Page 7 of His Secret Highland Bride

“That may be true, but I thank you for inviting me to stay anyway.”

“And not making a mess you’ll need to clean up?” he added with a grin.

She’d noted how neat he was. And despite his large size, he was graceful when he moved. As if he’d thought through each movement before making it.

“That too.” She let out a sigh. “But now I am keeping you from your work, and I have had my escape for the day. I must get back.”

He looked around and gave an easy shrug. “I have time.” He swallowed and said, “I’m taking time.”

The correction seemed significant to him in some way, but she didn’t understand and let it pass.

“Perhaps I can help you.”

“If you’re of a mind to stay, I’ll not put ye to work, but I would enjoy your company. After years of being in the midst of a large group, it does feel strange to be alone so much.”

She smiled, pleased to be asked to stay. He was right—she would’ve taken anyone over the monsters she lived with—but she actually enjoyed being with Shane. He wasn’t simply a diversion.

“What of your family? Were you born here?” she asked to get a conversation started.

“Aye. As were my younger sister and brother. Do you have any siblings?”

“Nay. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy the quiet so much. Being an only child meant spending a lot of time alone.” She recalled the times when her cousin Meaghan would come to visit. They often pretended to be sisters. And when she would leave to return home, how Lindsay felt the loss.

“I’m sure you were hoping for sympathy, but you never had to fight anyone over the last tart, so you’ll get none from me.” He was teasing her.

“Never,” she conceded with a laugh. “The next time I make tarts, I’ll bring you some so you won’t have to share.” It would be the least she could do after what he’d done for her the day before. “I don’t know that I thanked ye properly for your help yesterday.”

“I hope the events did not haunt your sleep last night,” he said. His green eyes spoke of a man who had dealt with his own demons the night before.

Rather than tell him she’d hardly slept because every time she closed her eyes she saw those men, she pressed her lips together and tossed a piece of stick she’d picked up.

He shrugged and frowned in the direction of the woods. “A woman should be safe to walk about wherever she pleases without risk of…harm.” His voice cracked on the last word, and he swallowed before continuing. “And ye shouldn’t have had to worry about being set upon by the MacPherson guard—the very men who have sworn to protect the people on these lands. I’m embarrassed my clan has fallen the way it has.”

“I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but the laird didn’t see to his people the way he should’ve. Leaving the clan to fend for themselves has turned them desperate.”

He nodded in agreement. “I imagine you’re looking forward to returning to your own clan.”

“Yes.” No clan was without its problems, but at least she was safe on Wallace lands. She was careful not to say so—she didn’t want to let it slip that she was a Wallace. She had no idea what the Cameron clan was like.

She felt bad for lying to the man who had quickly become a friend, but it was safer that no one knew who she was. She’d sent a letter to her parents explaining her unwillingness to marry the new laird of the MacPhersons and requesting escort back home until a proper match could be arranged. But until they arrived, she wanted to be safe.

Being a laird’s daughter meant marrying for an alliance rather than love. She’d been raised for such a thing and knew her duty. But now she reconsidered having rejected Robert and the Fletchers. For the MacPhersons—with the exception of the man next to her—were completely unacceptable. Thinking of those unacceptable MacPhersons made her realize she’d been with Shane for too long.

“I must go. I have chores to finish before starting supper.”

He must have heard the worry in her voice, for his gaze narrowed. “Do you wish for me to see you home?”

“Nay.” That hadn’t gone well the day before. It wouldn’t be good for Doran to see Shane again and tell her uncle. “I’ll be fine.” But she wasn’t fine.

After reluctantly leaving her new friend, she returned to the small cottage to find her uncle in a fit of rage that her chores were not done. “I’m here. I’ll see to them quickly,” she assured the man, picking up the cracked bucket that leaked more water than it carried. She had to make multiple trips to have enough to cook with.

“Where were ye? Sittin’ about in the forest, staring off at nothing again? I’m not sure how things are on the Wallace lands, but here, laziness is punished.”

At the word “punished,” Lindsay stood straighter and looked the man directly in his narrowed, bloodshot eyes. “And if ye touch me, you’ll need to make your own meals so not to find poison in one of them,” she threatened, and the man laughed, showing off his blackened teeth.

“Just do what you were sent here to do.”

What she’d been sent there to do? She’d been sent to care for her mother’s younger sister. And now…she was supposed to marry the MacPherson laird. She wondered if her mother had known before she’d left Riccarton. Surely, her parents had discussed their plans.