stomach it would’ve hurt less. “I must say, you didn’t take long to get over me. Twelve months! Hell, Aedan, that’s pathetic.” Her voice trembled, but was tinged with acid, the toxic chemical threatening to eat her alive. What was she going to do? “Maybe she hoped if I returned before the wedding you’d rethink your decision.”
“Even if I wanted to, I canna. I made a promise to Aline and her family.” He came and stood before her and kneeled, taking her hands in his.
The pull between them was electric, and Abby wanted to say to hell with Aline and her nastiness, but she couldn’t. “You should leave my room. When Gwen leaves for her own estate, which I’m assuming should be after your handfasting, I’ll go with her. I’ll think of some way to fix my colossal mistake.”
“I can’t let ye go. Och, Abigail. I’m sorry.”
Tears pooled in her eyes and she blinked them away, refusing to cry in front of him. The last thing she needed was for him to pull her against him, touch her more than he was already. That wouldn’t be good at all. She’d likely turn into an adulterous woman hell-bent on breaking up an engagement. “It’s not your fault. I should have known that in this time things move quicker than my own. I’ll be fine with Gwen and maybe, when her daughter is old enough, I’ll have her send me back to the twenty-first century.”
Aedan cupped her cheek, swiping a thumb across her jaw. “You’re so beautiful. I’ve missed ye.”
She bit her lip, nodding. “I’ve missed you, too.” Abby’s breathing increased as he pinned her with his determined, hungry gaze.
“I dinna know how I’ll go on, knowing you’re only a few miles away. It’ll be the veriest torture.”
He leaned closer, their lips but a whisper apart. “But one we’ll have to endure,” she said. “You can take comfort in the fact you’ll have a wife to warm your bed here and give you heirs.” He pulled back, and she was thankful for it. She didn’t need him close, touching her, looking at her with so much love and pain that her heart yearned and broke at the same time.
She needed him to go. “Leave, Aedan, and don’t come back in here again. I should’ve looked up what your future held. I should have realized that since Druiminn is still within your family that you’d had heirs. Had I pushed past my own fear of what I would find, I would’ve saved us both a lot of heartache.”
“Ye never studied to see what became of me and my clan?” He stood.
“I looked up the battle and found out you’d survived the night, but I never looked beyond that. I thought Gwen would bring me back, but when she didn’t, I assumed she’d perished in the fire but I couldn’t find anything to confirm this.”
“If I could change my circumstances I would, ye must know that. But I canna do that to Aline. I’ve given her and her family my word. I cannot dishonor her or myself by breaking my oath.”
Abby took a deep breath, the tightness in her chest as painful as the knowledge that he’d never be hers. “Of course.” She shrugged. “I’ll try and stay out of your way as much as possible and please tell Aline that I’m sorry if my appearance here makes her uncomfortable.”
“Ye don’t need to do that, Abigail. I’m sure we’re mature enough adults not to succumb to our emotions.”
You may be. “Of course,” she said. “Good night, Aedan.”
“Good night, lass.”
As soon as the tapestry settled, Abby let go of the emotions she’d been holding at bay. What a mess of things she’d made. And now she was stuck in a time for who knew how long, and around the one man she loved, who she could no longer have.
She crawled into bed, not bothering to pull the blankets up. What could she do? Knowing all the while, there was nothing she could do. Aedan was lost to her, would never wake up next to her, nuzzling her neck and whispering the sweetest Gaelic words in her ear, not that she ever knew what they meant in the first place, but still…it had been sweet.
The thought of becoming the scarlet woman flickered through her mind, but she pushed it aside. She could never do that to Aline, or any woman, no matter how much she may want to, or thought Aline deserved such treatment.