Page 2 of A Match Made in Heather

His heart lurched, and a shuddering pain shot through him. Surely, she couldn’t be changing her mind. Not now. “We have to leave, Arabel. We have a new life waiting for us.” He took her shoulders in his hands, and she trembled beneath his fingers. “Ithasto be tonight.”

Her mouth fell open at his unintended ultimatum. “It isn’t that simple,” she breathed out. She appeared more vulnerable, more fragile than he’d ever seen her, and the change terrified him. “They need me.”

“Ineed you.” And a helluva lot more than her brother did. She’d feel guilty for leaving. She wouldn’t be Arabel if she didn’t, a woman so dedicated to her family that he often teased her that she would bleed Rowland tartan green and blue if she pricked a finger.

But they had no choice. They had to elope, and there could be no delay. If they didn’t go tonight, he’d lose the job with Lord Donnelly, and her family might very well make good on their plans to marry her off to Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll’s youngest son.

“Your brother is a grown man,” he reminded her, more harshly than he intended in his increasing desperation. “He can face the consequences of his own actions.”

Raw grief darkened her face. “Garrick, please! I can’t . . .” The soft plea and fresh tears broke his heart. “I can’t elope with you.”

His body flashed numb. Even as he held tightly to her, he felt her slipping away. “Not tonight?” Then, fearing her answer even as he pressed, “Or not ever?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered, anguish marring her beautiful face.

Desperate to keep her with him, he wrapped his arms around her waist and tugged her against him, kissing her with such intensity that she shivered. With every beat of his heart, he willed her to love him, to choose him and the life they could have together.

She melted in his arms with a whimpering sigh, then parted her lips and allowed him to plunder her mouth. Her kiss tasted of the highlands, of heather and peat smoke, of the wild glens and the wide sky. He drank her in, unable to satiate his need for her.

“Come away with me,” he implored against her temple. If he could only keep her right there, safe in the circle of his arms, they would be fine. She would never retreat into the house with her family, he would never lose her—“We love each other.”

She shook her head sadly, her normally bright eyes dim and downcast. “That doesn’t matter.”

“It’severything.”

“Not everything,” she whispered.

He froze, his blood turning to ice.

“I am a Rowland,” she whispered softly, but her words reverberated inside him with the force of cannon fire. “If I turn away from them when they need me, who will I be then?”

“A McGuiness,” he bit out, his wounded pride rising unchecked to the surface. “Like your husband.”

He saw her stiffen and watched as determination settled over her. He knew then that he would never be able to convince her to elope. Not tonight.

“Then do your name proud,” she countered, her words a soft challenge to his quiet demand. “Stay here with me and help me get through this. Once Samuel is out of trouble, we’ll be married.”

“If I stay, I’ll lose the job with Donnelly. You know that.” And remaining here wasn’t an option. The moment her family discovered their plans, he’d lose his position in the stables with her aunt and uncle, and she’d be married off to Campbell. “The only way we can be together is to leave tonight.”

With a faint shake of her head, she put voice to her fears, “And if my family refuses to ever see me or speak to me again? If they’re so angry that I left in the middle of the night like this, right on the heels of Samuel’s troubles, that they force us into an annulment?”

“They won’t. Not once they learn that I’ve bedded you.” He hated himself for transforming those special hours into something so base, yet he had no choice. She was slipping away, and he would do anything to keep her with him.

“And if they don’t care about that?” she whispered hoarsely.

Something ripped inside him. Was she not even going to attempt to fight for their future? Or had she already resolved herself to breaking off with him? Clenching his jaw, he bit out, “Didyouever care, Arabel?”

The surprised expression on her face melted into anger. “How can you say that? Iloveyou—”

“Yet you gave yourself knowing that I would never have your family’s consent to marry you, that the only way we could be together was to elope and live somewhere away from them,” he accused. “What else am I supposed to think now?”

“That my family needs me.” Even in the shadows he could see the gleaming tears in her eyes. “That I’m in an impossible situation.”

“The same impossible situation you’re puttingmeinto,” he bit out, giving in to the dark impulse inside him to hurt her as much as she was hurting him. “Or do I come in second to them?”

“It isn’t like that, and you know it.” Pained frustration permeated her trembling voice. “I love you, Garrick. I never would have given you my innocence if I had any doubts about us.”

“And why did you, exactly?” he demanded. He wanted to hear her say the words,neededto hear her say them . . .Because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, because when I am with you what my family wants doesn’t matter, because I want to make a new family with you . . .