Page 91 of Highlander’s Captive

“I’m sorry about that, Craig. I really am. I hated myself every time I had to lie to you. I wanted to tell you the truth so many times, but I was a coward. How I got here—I was on a school trip with my sister and her class. We visited Scotland, and I met this lady, Sìneag, who told me about you…”

She told him everything. Words poured out of her like water out of a tap. She found his hand and held it, and he squeezed hers. She told him she was born on a farm. That her real mother died when Amy was ten. That her father really did lock her up in the barn. And about her sister. And the years living with her aunt and uncle after her dad was charged with abuse and neglect. Then she told him about the vet school in New York. How she’d found that lost boy and knew she wasn’t born to be a vet but a search and rescue officer. Her marriage with Nick—how happy she’d been at first, and then how she’d started feeling trapped and suffocated when he’d gotten too close and she hadn’t been ready to believe that someone really loved her or that she deserved love and happiness.

Then the divorce.

And now this.

She shut up and watched Craig. He looked into the fire, his face thoughtful. He ran both hands through his hair and left them there, lowering his head between his knees. Amy had to physically restrain herself from asking his verdict. Did he believe her now? Did he forgive her?

But if he did, what then? Was there any future for them? And if there was, what was it?

She couldn’t stay here.

He could never go with her to the twenty-first century.

What was there for them?

He looked at her, shaking his head softly. “Aye, I believe ye now, Amy. I believe ye’re a good person. I believe ye thought ye had no choice and couldna have confided in me. And I am sorry I made ye feel that way.”

Her heart pulsed in her temples.

“And I love ye. Despite yer lies, I canna stop loving ye. I dinna think I ever will.”

With a shaking hand, Amy pushed a lock of hair behind her ear.

“But?” she said. “You sound like you’re going to say, but…”

“But I canna forgive ye. I canna trust ye. And I will always be doubting ye.”

She nodded. The verdict was delivered. And it was as though a concrete building fell on her, crushing her body and her heart.

You knew he wouldn’t forgive you, and even if he did, what then? You’d have to stomp on his heart anyway and leave as soon as you had a chance.

Because staying in a time where she was so restricted, where she couldn’t be her true self, would be like a prison sentence.

“Because I lied?” she said.

He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, there was such desperate, bottomless pain, Amy choked. “Because loyalty is everything to me. I canna be open again to ye and let ye betray me again. I will watch yer every step.”

His mouth twisted mournfully. “Ye may be from the future, but ye’re still a MacDougall.”

Chapter 33

Craig moved out of the bedchamber to allow Amy the space she needed to recover.

The next day, she was strong enough to get up and walk.

In three days, she came to him during supper in the great hall.

“I’ll leave tomorrow,” Amy said as she put a bowl of fish soup before Craig.

She took a seat next to him.

He didn’t look at her. It would hurt too much. Having her near him, even in the same castle, was enough to make him breathe easier, for his heart to beat faster.

“Thank ye,” he said and brought the bowl closer.

“For the soup or for leaving?” Amy teased, her voice jumping.