Tempest Heart - Paula Quinn Page 0,33

sniffled. “My legs had been burned. My life was a living hell for about a year and a half after that. We lived in Galashiels in my uncle’s house before he moved to Hamilton. My father hired healers and apothecaries from across Scotland to come and help me. But ’twas difficult. That is what I remember about the fire, the aftermath.”

She realized how quiet he had become and turned to look at him. His gaze was on her already. “Ye are strong to have survived it.”

She sighed and shook her head a little. “No one has ever seen my legs. No one but you.”

When he spoke, his voice shook. “I’m thankful I took ye from that pile.”

She breathed. “As am I.” They both smiled softly at each other. She liked him. More than that, but he might kill her father. And now, it was up to her to prove her father was innocent.

“Is this too difficult to recount?” he asked her. “Can ye speak of the events around yer mother’s death?”

She told him everything she knew, which wasn’t overly much. Rose didn’t know if she was telling him things the way they happened or how she was remembering them. She was growing resentful as well, that she was having to explain everything to him in order to save her father’s life.

They stopped outside a small market town to rest their horses and to refill their food supply. Rose wasn’t hungry. Soon, she would be home. And never let out again. She felt like weeping. She didn’t think living through the plague was worth it anymore if she lost Tristan. And she had, indeed, lost him. Her hero had become her nightmare.

Oh, but she was weary of it all. She sat back against a tree and closed her eyes. “I feel like I could sleep for a sennight.”

“It has been a long day already,” he agreed.

It had been. Beginning with being kidnapped, and then finding out why Tristan was heading to Dumfries. She was bone tired. She pulled her mantle around her and listened to Tristan clearing up. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen when they reached Callanach Castle, and she didn’t want to rush.

One part of her hoped with bated breath that Tristan would come sit by her. The other part prayed he didn’t. She wasn’t sure she was strong enough to resist him. And she needed to. For her father’s sake.

It didn’t take her long to begin dreaming. She had a terrible fever. She was burning from the inside out. She couldn’t see clearly from the heat. But she could see him. He moved like one in a mirage, slicing through the flames. His image shimmered, mesmerizing, savage, graceful. He thrust his sword into the fire as if he were a warrior angel sent to avenge God.

The fire became a man. He sank to his knees. It was her father.

“Rose,” Tristan’s voice broke through her cries. He gathered her against his warm body as she trembled with terror. “There now,” he whispered against her forehead. “There now, lass. ’Twas just a dream.”

But was it? She should pull away from him, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to weep over finding the man she’d always dreamed of. Well, in truth, there was little about Tristan MacPherson that was even close to her list. But it didn’t matter because he was all of those things to her. She’d found the man she would consider for a husband and he didn’t seem to mind that she was twenty years old.

Only to have to give him up.

But not tonight. Tonight, she would let him hold her. She would let herself cry in his arms, knowing she was safe there.

She only wished her father was safe from Tristan as well.

Captain William Harper marched down the long hall of Callanach Castle with a letter in his hand that had just been delivered from the Baron of Ayr. The captain hadn’t read it. It was addressed to the earl. He hoped it was something that would require him to leave the castle for a little while. He sighed as his boot heels clicked against the flagstones. He was tired of doing nothing but sitting around an empty castle, waiting, hoping an enemy would attack.

When he reached the earl’s solar, he knocked on the door.

“Come!” a man’s voice called out on the other side.

The captain stepped inside. He swept his gaze over the earl, standing off to the right, pouring a drink for himself.

“Ah,