Page 59 of Highlander’s Claim

She had said something about eggs and needing modern medicine to have a child, but mayhap there was a chance. He kent well enough how to make a child…

And so, breaking the decision he had made after Leitis’s death, he looked at her and said, “Jenny, marry me, lass.”

She gaped at him speechless, then slowly slid from his embrace and stood on the ground. Her eyes became sad and teary. And then she said one word that shattered his entire world into pieces. “No.”

CHAPTER 24

Aulay’s heart was wrenching and aching as Jenny stood before him, hastily straightening her skirts.

“Nae?” he asked.

He supposed he should not be surprised. Or feel this hurt. She had not told him she’d stay with him. She hadn’t promised anything. She’d asked to leave, tried to leave, and he had not let her.

“I can’t, Aulay,” she said, still without looking at him. “I never told you I’d even consider staying.”

He turned away. The sky was dark now. In the west, a thin line of orange and pink glowed on the horizon, the last light of the day about to disappear. To the east, the castle and the village were a small gathering of fires flickering against the vast darkness of the night. Like his last hope of finding happiness.

If he couldn’t be with Jenny, he would never be with anyone else. This was it for him.

“I ken ye didna. I suppose I hoped. I told ye I can give ye everything ye want.”

“What do you know about what I want?” she asked as she straightened her disheveled hair. “What I want is to go back. You’re not giving me that.”

He caught her hands and pressed them against his chest. “Look at me, Jenny.” When she finally met his gaze, her eyes were deep and wide, and searching. “Here’s me, a man of flesh and blood. Feel this? My heart is beating for ye. I want to be with ye for the rest of my days. To love ye and worship ye and make ye happy. Tell me whatever lies behind that time traveling rock is better. Tell me that the world of carriages that move by themselves and a house where ye live alone and sleep in an empty bed will make ye happier than I will.”

She was breathing hard. He saw tears moistening her eyes.

“No, it won’t. But there’s more to consider. No matter how much you and I both want to, you can never give me a baby. And I can’t give you one, either.”

She gently pulled her hands from under his and stepped back.

“What is more important, Jenny? An heir I may never have? Or being with the woman who will brighten the rest of my days? I ken what is right for me. Are ye sure ye ken what is right for ye?”

She stood and watched him silently for a while. Her throat moved with unspoken words. It seemed she wanted to say something, but she shut her mouth. She bent down to tug her heel deeper into her shoe, and an object fell from her dress. Something metallic pinged against the rock and rolled into Aulay’s foot. He bent down and picked it up. It was hard to see in the dim light, but he could tell that it was round and covered in grime. He scrubbed the dirt off with his thumb and gold glistened from under it. He rubbed it against his tunic until the image shone through—a king sitting on the throne with an orb and a scepter in his hands.

He knew that coin. It was a gold penny issued by King Henry III. But where would Jenny have gotten such a coin?

The English treasure ship.

His world turned icy cold and dark. The small coin in his hand weighed like a boulder and burned his fingers like nettle. He looked at her. All innocence, rejecting him because she was bound to another time. And yet, this had been in her clothes all along.

“Where did ye find this, lass?” he asked. His own voice sounded dead to him.

“The coin?” she said. “On the Isle of Achleith.”

On the Isle of Achleith? He and his men had searched for the treasure every single day for over two sennights now. Had the shipwreck been at Achleith this whole time?

“Did ye see a shipwreck there?” he asked.

She frowned and looked at the coin. “No.”

“Why did ye hide this from me?” he roared, shaking his fist with the coin.

His heart was torn to pieces. Part of him realized she’d hurt him with her rejection, and perhaps he didn’t know where that hurt ended and the surprise of the coin in her dress began. He had suspected she was on the English side all this time. He had suspected she’d been a charlatan. She had rejected both suggestions and told him an insane story about time travel.

Could all of that be a lie? How could he have believed her at all?

It all made sense now. If she was for the English this whole time, she had successfully seduced him and gained his trust. Of course she wasn’t a time traveler. She was a woman from his time, brave and courageous enough to invent a story to cover her true mission. Besides, the idea of an enemy from his time was better than a time traveler who didn’t belong here at all.