Forbidden Heart (Hearts of the Highlands #6) - Paula Quinn Page 0,98

it Galeren? It had to be! He was alive! But what lengths would her uncle go to in order to keep her with him and get her to Father Alphonsus?

Should she call out a warning? “He is coming!”

A loud, crashing noise sounded from the trees, and then everything went still.

Silene waited what seemed an eternity and then heard someone returning.

Thrilled to see her husband come from out of the trees, she tried to free herself, to no avail. The rope her uncle had tied her with was thick and scratchy around her ankles.

She saw a figure. It wasn’t Galeren. Her heart thumped madly in her chest. She grew terrified and mournful. How could her uncle have beaten him? But no. It wasn’t her uncle either.

Morgann ran toward her. “Sister! Sister, we must make haste!” He looked over his shoulder at the trees. “He will be comin’ any moment now. I dinna know how hard I struck him.”

Morgann? Morgann was saving her?

“Morgann! Oh, thank you, Morgann! I knew you had a pure heart!” she cried while he cut her loose. “Where have you been these last few days?”

“No time now.” The rope was thick, and his knife was dull, and her uncle was coming, walking a bit crooked. But coming.

“Where is the captain?” he asked fretfully, sawing at the rope and looking over his shoulder.

She shook her head. “Alive, I pray.”

“Bell!” the steward called out. “Ye, too? Ye betray me fer her, as well?”

“I canna let ye kill her, my lord,” Morgann stood up and faced him. “She is my friend and…so was the captain before I betrayed him.”

“After all I have done fer ye, ye ungrateful son of a whore!” her uncle accused. “I took ye in. I—”

“Ye asked me to kill a nun!”

“She isna a nun,” her uncle told him. “She wed the captain today.”

Morgann turned around to look down at her. A smile lit his face. She thought how handsome he was when he smiled like that.

“God chose well, Sis—Silene.”

She smiled at him. She would speak to her husband on Morgann’s behalf. She would—she heard a slight thump. Morgann’s smile froze on his face.

“Morgann?” she whispered, already bringing her hands to her throat. “Morgann. Nay!”

The young man folded to his knees and then his face hit the ground. A knife protruded from his back.

Silene wept for him and prayed he wouldn’t die. Though her vision was blurred with tears, she could make out her uncle walking closer.

“John!”

She turned at the wonderful sound of her husband’s voice. He lived! Oh, thank You! Thank You!

She took hold of the knife Morgann had used to try to free her and continued at the task.

Galeren appeared unhurt and handsome, wrapped up in his plaid. When she finally freed herself, she wanted to run to him. But their reunion would have to wait. Her husband was here to fight, proving it by wielding a sword and standing ready to battle.

“Ah, Galeren, old friend. Have ye come to try to kill me with the blade ye already have in my back, or with that one in yer hands?”

Galeren shrugged off the accusation. “In yer back, yer heart, whatever it takes to kill ye if ye hurt her.”

The steward’s pained expression grew darker. “Ye and Silene took everythin’ from me. I…I was goin’ to let ye live because ye have, indeed, become my friend, one who is dear to my heart.”

Her husband smiled and Silene remembered what he had said about his father. He isna the friendliest. He only makes ye believe he is. That is how he brought down the most English strongholds in the kingdoms. From the inside.

Galeren’s smile radiated with beauty, as his mother’s did. It was practiced and insincere like his father’s.

“Then come away from her,” Galeren said.

Her uncle shook his head. “I need her. This isna over.”

“Tis,” her husband corrected. “’Tis over now. We were wed earlier. She is now my wife.

“Annulled by Father Alphonsus.”

“It cannot be annulled, Uncle,” she told him. “’Twas consummated enough that I am likely carrying his babe.”

“John!” Galeren thundered lifting his sword to fight. “Come away from her or ye will force me to cut ye down!”

“Ye willna kill me. The king would—”

“Believe what I tell him,” Galeren shouted. “Fer I am his captain, not yers.”

“Wh…what?” her uncle stammered.

Silene smiled. He was his father’s son.

“What are ye sayin’?”

“Come away from her and I will tell ye my great secret.”

Her uncle’s eyes widened first in horror that he’d been tricked, and then with rage. “Ye report