorcha.

On the one hand, woe to the man who believed he could force Sorcha McMannis to do anything she did not wish to do. If he alleged that she’d seen Caitlin or had harbored her in the house, she would never admit to it.

She loved Caitlin nearly as much as he did.

On the other hand, he might show Sorcha the same mercy he’d shown Fiona—then again, no, that would be a terrible mistake on his part. It would mean setting fire to a home or murdering the woman inside when she lived just beyond Anderson borders. The McMannises had always been good friends of the Andersons, too. It would be tantamount to a declaration of war.

Would Connor go that far?

He jumped when a large branch broke apart in what was left of the fire, the sound breaking the otherwise silent evening.

Caitlin jumped, sitting up entirely, eyes wide and chest heaving. He was at her side in an instant, ready to take her in his arms and perhaps indulge in what he’d only just been imagining.

Which was more than enough reason to keep his hands to himself.

“What is it?” he murmured, hoping to sound calm and reassuring.

She was still panting for air as if she’d just run a footrace. “I was startled. I… I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep.”

“Aye, ye did. For quite a while, in fact.”

“I did?” She ran both hands over her head, distracted and perhaps frustrated with herself.

“It’s what people normally do at night, after all.”

A brief smile flitted across her face. “I was unaware. Thank you.”

He watched as she collected herself, amused the way a child unwilling to admit the truth to an adult always amused him. “Why are you so upset with yourself for having fallen asleep?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“I was simply alarmed. I’m not upset with myself.” She fixed him with an icy stare. “Have you ever been startled out of sleep?”

“Many times,” he whispered. He could remember very many times, in fact.

“Well, then. You ought to know.” She stretched, groaning. “Sleeping on the ground doesn’t do any favors for my back.”

“You are not alone in this.”

“I know.” She looked around. “Are the others asleep?”

“Aye—at least, they’re supposed to be.”

“I see.” She looked at him from the corner of her eye. “And you? Are you not tired?”

“I’m quite tired and would like very much to go to sleep. In a large bed with a fresh straw tick and linen sheets which have been hanging out in the sun all day.”

A slow smile spread across her face. “A soft pillow.”

He nodded. “Aye, and no reason to get up early in the morning. To lie about until I was good and ready to get up.”

“That would be wonderful,” she sighed, pulling her knees to her chest before wrapping both arms around her legs. “I haven’t slept in a bed in so long. Floors, the ground.”

“I rarely have the luxury of a bed,” he commiserated.

A breeze blew past them, catching her before reaching him. The fragrance of her skin, her hair, the certain something that made her different from all the other women who’d ever lived. It touched him, wrapping itself around him like a blanket.

The longing built in him again. He wanted so badly to touch her.

He reached out, catching a strand of light hair between his first two fingers and testing its softness before tucking it behind her ear.

She turned her face away, just slightly.

“Should I not have?” he whispered, keenly aware of the presence of the other three so close to where they sat but unable to stop himself nonetheless.

She shook her head. “No. Or, rather, yes. I don’t know. It’s all right.”

He allowed himself the luxury of running the backs of his fingers over her jaw. “Caitlin. Lass. I know what you wanted to do tonight.”

It was the wrong thing to say. The wrong time to say it.

She jerked away, springing to her feet. He stood, too, holding a hand to his mouth to signal her silence. It wasn’t that he worried over waking the men for their sake, but rather for his own. He had no desire for them to learn how clumsy he’d been.

She glared at him, stomping one foot in impotent rage and shaking her fists. “You are a brute. A horrible, horrible thing.”

“Because I’m not the fool you take me for?” he hissed.

“You’re so terribly… indelicate.”

“Do not change the subject, Caitlin. You were planning on running away.”

“What of it, then?” she challenged.

“It’s the most foolish idea you could’ve come up with.”

She stomped her foot again, harder this time. “You call what I wanted to do foolish, when you don’t understand that I only wanted to do it for you.”

And like that, in the length of time it took to blink an eye, she sank to the ground and buried her head in her arms. Her shoulders shook with the force of her sobs.