keep those within the castle walls safe.”
Kenzie’s shoulders slumped in relief, and she leaned between his legs and cuddled him. “Thank you for listening to me. I hope what I’m worried about never comes to pass, but I think we need to do all we can to help the people under your care, your son, and yourself safe, should history prove to be true.”
Ben rubbed her back and they clutched each other for a short time, the crackling of the fire the only sound in the room. “Ye didn’t tell me that Evan Grant asked ye to be his wife.”
Kenzie smiled against Ben’s chest and pulled back a little to look up at him. “You weren’t talking to me at the time, so no, I did not.”
He cringed. “Again, lass, I’m sorry for my temper. ’Twas just what ye said was not what I expected to hear.”
The thought of marrying the too-proud-arrogant-ass that was Even Grant made her stomach roil. “He asked me, and I said no. I’m not going to be his brood mare.” But of late Kenzie had been wondering what it would be like to be Ben’s lover forever, to marry him and possibly have his children, a little brother or sister for Alasdair.
“I think ye should leave before the allocated time that ye say the castle falls. To be certain that no matter what happens, whatever the future has set in stone for me dinna affect you, threaten yer safety and life.”
Kenzie started at his words. “I can’t go back before that time. I won’t do it, Ben. If I can be of any help here, even if it’s to protect little Alasdair, I will. Should I return home and the battle does take place and I did not stay until the end—to try and stop whatever happened to you, I would never forgive myself.” Pain clawed at her stomach, and she fought for breath. To leave Ben and never see him again hurt more than she’d ever thought possible.
“I can’t go, Ben.”
“Ye have to go,” he said, sitting up, pinning her with a hard gaze. “I will summon Gwendolyn if ye do not go back of your own volition. This time is not safe, and if what ye say is true, if what is going to happen here in under a sennight, then ye must leave.”
“I can’t,” she repeated, shaking her head.
“Why not?”
Kenzie swallowed. “I’ve fallen in love with you, and to lose you not to just time but death itself, to know you didn’t go on and have a long and fruitful life would be too hard to bear. Please don’t make me leave.”
She straddled Ben’s lap. “Somehow, in my madcap adventure to see medieval Scotland and the famous Black Ben, I’ve found my soulmate. I never meant for any of this to happen. In my time, I’m a successful business woman. I’m not looking for a long-term relationship. But for you, I’d give up all of that, even if it’s only to ensure you stay safe and alive in this time.”
Ben clasped her cheeks, shaking her a little. “Ye cannot stay, no matter how much I love ye in return. You deserve to live in freedom and enjoy the wonders of yer time. Not here, where every day is a gift, or any day someone could come storming the keep and threaten all that you hold dear.”
“And yet, it changes nothing, because I’m staying. And should you summon Gwen I will simply tell her what you’ve told me, and she’ll not make me go back.”
“But ye family, lass. Yer mother will be devastated, should ye not return.”
Kenzie had thought about that, and maybe she could return home just to let her mama know. To say her goodbyes and leave all her properties to the current Laird MacLeod. “As much as I love my mama, and will miss her, she’s not my future. You’re my future. I want to stay here with you. Marry you, if you’ll have me.”
His silence was deafening, and Kenzie had the awful thought that his feelings were not as strong as her own. Love came in many forms. Maybe he saw her only as a little fun between the sheets? Heat infused her face, and she scuttled off his lap when he refused to answer her.
“I do not wish to marry again, lass. I know ye have ye own protection against increasing with a babe, and had ye not had such security, I would never have touched ye. I