Forbidden Heart (Hearts of the Highlands #6) - Paula Quinn Page 0,69

it to, but he knew he couldn’t. He had made a vow and he intended to keep it. But when the vow was over, he would marry her if she would have him. Until then, he would help her trust him, give her time for her to think about a life with him. He wouldn’t push too hard. He would offer her patience and try to get her home to Father Timothy as soon as he could. They both needed his advice.

“You have quite a silver tongue, Captain,” she laughed softly, stirring the hair along his neck.

“I speak only the truth.” He smiled and instinctually closed his arms around her more tightly, breathing against her, letting his hands rove over her back. He longed to take hold of her and pull her between his legs. But he stopped.

“Let us get some sleep now, lass.”

“Aye,” she agreed quietly and closed her eyes.

Seven more days of this, not including the time spent at the abbey. He couldn’t do it. He certainly couldn’t sleep with her like this after tonight and think he was strong enough to resist her.

But tonight, at least until her next prayer time, he wasn’t letting her go.

The next sennight was not always torturous for Galeren. There were days when he looked toward her cleaning something from the campsite. Most times, she caught him looking and blushed all the way to her scalp.

They kissed—often, but when he asked her what she thought of one of the priests from the abbey marrying them, she told him she couldn’t marry him yet.

He would wait until she could.

There was no sign of Mac or the others, but Galeren wasn’t worried. If anyone could be trusted, it was Mac. They kept Morgann with them, mostly because Galeren didn’t know what to do with him.

The soldier did his best to strike up conversation, but Galeren had nothing to say to him. He was part of the plot to kill Silene if she showed signs of not speaking her vows. Galeren would never trust him again.

“We are close, aboot half a day away,” he told her from the top of a cluster of hills. “Beyond the hills.”

They traveled along the wild river Garry where small waterfalls gushed over the braes. They trotted their horses through trees and over rocks. Birds flew overhead, shouting at the intrusion.

Home. The sounds echoed in his head. “I return home as often as I can, but not nearly as often as I should,” he told her when she drew near. “Before, I wanted to fight. Now, I want to have a home and hearth of my own with a bonny wife and bairns.”

Morgann called out from behind them. “Captain, are ye bringin’ me to yer home to kill me there? Will yer kin kill me?”

Galeren didn’t turn to face him. “If one of them wants ye dead badly enough, he will do it.”

“But why would they?” Morgann pushed.

Now, Galeren pivoted on his heel and glared at his prisoner. “Mayhap because ye turned on yer captain.”

He considered releasing Morgann in the forest around the stronghold. The lad would meet his end at the tips of a spiked ball flying from the branches. The traps were set up for intruders and enemies, which Morgann now was. Galeren wouldn’t bring him into the stronghold, but would leave him outside the walls in the home of one of the shepherds.

He wanted Mac and the others to see him and know what he’d done. So he kept the man. Let them decide and agree what to do with him.

“I admit I am still anxious about meeting your family. What will they think of a novice who flung her vows to the four winds and ran off with the captain of the king’s army? That is not a good first impression.”

He promised all would be well. They would understand and even if they didn’t, they would still love her because he did.

They came to the pastures, miles of it frosted with early autumn dew. Hundreds of wooly sheep and coos dotted the land. On the other side were more pastures and the deadly forests.

Just ahead, the walls of the stronghold rose high from the ground. Men dressed in plaids and weapons patrolled the land from the sky. They didn’t point their arrows at him as he headed toward one of the good-sized cottages near the forest. No one was home so he tied Morgann to a tree.

“There is nowhere fer ye to escape to, Morgann, so