Page 55 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

For one strange moment, she felt as though she had come upon something private between the two men. Lachlan had known Roy in a world from which she received only letters, rumors, and eventually a body wrapped for burial.

Roy had known the final years of her brother’s life. Perhaps he had known the last things Lachlan feared, the final joke he made or whether he called her name when death approached.

She wanted to ask. She feared the answer too much.

Roy spoke without turning. “Ye shouldnae be out here alone.”

Donaldina stopped beside him. “Neither should ye.”

“I am difficult tae abduct.”

“Cormac may yet surprise us both.”

A breath escaped him, a sound that, on any other night, might have conveyed amusement. Donaldina tucked the dagger more securely into her robe.

For several moments, neither spoke. The sea moved below them, black beneath the stars. Waves broke white against the rocks and disappeared. The air smelled of wet heather and salt, cold enough to sting her lungs.

Roy kept his gaze upon the cairn. Donaldina was looking at him instead. Moonlight sharpened the scar along his jaw and deepened the shadows beneath his eyes. She noticed them before. She had mistaken them for the ordinary exhaustion of travel, battle and the strain of entering a hostile clan’s hall.

Now she wondered.

“Could ye nae sleep?” she asked.

Roy’s mouth tightened faintly. “I did sleep.”

“Nae for long.”

“Nae.”

The answer came without defense.

Donaldina rubbed her thumb along the edge of her sleeve. “I heard ye walking.”

“I didnae mean tae wake anyone.”

“Ye didnae. I was awake already.”

Roy glanced at her then, but did not ask why. She was grateful. There were nights when she woke expecting Cormac’s hand around her wrist. Then, there were other nights when she heard Lachlan laughing in the corridor and rose before remembering that the dead did not return merely because grief imitated sound well enough.

Tonight, it was Roy who had been called from sleep.

Donaldina turned toward the cairn. “Ye once told me the roads from war were long.”

“They were.”

“And when I asked what happened tae Lachlan, ye answered only what was necessary.”

Roy’s gaze settled upon the sea.

She hesitated. “Will ye tell me more now?”

The wind moved between them. For so long, he remained silent that she thought he would refuse. She would not blame him. Some memories survived only because they were never touched.

Then Roy drew a slow breath.

“There are things I remember clearly,” he spoke as if to himself. “Things I wish I didnae.”

His voice was low, nearly lost beneath the water.