Page 68 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

“Fear has a habit of growing when it is permitted tae choose for us.”

Donaldina felt the words touch somewhere deep within her. Roy glanced toward the stable doors.

“But courage doesnae mean ye must return before ye are ready,” he added. “Tomorrow, perhaps, ye may stand outside her stall. The day after, ye may offer her an apple from the other side of the gate.”

“And then?”

“Then ye decide what comes next.”

Iain’s fingers loosened upon Roy’s shirt. His mother reached for him again. This time, the boy allowed himself to be transferred into her arms, though one hand remained curled around two of Roy’s fingers until the final moment.

Roy rose slowly. Dust marked his knees. Iain’s tears darkened the front of his shirt. A strand of straw clung to his sleeve. He looked nothing like the feared MacIver warrior whose name had entered Dun Ard before him, wrapped in rumor and blood.

He looked tired and gentle, human in a way Donaldina had never imagined when he first crossed her brother’s hall beneath cold stares and accusations.

Roy turned. His gaze found hers. Something in his expression hardened slightly, as though he understood what she had witnessed and wished he could take it back beneath the protection of reserve.

Donaldina tightened her hold upon Bran’s reins.

“The healer should see the boy,” Roy urged.

“I will send for her.”

He nodded. Behind him, Iain rested against his mother’s shoulder, no longer crying. His eyes followed Roy with complete trust.

Donaldina’s heart tightened. She believed Roy’s gentleness rare because she had seen so little of it. Now she understood that it was not rare at all. It was merely guarded.

And perhaps that was why every glimpse of it felt like being entrusted with something precious.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The royal messenger arrived beneath a hard autumn rain.

Roy saw him first from the western wall, a solitary rider bent low over a lathered horse as he followed the cliff road toward Dun Ard. The royal colors hung dark and wet from the man’s shoulder. Even at a distance, the sealed leather case strapped across his back announced his purpose more clearly than any horn might have done.

The King had answered Donaldina’s petition.

The knowledge settled beneath Roy’s ribs with a weight no old wound could explain. He had known the reply had to come. He placed the letter back into the messenger’s hands himself, refusing the easier dishonor of destroying it. Donaldina asked the King to release her from the marriage accord. Roy promised that her request would reach Edinburgh untouched.

He kept that promise. He found no satisfaction in it now.

By the time the messenger passed through the gates, word had spread through the castle. Councilors emerged from chambers with their robes only half fastened, drawn by the prospect of royal judgment as gulls were drawn to wreckage.

Roy descended to the great hall. Donaldina was already there.

She stood near the long table beneath the MacNicol banners, dressed in deep blue, with her hair braided and pinned at the nape of her neck. Her face remained composed, but one hand closed tightly over the other before her.

Roy learned to read such small betrayals. She was afraid. Perhaps she feared the King would refuse her petition. Perhaps she feared he would grant it. Roy was no longer certain which answer he himself feared more.

Their eyes met across the hall. Neither spoke.

The messenger entered with rain shining upon his cloak and bowed first toward Donaldina, then toward Roy. A clerk followed him carrying a narrow wooden case bound with brass.

“Lady Donaldina MacNicol. Laird Roy MacIver.” The messenger’s voice carried easily through the hall. “I bear the answer of His Majesty King James concerning the petition presented before the Crown.”

A murmur moved among the assembled council. Roy took his place beside Donaldina. He did not touch her, though the space between their sleeves felt narrower than it was.

The messenger removed a folded document from the leather case. Thick red wax bore the royal seal. Donaldina’s breathing altered beside Roy.