Highland Outlaw (Campbell Trilogy #2)(96)
She gazed at Patrick, but his face was inscrutable as he intently scanned their surroundings. Her heart tugged. If anything, the past few days had only made him more handsome. His skin was rough and rugged from the wind and cold, his hair silky and tousled, and the dark shadow of a beard emphasized the hard lines of his jaw.
“What is this place?” Lizzie asked.
“Loch Earn.” He turned to her, his face solemn. “It used to be my home.”
She sucked in her breath. This was the land her cousin had added to her dowry. The land that Patrick wanted to get back. His sole purpose for wanting her. Her chest tightened. “Why have you brought me here?”
“I don't really know.” He paused thoughtfully, his gaze returning to the loch. “I wanted you to see it. To know what happened here. To know why I did what I did.”
“What happened here?” she asked gently, sensing the importance.
Patrick didn't answer right away. He couldn't stop gazing out over the loch, at the castle. It was as if something— the memories, perhaps—had overtaken him.
His face was ravaged with raw emotion, and Lizzie realized she'd never seen him look so exposed. Usually he kept himself remote, detached, but at that moment she saw it for what it was: a façade. The lines etched on his handsome face and the sorrow in his eyes revealed a man who'd suffered deeply.
His voice held no emotion as he spoke, but it was there—simmering under the surface—and she felt it wrap around her. “This land belonged to my clan for hundreds of years, but we had not the paper to prove it. The Earls of Argyll turned us into tenants on our own land.”
Lizzie knew something of the MacGregors’ history. In the dispute of the claim to the throne between the Bruces and the Balliols, they'd chosen the wrong side, and when Robert became king, he'd made them suffer for it. Without charters to prove ownership, the MacGregors had been divested of their land. That the Campbells had benefited was the source of the feuding between the clans in the years that followed.
“But that was hundreds of years ago,” Lizzie said softly.
“Aye.” He met her gaze. “But time does not correct a wrong.” His face hardened. “For years my family held this land as vassals of Argyll—never content, but accepting. Almost twenty years ago that relationship, however tenuously held, was severed. Argyll illicitly sold the tenancy of our lands to Glenorchy, and the black devil did not waste time in asserting his ill-gained ‘rights.’ ”
He paused, and Lizzie couldn't tell whether that was all. “So Glenorchy evicted your family from this land?”
“Evicted?” He made a sharp, pained sound. “That's one word for it. Glenorchy's methods were more akin to extermination. When my father refused to cede our land, Glen orchy decided to burn us out. I was ten when the soldiers came. I remember looking out my window and seeing the fire and thinking it was Armageddon.”
Lizzie's chest pounded as she waited for him to continue, her heart going out to the terrified little boy he must have been.
“My mother sent me and my brothers into the forest. Annie was just a babe, and my mother thought we would be safe—she was Glenorchy's sister, after all.” His face twisted, and Lizzie felt her heart twist along with it. “I didn't want to leave her, but she insisted.”
He stopped, and Lizzie put her hand on his arm. “I'm sorry.” She had guessed what was coming.
“But you don't know what happened,” he said harshly, his face tortured. “I'd left something behind, something my father had trusted me to keep safe, so I went back.” His voice was hollow. “It was so hot. Hard to breathe. Everything was burning. I thought I'd walked through the gates of hell—but it was worse. The dead bodies of my clansmen lay scattered across the barmkin. My father was among them.”
Lizzie squeezed his arm. He was so taut, every muscle clenched, she could almost feel the incredible tension running through him under her fingertips.
“A couple of Campbell soldiers found me at his side and decided I was better off dead.”
“But you were only a boy!”
“Aye, but they were right. I would have hunted them down.” His eyes were stark when he turned to her. “My mother saw what was about to happen and rushed out to stop it. Instead, she took the blade that was meant for me. She died in my arms.” His voice was wooden. Emotionless. But it no longer deceived her.
Lizzie felt the tears burning in her eyes. She'd lost her parents at a young age but couldn't imagine seeing them murdered before her eyes.
“It wasn't your fault. Your mother was only trying to protect you.”
“I know, though it took me years not to feel to blame. Glenorchy murdered my parents and built his cursed castle on the ashes of my home and the blood of my parents and clansmen. Their deaths lie at his feet.” He held her gaze. “You see, Lizzie, it wasn't just about a few merks of land. I've been fighting ever since to get back part of what was taken from me that day. All my legal claims had failed. When I heard that your cousin had added the land to your dowry, I knew the opportunity I'd been waiting for had arrived. I just hadn't counted on one thing.”
The look in his eye took her breath away. Her heart pounded. “What's that?”
One side of his mouth lifted in a wry smile. “You. I knew I couldn't tell you the truth, but I hated deceiving you. I told myself I would make it up to you, but it all changed when Robert Campbell arrived.”