Entrusted to a Highlander (Highland Promise Trilogy #2) - Donna Fletcher Page 0,36

are, that’s home,” she reminded.

Later, when Arran woke Quiver to take guard, Quiver said to him, “You’re a lucky man, sir, to have a wife who loves you so much that as long as she’s with you, she’s home.”

Quiver may think him lucky, but he thought it more a curse, not on him, but Purity. Her kind heart deserved better than him and here she was cursed to spend the rest of her life with a man who had nothing left to give, whose smile that once came so easily was lost to him forever, whose joy of family was no more, who only thought of one thing and one thing alone—survival against evil. And he had learned the only way to survive evil was to become evil himself.

He turned to find a spot to sleep where he’d be more alert to sounds, not fully trusting Quiver to guard well, when he spotted his wife shiver. He went to her and gently touched her hand. It was cold, she was cold, the night having taken on a substantial chill, and he stretched out beside her to wrap himself around her.

He tucked her close against him to share his warmth and she turned to snuggle even closer, burying her face between his furs until he felt her cold nose against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her once she settled and held her tight so his warmth could seep through her. She felt good in his arms and somehow it felt right her being there, but then she was his wife. She belonged there in his arms. But it wasn’t about belonging to her. It was about…

I love you.

Her words had repeated in his head while he stood guard and he had had to fight not to let them distract him. How was it that she loved him? He had thought of her nothing more than a friend, but if he was truthful, she’d been right when she had told him he’d barely acknowledged her. How could she be so sure of her love for him? Especially now after all these years when he had changed so much?

“I can’t love you,” he whispered.

Can’t or won’t? Came his own silent response.

It was a question that followed him into sleep.

Chapter 10

The closer they got to home, the more anxious Purity grew. She didn’t have many happy memories of home or of her father. He’d been far from a loving father. She had wondered why he never married again after her mum had died. He could have had more children and secured the future of the Clan Macara. Maybe it was because he favored Bayne so much, his firstborn and only son. To her father, Bayne had been the future of the clan, of the Macara name living on.

“You are not alone. I am here with you, and as your husband it is my say that matters not your father’s,” Arran said.

“I must wear my worry heavily for you to know what I think and how I feel,” she said, not surprised she hadn’t been able to hide the obvious.

“I understand it.”

That he said no more said much. He would understand, though in the opposite way. He’d been free of restraints, captured, and finally set free. She hadn’t been free. She’d been made to follow her father or brother’s dictates, found freedom, and now she was under the dictates of her husband. And she wasn’t foolish enough to think her father wouldn’t continue to dictate to her.

“I miss my home in the woods already,” she said, her heart aching for the tranquility she had found there.

“You were no longer safe there. We will make a good home together,” Arran said.

Once again it sounded like a chore he would see done, and she supposed it was better she returned home his wife, then leave herself vulnerable to her father’s whim. Still, returning home was proving more difficult than she had thought it would be.

His hand closed around her deformed one and instinct almost had her pulling it away. She gave a quick glance at their joined hands and spoke without thinking. “No one ever held my hand let alone my deformed one.”

“I enjoy feeling your hand in mine—either hand,” he said, his eyes looking to hers for a moment before turning away to keep focused on the surrounding area.

A memory had her saying, “That reminds me of remarks I used to hear you say to women. Only you would say each with a playful