The Runaway Highlander (The Highland Renegades Book 2) (20 page)

He placed his fingertips gently on the side of Anne’s face, then fully cupped her head and pulled her toward him.
The kiss was short, but with her open acceptance of him, so passionate.

One of these damn days, he was just going to kiss the argument out of her, and enjoy the hell out of it. For the time being, they had to make all haste.

“I want to protect all of you.” Aedan had never felt this much raw emotion before and thought his body might not contain it. He wanted to gather all three of them in his arms and carry them to safety. But he didn’t know exactly what safety looked like anymore.

In order to protect Elena, they all had to hide, and he couldn’t think of anywhere they could safely accomplish that in this country. Anne would never be able to live in England, and their only option to have a chance at keeping Elena from the law and Brighde from his father was to put an ocean between them.

He’d never imagined leaving Scotland. But there looked to be no choice. They had to leave.

The door was lighter than he remembered, or he was getting stronger. He moved it easily aside. Molnar and Brighde sat at the table, with a flickering fire around the corner lighting the cave, each holding the end of a large piece of cloth.

“This thread here,” Molnar was saying, “is the precise color I want to pick up in the plates.”

Brighde’s bright eyes met his and she rose from her chair, dropping the cloth. “Oh, Aedan! Molnar is going to make me a plate to replace the one…” she stopped, looking from Anne to Elena. “You were successful?”

She raced forward and grasped Elena’s bloody hands. “Oh, my dear. Are you well?”

Anne reached for Brighde’s belly and put one hand on her shoulder. “Please, don’t put yourself out on our account. We don’t want to endanger the baby.”

A bubble of happiness began deep in Aedan’s stomach and fluttered up into his throat. Seeing Anne and Brighde holding hands was just about the most beautiful thing he’d ever hoped to see. The two women he loved the most in the world, together. Safe.

If he could have
frozen that moment, he would be able to die a happy man.

Chapter Fifteen

Anne sat on the side of the strange bed in Molnar’s cave and wiped at her sister’s forehead. She hadn’t realized just how pregnant Brighde would be and once she saw Aedan’s near-to-burst sister, she knew they would need to re-think their plans.

She cleaned the last of the blood from Elena’s hands and smiled up at Brighde, who watched them from the table. Molnar and Aedan were around the corner, wrapping food for their journey. Anne had paid Molnar well for the supplies they planned to take. Much more than they were worth. But that was the guilt.

“You are so much more beautiful than Aedan led me to believe.” Brighde’s voice had a lyric quality, as though she might be a singer. She had the same bright, dark eyes that
Aedan had, and the same strong cheekbones. But where Aedan’s mouth was full, supple, and his cheeks cut in rugged lines, Brighde had a delicate jaw with a small mouth. She was beautiful in the same way Aedan was handsome. Their strength was evident in their features.

Of course, Anne didn’t dream of kissing Brighde’s mouth the way she did Aedan’s. And Brighde didn’t have the long, jagged scar covering one side of her face. But in Brighde’s face, Anne saw what Aedan might have looked like as a boy.

If given the choice, she would pick him just the way he was. The more she fell in love with Aedan, the more she came to love his scar as well. It gave his face a frightening character that thrilled her from crown to toe.

It reminded her of his virility as a warrior. His dedication and loyalty. His fierce protectiveness. All the things she was growing to love about him.

She loved his scar, just as she loved the man who wore it. No man could wear it with such distinction.

One day, she would be able to tell him these things in her heart. The very next time they were alone, she would tell him.

He deserved to know them.

“You’re thinking about Aedan, aren’t you?” Brighde’s amusement was obvious on her pretty face. “You look like a woman in love.”

Anne smiled and glanced toward the fire. She saw Aedan’s tunic peeking around the edge of the cave wall, no doubt where his strong shoulders cut out from the rest of him.

“You should convince your brother of that.”

Brighde’s mirth disappeared with stunning swiftness. “I hope that doesn’t keep you from telling him.”

“He won’t believe me.” Anne remembered the look on his face when her mother said Anne could never love him. He hadn’t wanted to believe her
mother, but he did. She saw the conflict on his face, in his eyes.

“Don’t stop trying to convince him.” Brighde leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “He loves slowly because it hurts not to be loved back.”

Anne’s eyes filled with tears. She could imagine a young man, accustomed to physical beauty and, having that torn from him because of his loyalty, which ran so fiercely deep in him, he likely couldn’t control it. She wished she had known the boy Aedan had been, if for no other reason than to be able to prove to him that she could love him as deeply as he loved her, regardless of what scars he wore.

“Just don’t stop trying.” Brighde breathed slowly, but loudly.

“Are you well?” Anne asked, standing quickly.

Brighde finished her breath and nodded. “I’m still two months from delivery. I just have pain sometimes.”

Anne couldn’t believe it. Brighde was big as a suckling sow. That date had to be wrong. Perhaps she didn’t know how to tell when a babe would come.

Aedan came into the room like an expectant father. “Are you having birth pains?”

Anne felt a smile expand across her face at his glee. For the first time, she wondered after the father of Brighde’s baby. Would he show the same love for the child? She placed a hand on her own stomach. Someday, she hoped, her belly would be round like that, and bring the same excitement to… God help her, she did want to be the one Aedan looked at with those exultant eyes.

Brighde waved him away. “Finish your preparations,” she said. Anne looked down at the flat plane of her stomach. The words her mother had uttered echoed in her mind.
He’s smart… you’d better hope he doesn’t double-cross you
.

Would that be her future? To have a tumultuous marriage like her parents? Would she and Aedan ever be able to truly trust each other? She liked to think that she believed the best about him. But every man had his threshold. Perhaps being twice double-crossed was his. She could never know. Not really.

Aedan called back. “We’re nearly finished.”

“Is your sister well enough to travel?” Brighde asked.

“I should be asking if you are well enough to travel.” Anne stood from the bed and walked to the table. She took the chair that Molnar had vacated and stared into Brighde’s face. “You are a brave woman to join us. I fear we will be consigning you to the fate of a criminal.”

“Better a criminal and to be with Aedan than a free woman and to be with my father.” She looked at her belly with a rueful smile. “Now that I have a child out of wedlock, no man will have me. I could not have survived the whole of my life living with Randall Donne. His sins will catch up with him and I must be well away from that, with my baby, when they do.”

Anne squeezed her hand. “We will be.”

Aedan came into the front room with a large, heavy satchel in his hands. “What are you two talking about?”

Brighde grinned up at him. “How you rescued me from my fate. For which I cannot begin to repay you.”

“There will be no repayment.” Aedan kissed her forehead and stood next to her. Anne looked at the floor. She would have given anything in that moment for him to kiss her, to hold her hand, to tell her everything would turn out in the end. No matter what kind of brave face she showed the world, she had to admit fear.

They would have to take the cart, after all their talk of fast movement. And they would need to take the utmost care with Brighde. They couldn’t be incognito any longer, not really.

Her stomach roiled. Better to be moving, at least, when they didn’t know if soldiers would try to overtake them. “We should be going if we want to travel at night.”

Aedan helped Brighde to her feet and Anne woke Elena. She still had the vacant look of trauma, but she appeared to know Anne by name and be comfortable in Molnar’s cave. She was much more at ease than she had been since they had left the castle.

Elena rose and, likely for the first time, saw Brighde. Her eyes widened. “Who is this?”

“This is Brighde,” Aedan said, pronouncing it slowly for her. “Bry-dee. She is my sister, and she’ll be coming with us.”

“Don’t forget my instructions,” Molnar interrupted. “If you want new papers and you want a true escape, you must do as I instructed. It must happen in England.”

Anne started and searched out Aedan’s eyes. He sighed and shook his head. “There was naught to be done. The easiest way to escape this place is to cross into England tonight and make for Hull with all haste.”

“Hull?” She had to keep from shouting. That was the exact opposite direction she’d been hoping for. “What happened to Edinburgh?”

“Anne, you don’t understand. We need traveling papers, and we need to get out of Scotland. Your sister will have a price on her head.”

“But why can’t we just live in a small croft somewhere in the Highlands? No one will find us.”

Elena and Brighde seemed to sink away from the conversation. Anne wished Elena had more of her wits about her this evening, because she needed the support when it came to convincing Aedan.

“You can’t have your old life back, Anne. You have to have known that when you went to get Elena from your mother.”

Anne groaned and turned her back on Aedan. She had known that, of course. But saying it out loud and knowing it were two different things.

“If you go to Hull, my dear, you’ll be able to get new papers and leave your difficulties behind.
Live a public life. Be married. Have babies. And so will your sister, and Brighde.” Molnar’s voice was, for the first time in her knowing him, artless and pliant.

She felt tears crowding her eyes. She knew their lives would never be the same, but did they have to never-be-the-same in England? Couldn’t they at least hide in Scotland?

“My father’s creditors live near Edinburgh. I can’t take the chance that Brighde will be recognized there. Or myself, for that matter. And you and your sister are well-known in the Highlands, and now in the borderlands as well. No, we have to leave Scotland.”

Aedan came up behind her and Anne wanted desperately for this vulnerability she felt to leave her. She inhaled the scent of his hair as it hovered around her face. Couldn’t she just lose herself in Aedan and be hidden in him forever? Why did they have to leave Scotland?

“In trying to secure a way for us to be able to leave the island, we have to go to England, just for a short while.” Aedan turned her to face him and they were so close, she could feel his breath on her face. “I promise, we will leave as soon as we are able.”

Anne closed her eyes and leaned into him. He put his arms around her and held her to his chest. If he would do this forever, she would live anywhere he asked her to.

“What is in Hull?”

Molnar handed her a folded piece of parchment. “I’ve drawn a map to get to the house of Reva McTeague. But she’s called Reva the Baker. None in Hull know her connection to Scotland. You’ll go to Reva and give her whatever she asks of you, and you’ll have new papers and a new life.”

Anne reluctantly took the paper from him. Aedan squeezed her shoulders. “This is our chance,” he said. “For all of us to get away from your family, from my family, from the duties we hold to our memories, and just live the life we want.”

“You must hurry.” Molnar pushed at them, then scurried around to help Brighde. “If you plan to cross the border in the night, you must leave now. And do not travel on the road during the day.

“Yes,” Aedan said. “Only at night on the road, and we’ll find the forests during the day, or try to sleep.”

“This should be enough food to get you to Hull. You send Anne in to find Reva before you bring the whole cart.”

Aedan put out a hand to stop the old man’s progress toward the door. “Wait, why Anne?”

“She is the least likely to be recognized.” Molnar rolled his eyes when they continued to gape at him. “Not pregnant, not a killer, no scar.”

Anne shook her head. “Fine. I’ll go into the city, I find Reva, and then we pay her to get papers. Then, what do we do?”

“There is a farm on that map where Reva’s son
Fergus lives. You will go there for safety until you can get a boat to France.”

Her fingers closed around the document. She hadn’t realized how important it was. “Molnar, how can we ever thank you?”

The old man smiled, his mostly toothless mouth making a comic situation out of what might have been tearful. “You’ve paid me well my dear. In coin, and information.” He touched his head. “No apologies for gagging me, my dear. I understand.”

Tears came to her eyes and before he could move again, Anne fell upon the old man and hugged him. “I don’t know how we can ever thank you.”

“You live.” He pulled away from her and pushed them all toward the door. “That’s thanks enough.”

*****

The five-day ride to Hull had been torturous, between Elena’s sleep terrors, his sister’s pains, and his own feelings about Anne. Being so close to her, even sitting at her side, but never being alone, Aedan thought he might go crazy.

Every moment was torn between wanting to take her off into the woods and kiss her senseless, and keep her at arm
’s length for his own safety. Never knowing what kisses would be her last, before she left him for good or before he would be forced to leave her. That was the real torture.

They’d come across the farm Molnar
described, and as had been promised, there was an abandoned building not far from the farmhouse itself where they could hide the cart and be unseen. Before Anne left for the city, he did pull her into the unseen corner of the barn and kiss her senseless, just as he’d been debating the whole trip. Not before extracting promises for her quick and safe return. But she walked away from that dark corner with dazed eyes and plumped lips, and he couldn’t help feeling a sense of satisfaction as he watched her scurry across the meadow toward the road.

He should have kissed her more.

Elena seemed to be calm, which wasn’t a promise for long, but Aedan felt it would be long enough that he could leave his sister with her while he went to search out Reva’s son.

Molnar had encouraged them not to take the cart directly to the farmhouse, just in case his information was outdated. Instead, Aedan left Anne to go into the city, and he walked in the opposite direction, carrying only a few coins in case he needed to ply Reva’s son for anything important.

They were close enough to the sea again that the air was cool and salty to the tongue. Aedan had left his sword and dagger back at the barn with his sister and kept looking behind him to make sure the building really was as hidden as Molnar had promised.

The farmhouse was a tiny thing at the end of a well-plowed field. Smoke drifted from the back, where the fire had likely been lit, and Aedan found himself making a wide berth to get the whole picture of exits and possible traps.