“Fenella,” she said, knowing the impact of that one word on him. “But she doesn’t seem to remember now.”
“Or else she is pretending.”
Portia glanced back at the hut. “If she is, hers is an excellent performance. I truly believe the conversation is gone from her mind.”
“What did she mean that you would be my death?”
She drew a deep breath and released it. “She says she has the gift of sight ... or the person she was at the time claimed to have it. Right now, she acts completely different. Harry, she referred to Rose as ‘Rose of Loch Awe.’ She told me her family was distant cousins of Rose, Fenella’s daughter. Perhaps that is how Rose met Charles Chattan of Glenfinnan. She may have come to visit.”
“What else did she tell you?”
“Not very much. I asked her if she was a witch.” To his raised eyebrow, she explained, “Well, I never knew. Everyone in the valley claimed she is. I believed she wasn’t but all this talk of strange things has made me curious. PerhapsIam the one who is wrong.”
“And what did she say?”
“Lizzy said she isn’t, but she has the gift of seeing the future. That’s when she claimed I would cause your death, and then she swooned.”
He made a scoffing sound. “How could you cause my death?”
“I don’t know.” She crossed her arms. “Aren’t you worried?”
Harry shook his head. “No, are you?”
“I would not want your death on my conscience.”
“Well, it won’t be there,” he answered. He walked over to Ajax and picked the reins up off the ground. Only then did the well-trained horse move. Harry tied the reins to a low-hanging tree branch.
He was so vital and alive, so self-confident. He was the warrior, the rebel, the man who feared nothing.
Yet there was a gentler side to him as well. He cared for his family enough that he would sacrifice his life for his brother’s. She had come to know this side of him well. He was a man who understood her yearnings and pleased her in a way she knew no other could. He was a man who had regrets, who was vulnerable, who had fears but persevered anyway.
He was the man with whom she’d fallen in love.
Yes, she loved him.
She had not intended to do so, but perhaps she’d had no choice.
She’d started falling in love with him at the dance when he had pleaded General Montheath’s case. Or had she felt the first inklings of love that night when he had knelt in front of her in the moonlight and begged for his brother’s life?
Crazy Lizzy’s warning now made sickening sense.
Portia knew Harry valued her, but did he love her?
No, not yet.
Could he? Was that what Lizzy had been warning her against? He was a Chattan male. Even as a second son, the curse could apply to him. If he loved her, he would die.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t love him.
For a second, her world was transformed with the knowledge. The green of the firs around her was more green, more vibrant. The air was sweet with their scent. She’d not noticed before, but now, the world was perfect.She loved. Two words more powerful than any magic.
And that was why she’d grown so unreasonably annoyed with him earlier.I care for youwasn’t enough. She wanted more.
And yet he couldn’t return her love. Not without paying a price, and that price was too high.
“I don’t think we should meet any longer,” Portia heard herself say.
He frowned. He’d been walking toward her but stopped. “Portia, that is nonsense. Of course we should meet—”
