“Had you asked that question two years ago, I would have been confounded by it. But I, as all those who escaped before the arrests began, were informed that Scotland’s sovereign was in secret a Knight Templar. As for our sailing to Scotland, King Robert’s religious exclusion, along with the Scottish clergy’s refusal to acknowledge his excommunication, allowed the Bruce to offer the Brotherhood into his realmwith impunity.”
She shook her head. “’Tis incredible. Thank God the excommunication allowed you, as many other Templars, the ability to escape, but my heart aches for those betrayed.”
“As mine. Over a year has passed since the arrests began, yet I struggle with the loss of so many of my friends, the butchery, and King Philip’s betrayal.” Grief swamped him as he glanced into the night. A few men still sat around the fires, and he spotted several guards posted where the light reached the forest. Throat raw with emotion, he met her gaze. “By now I was to have returned to the Middle East on crusade, fighting back those who would harm Christians seeking to travel to the Holy Land. Instead, I sit in Scotland with many within the Brotherhood dead, and the bastard king stillruling France.”
The shift of clothing sounded, and a hand touched his shoulder.
He stiffened. “Iseek nay pity.”
“I give you naught but comfort and understanding.”.
He wanted to push her away, tell her she far from understood the loss, the hurt, but days before, she’d suffered her own living hell.
Elspet lay her head upon his shoulder. “I thank you for trusting me. Never could I have imagined the horrors youhave endured.”
“Nor I.” Sparks burst from a fire and entwined in smoke, drifted into the night. “After my uncle’s deceit, when I joined the Templars, I believed I had found my purpose. Though challenging, ’twas a way of life I loved. The men were like brothers, a family I had never imagined I would have again.”
The night bitter with cold, he shifted back and spread out his blanket to include her, moved by how she lay against him with such trust and, without expecting to, finding comfort inher presence.
Another light gusttumbled past.
“Though I regret the horror you have been subjected to, the loss, I am thankful for your return.” Elspet lifted her gaze to his, and in the dim wash of light, he saw the sincerity, the tenderness, and the desire that had his blood racing.
Needing to touch her, he stroked her cheek, his emotions torn. “Though I had believed my heritage was forever lost, a part of me is thankful I can right a wrong. The other is ashamed that I think such when so many of the Brotherhood have died.”
“There is naught to be ashamed of. Like me, the life you loved was usurped, seized for the sake of power by a man who cared little for those who died, only for his greedy, self-serving goals.”
Her strength and understanding beckoned to him, lured him to feel more for her than he’d ever intended. “Mayhap, but I doubt I will ever getpast the loss.”
“NorI,” she agreed.
Cailin drew her closer. She was proof that there was still good in the world, and hope. ’Twas incredible that, in this mayhem, he’d found a woman like her. More so, considering without his wanting her to, she’d become important to him, a feeling beyond that of keeping her safe. Her confession earlier had forced him to acknowledge the truth, that he wanted her near him, and far away from men who could be his rivals, like Taog.
A foolish thought.
One day he would want an heir, but in the future. After he’d reclaimed Tiran Castle, he would rejoin King Robert in his fight to claim Scotland.
As she watched him, her lips parted and his body trembled, aching to touch her. He tried to fight the pull, but as her soft scent of woman and night filled his every breath, reasons to keep his distance fell away. On a groan, Cailin claimed her mouth. He savored her taste, her soft moan, never wanting thismoment to end.
Emotions storming him, wanting her more than was right, he broke away, cradled her against his chest.
“What are you thinking?”she whispered.
That I care for you too much, he silently replied, her shaky voice exposing that she, too, had been affected, whichhelped naught.
He looked out at the encampment, struggling to tamp down the need surging through him. “That at dawn, after I speak with Taog MacCarron and work out several details, we must meet again with the master-at-arms.” A safe reply. “We both need to sleep. ’Tis but a few hours until dawn.”
“We should.”
Buthe didn’t move.
“Cailin, I think—”
He crushed his mouth to hers, damning his actions, aware that he could offer her little, but for this moment, however wrong,he needed her.
Chapter 11
Elspet sank into Cailin’s kiss, the gentle seduction, the taste of man and heat. A soft moan rumbled in his throat as his tongue teased her; she pressed her body against his,demanded more.
