As did Adair. If she were forced to become an exile in order to be with him…
Och, by the gods, could she?
Turning once again, swamped by impatience, she gazed back up the shore. Why did he not come?
Could she live if she never saw him again? Could she live without Adair MacMurtray’s kisses?
His kisses.
Another emotion swayed her then, one she identified as lust. But nay, that was not entirely true, not all of what she felt for Adair. She desired him, aye, most powerfully. She needed his presence far more.
Upon the thought, she caught movement far up the shore. A gleam of red in the hazy sunlight that proved to be highlights picked from a brown mane. He came at last.
She could not keep still and hurried to meet him, so eager was she to hear what he had to say. But she knew by the look in his eyes even before she reached him that the news was not what she’d hoped.
“Adair? Ye were overlong.”
He searched her face before bending to greet the hound.
“Adair?”
“Bradana.” Straightening, he captured her elbows in his hands, but said nothing.
“Ye spoke wi’ Kendrick?”
“I did. Bradana, I ha’ failed ye. I was unable to convince him to dismiss the marriage agreement.”
All her hopes came crashing down. So violent were the emotions, she drew away from him and bent double, her hands on her knees.
“Forgive me,” he whispered. “I asked ye to trust me, and I was unable to persuade him.”
“’Tis no’ your fault. Not a bit of it.” Swiftly she turned back to him and searched his face in turn. If aught could deepen her sorrow, it was beholding the stark grief in his eyes. “I should have known. The marriage alliance has been arranged for a long time. And once Kendrick’s mind is set, he is near impossible to talk round. But och, Adair, what are we to do now?”
“I believe ye should talk to Kendrick in turn. He needs to hear from your lips that you do not want the marriage. He says ye did not object to it till I came.”
“Ididobject to it. Not to his face, mayhap, but only because in my mind I put it off again and again. I did no’ dream you existed.”
“Ye must tell him this is not what ye want.”
“I will. I will.” It would not be easy. For much of Bradana’s life, Kendrick had let her be. Left her care to her mother. Bradana did not fear him. Neither did she have an entirely easy relationship with him.
Yet if she wanted to be a woman who chose her own fate, she must step up and do just that.
“Adair”—she caught his hands in hers—“ye will wait for me? Ye will no’ leave Alba before this thing is done?”
He hesitated a moment, a swirl of trouble in his eyes before he nodded.
“Then kiss me once for luck.”
“And twice,” he murmured as their lips met, “for love.”
Chapter Nineteen
When Bradana approachedher stepfather some while later, there amid the morning bustle of the hearthside, he met her with impatience.
“I ha’ no’ time for ye now, Bradana,” he told her briskly, not meeting her gaze. “I am to sit wi’ Mican and his man to go over the terms o’ the agreement and mak’ sure all is set right.”
“’Twill be best for us to speak together first.”
