Highlander's Beautiful Liar A Scottish Medieval Highlander Romance Historical Novel - Adamina Young Page 0,57
kindness.”
“And love?”
There was hope on Grace’s face, and Cora understood. The young woman loved her brother and wanted them to be happy. “Things are complicated,” Cora said quietly as she thought of how she was about to betray Alec. “He deserves love, Grace, and I know that he’s capable of it, but I don’t think that it’s going to be with me.”
Narrowing her eyes, Grace slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position. “Ye love him.”
Tears filled her eyes at the other woman’s observation, but she refused to let them fall. Of course it was obvious that Cora loved Alec. The whole clan probably knew it. Alec probably knew it too. He was fond of her, and he’d promised to be faithful, but he would never love her.
Especially after tonight.
“I do love him,” she confessed quietly. “But as I said, things are complicated. I’m more dangerous to Alec than he could have ever imagined.”
“What the bloody hell do ye mean by that?” Grace demanded, but Cora was already rising. She needed to speak to Mary and Louise before she made her preparations, and then she needed to finish packing.
“My path was set for me the day that I was born. A gift from the father that I only got to know briefly before he was murdered by my half-brother and his best friend. I thought that being chained in a prison for months was the worst thing that could have happened to me, but if I had known what would have come after the most handsome man I’d ever seen freed me, I would have stayed.”
“Cora, ye arena making any sense.”
Smiling, she opened the door and looked back. “You are right. I apologize. I believe that I just need to get some sleep. It was lovely meeting you, Grace.”
“I will see you in the morning,” Grace said, but Cora was already closing the door. She didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was most likely never going to see her again.
After she gave herself to Innes, she was never going to see anyone again.
When she headed up to her chambers, she found Mary and Louise waiting for her. To her horror, she saw that Mary carried her own bag. “You cannot come with me.”
“Ye wilnae make it to England without me,” Mary responded shortly. “I know Alec has refused to take ye tomorrow, and I know that ye plan on sneaking out tonight. Ye doona know the land. Ye will probably ride in circles all night.”
Cora knew that she was never going to make it to England alone. “I need you to stay and give me a head start. Let Alec know that I am ill and want to sleep alone. I trust that he will reunite with his brother until the early hours of the morning and won’t check on me until the afternoon.”
“A head start wilnae help ye get to England,” Louise pointed out.
“You were going to let me go before.”
“That is because we didnae care as much about ye as we do now.”
Oh. Well. That was good to know. “I appreciate the change of attitude, but I need the two of you here to make sure that I get my head start. I will be fine. If things go badly for me, then I need you to tell Alec that I am sorry. They are my family, and so is he, and I wanted to keep them safe.”
“Cora.” Mary leapt forward and hugged her. “What will ye do if ye find that Innes has already hurt yer family?”
“I will kill him, and then we do not have to worry about him hurting anyone ever again.”
21
All of the men had gone home to their beds or to their women, leaving Alec and Connor alone in the great hall. The mess had been cleared, and Alec started to feel the exhaustion setting in, but he wasn’t quite ready to turn in just yet.
He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his brother. “I am glad that yer here,” he acknowledged.
Connor reached out and gently probed the wound beneath his shirt. “There is always danger in power, but I did not realize how difficult it would be to take over the MacKay clan, nor did I think that there would be a direct attack against ye.”
“It could have been against Cora. She is the reason that my position here is stable.”
Connor sat back and sighed. “Aye. The lass from the dungeons, the supposed thief. Duncan’s daughter.”