Forbidden Heart (Hearts of the Highlands #6) - Paula Quinn Page 0,68

near Silene. The only words Morgann could utter without losing his head were, “I’m sorry.”

“Will ye ever fergive me, Captain?”

“Since when d’ye seek my absolution?” Galeren put to him.

“I have always looked up to ye, Sir.”

Galeren laughed but the sound was void of any mirth. “And what did John offer ye to make ye look the other way?”

“Land in Ayr,” Morgann answered with shame in his eyes.

“Well, lad,” Galeren said to him. “Now ye know ye have a price.”

He turned away from Morgann and rode closer to Silene.

“What aboot ye, Captain?” the traitor boldly called out. “Ye are runnin’ off with the woman yer steward and friend charged ye to protect. A novice who was goin’ to become a nun before God and the church today. D’ye think ye are so different from me?”

Galeren met Silene’s gaze. He wanted to smile, but he couldn’t. Morgann was correct. Galeren was guilty of those things.

But when he looked into her eyes at his reflection, he didn’t see a shameful man. “Mayhap, ’tis not aboot what we did but why we did it. My heart has found my love,” he said, keeping his gaze on her. “What I did was not fer greed or pride, but aboot love.” He tore his gaze from hers and set it on Morgann. “And aboot wantin’ to keep her safe from men who wanted to kill her. That now includes ye, Morgann Bell. The only reason ye are not dead is because I didna want her to see me do such a thing to a man she considered a friend.” He waited while the young man closed his eyes that were staring at the ground. “Ye can try to run away,” he continued, “but ye know I will catch ye. Ye know what I will do to ye.”

Morgann knew of Galeren’s deeds. All the soldiers knew how savage he was in battle. He feared nothing and no one and won every fight. He’d beaten every man who came against him. He was the valiant captain in gold who was always the one sent on a mission when trusted men were needed. He’d also been sent out often to hunt and kill the king’s enemies, which he did proficiently. Each had been found. All of them killed.

Morgann didn’t need to be bound or secured. He wouldn’t leave.

They rode all day, stopping only to eat and to pray. They traveled northward. They didn’t rest in the large burgh of Kilmarnock but made camp outside the town of Stewarton.

As their second night together since leaving all behind drew near, Galeren found the most out-of-the-way clearing to make camp.

He tied Morgann’s wrists and ankles together. A precaution more necessary as they slept. He held Silene in his arms as he had the night before, and it was she who crawled into his lap, pressed her wind-burned cheek to his chest and closed her eyes.

He didn’t care if Morgann saw and she, apparently, didn’t care either.

“We will reach Paisley Abbey, ootside of Glasgow, tomorrow,” he told her. “I have some friends there who will hide us while we rest. ’Tis the last place John will think to look fer us.”

Silene appeared alarmed. “Do you trust the men there?”

“Aye,” he told her. “Mac and I helped them rebuild some parts of the abbey when we first arrived there with King David. John hates the abbey because his mother died there while givin’ birth to his brother, Robert.”

“My uncle is a devious man,” she said with her head tilted and her lips near his ear. “And if I speak my vows and put a man like him in a higher position, am I not guilty of his crimes right along with him? And would I be using God to do it?”

He didn’t know what else to say but, “Aye. I suppose so.”

She trembled in his arms. He comforted her with warm whispers of how beautiful she was to him. He told her about being captivated by her the first day on the cliffs.

“I have never thought of myself as beautiful,” she told him with a smile he could hear in her voice.

“I dinna know how ye could see anythin’ different. But yer genuine humility is quite lovely in and of itself.”

“I have no hair,” she reminded him.

“I canna imagine how much bonnier ye will be when it falls around yer face.”

He was sorry he could barely see her face. He wanted to kiss her, but he worried it might lead to more. He wanted