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I recalled him mentioning that on my arrival that he’d sent word to send her back home. Giving in to the need to soften his pain, I sat next to him and took his hands in mine. Electric sparks licked up my skin, and I gave him an apologetic stare for more than one reason. “It’s not your fault,” I soothed.
Abruptly, he stood. “Isn’t it?” Free from my hold, he walked toward the wall where at some point in the future a bathroom would be constructed. Instead, he stood in front of the hearth, where a fire raged like the one just underneath my skin.
“No. It’s mine.” I felt with all my being what I’d wrought by setting foot beyond my time.
He spun to face me. “Ye knew not of the woman I was meant to wed.”
“Maybe not. But I was the distraction that took you away from duty.”
“Duty,” he spat. “A poor king I would make if I’d let a bonnie lass come between me and duty.”
I’d heard the term “bonnie lass” before and couldn’t stop myself from asking, “You think I’m pretty?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
I stood. “Nothing with you is—”
Our conversation was cut off when Rebecca moaned, reminding us she was there. “Duncan,” she said, as her eyes fluttered open.
“Yes, lass.”
Stupid jealousy burned in my gut as he called her that, even though I’d once told him not to call me that very term.
Her eyes drifted up to where I stood. She scrambled to sit up. “Who is she?”
Duncan closed his eyes as he scrubbed a hand over his face. “My wife.”
Her eyes doubled in size. “Your wife? I’m to be your wife.”
It wasn’t lost on me she’d said “your” not “yer.”
She swung her legs off the side of the bed, ignored Duncan and came straight for me with her arms outstretched. Instinctually I did the same to protect myself.
Then the strangest thing happened. The room began to brighten from a strange glow that emanated from my skin. Her forward momentum was too late to stop as her eyes widened in horror. Instead of the inevitable collision, she passed right through me.
I spun around, but she was gone. Duncan was there a second later. “Where did she go?” I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. “Where did ye send her?” he bellowed as he placed his hands on the sides of my arms to hold me in place.
“How would I know? I didn’t even know I could do that.”
He leveled his gaze on me and spoke with purpose. “Think! What was going on in that head of yers when it happened?”
“I felt sorry for us both and wished she was where she was supposed to be.”
He dropped his hands and the intensity that was usually there when we were this close was muted. That was when I noticed his hands had only touched the fabric of my nightdress.
His unfocused eyes shifted before he turned away and resumed his place on the bench in front of the bed.
“I’m sorry,” I said because I’d caused him more problems.
“There’s nothing for ye to be sorry about. I shouldn’t have accepted the marriage proposal in the first place.”
“Why?” I asked.
When he glanced up, anger marred his pretty features. “Because I shouldn’t be here,” he roared. Wood cracked and I noticed his hands gripping the edge of the bench. He let go. “Ye wanted truths? Here’s one. My job was done. The story your mother told. I walked this earth to make sure the eldest son of Jack McAllister made it on the ship to America. But before I could leave and return home, I heard the oddest thing.”
“Your son,” I finished for him.
He nodded. “It was an inhuman sound, so clear over the noise of battle, and one I couldn’t ignore.”
“You knew he was yours,” I said. He bobbed his head again. “Who was his mother?” I knew in the story the child stood by his dead mother.
He rubbed a hand over his face as if to wipe away his tormented expression. “I had my vows.”
I didn’t want to ask too many questions because I didn’t want to stop him talking, but I asked anyway. “What vows were those?”
His head dropped on his shoulders as if heavy from the weight of whatever he was about to reveal. “I was here to serve a purpose, not to succumb to human desires. It was why I was sent. The longer we are here, the more susceptible we are to the desires of the flesh. I was considered one of, if not the strongest among my order. If anyone could be here that long and not fall victim to lust, it was me.”
I reached out, wanting to touch him with a soul-deep need, but I pulled back. “What happened?” I urged when it didn’t appear he would continue.
