“Home.”
The word felt strange now. She had hopedthiswould become her home.Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
“It’s late,” Charlie said gently. “Perhaps we should sleep on it. In the morning—”
“You’re not listening! Ihaveto go!” Ruby cried, her voice laced with a faint trace of hysteria. “You know the way to the portal. Take me there.”
Running again, eh?A voice whispered in the back of Ruby’s mind.First, you ran here. Now you’re running home. When will you learn?
Charlie hesitated. “Ruby—”
“Please.” Her voice broke. “I can’t stay here another minute.”
Silence stretched between them.
Charlie closed her eyes briefly, then nodded once. “All right.”
After that, they moved quickly. Within minutes they were in the courtyard, saddling horses. Ruby’s hands felt numb as she tightened the straps. She refused to look east, towards where Evan’s lands lay. She refused to think about the life she had imagined. She swung into the saddle just as the gates began to creak open.
“Charlotte! Ruby!”
She stiffened at the shout and looked around. Niall was striding towards them accompanied by Hamish MacLaren and a third man Ruby didn’t recognize. The newcomer was tall, bearing a resemblance to Evan but older, harder.
“Who is that?” Ruby asked.
Charlie frowned, looking puzzled. “That’s...Bryce,” she murmured incredulously. “Niall and Evan’s elder brother. The Earl of Newborough. What’shedoing here?”
Ruby’s grip tightened on the reins. She didn’t care. Nothing mattered except the fact that Evan had left her. She set heels to her horse, but Niall stepped in front of her, making her pull up short.
“Wait!” he said, raising a hand. “There is something ye need to hear.”
Ruby didn’t want to hear anything. She wanted distance. She wanted escape.
“Hamish, tell them what ye told me.”
The village headman looked troubled as he lifted his chin and met Ruby’s gaze. “Men came to the village. Bad men. They were looking for Evan.”
“And when I heard who they were, I sent for Bryce,” Niall said.
Men? The ones who had been chasing him?
Ruby shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
Niall shared a long look with his brother. “Evan didnae leave through choice, Ruby. He left out of necessity. He ran to lure the men who came for him away from here. To keep all of us safe. But it willnae work. Seoras MacInnes will never stop hunting him. He’s too valuable.”
“What are you talking about?”
Now Bryce looked at her. The Earl of Newborough’s eyes were dark and serious. “This goes wider than ye know. There are things going on that neither ye nor Evan understand,” he said, in a deep, rumbling voice.
Ruby didn’t know what he meant by that. As Bryce continued speaking, Ruby’s thoughts drifted elsewhere, and she heard only fragments.
“...MacInnes has been pushing further south...”
“...estates pressured into cooperation...”
“...uses proximity to Edinburgh for transfer...”
It all blurred. It washed around her like river water around a stone. All she could hear—repeating over and over in her head—was Niall’s voice.
