Page 75 of The Laird’s Sinful Secret

“Get these people inside,” Euan commanded, his voice carrying absolute authority. “Brighde, I need ye checking fer injuries. Niall, organize a scouting party, I want tae ken if more attacks are coming. Calum, David, Archibald—with me. We ride in ten minutes.”

“Me laird!” A man stumbled forward, his clothes still smoldering. “They came from nowhere. Set the granary ablaze and were gone before we could mount a defense. We lost—” His voice broke. “We lost so many.”

Euan’s face went grey. Moyra watched something crack in his expression—the absolute devastation of a leader who’d failed to protect his people. His hands clenched at his sides, and for one terrible moment, she thought he might crumble under the weight of it.

Then his spine locked straight as a blade. His jaw turned to granite. When he spoke again, his voice could have shattered stone.

“Ye did what ye could,” he told the villager firmly. “Now let us dae the rest. Brighde will see tae yer wounds. Catriona, make sure everyone has food and water. And someone find quarters fer⁠—”

“I’ll help.” Moyra’s voice cut through his orders. “Tell me what needs daeing.”

Their eyes met, and in that charged moment, their earlier argument vanished. This wasn’t about jealousy or complicated feelings. This was about people suffering, about a village burning while they’d been arguing over nothing.

“Help Brighde with the wounded,” Euan said quietly. Then louder, addressing everyone: “We dinnae abandon our own. Ye’re safe here, all of ye. And I swear by everything I hold sacred that the bastards responsible will answer fer this.”

The promise rang across the courtyard like a bell. Moyra watched him transform from the man who’d been jealous and hurt to the laird his people needed—commanding, certain, devastating in his absolute authority.

That was why she couldn’t hate him despite everything. That was why her foolish heart kept betraying her better judgment.

Because Euan MacLeod, scarred and brooding and impossible, was exactly the kind of man worth loving.