The Angel and the Highlander(56)
“You were enjoyable while it lasted, but now it’s time for you to leave. I don’t wish to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Lord, forgive me for such a blatant lie.
He stood naked with a look of shock and vulnerability that broke her heart even further.
“We had a good time. Take the memories and enjoy them.”
“I don’t believe you,” he muttered, shaking his head.
“Don’t make this hard, Lachlan. Don’t make me say it again.”
“Say it,” he demanded. “Say it again.”
“I don’t love you,” she shouted, the pain so intense she thought she would die. “Go home. I don’t love you.”
She turned then and ran out of the cottage before he could stop her, and she didn’t stop. She ran into the woods and kept running and running wanting to outrun the pain, mindless of the branches scratching her arms or her destination, until finally out of breath, she stopped.
Terese dropped to the ground and wept, alone with her heartache.
“Terese.”
She turned to see Piper standing behind her almost as breathless as she was.
“I saw you and followed,” Piper said between breathes.
“I don’t know where I am,” Terese cried.
Piper leaned down and wrapped her arm around her. “That’s all right. I do. Come on I’ll take you home.”
Home. Did she truly know where it was anymore?
“Rowena could use your help,” Piper said.
“What’s wrong?” Terese asked, standing without help from Piper.
“A young woman large with child arrived at Everagis a couple of hours ago in labor. She’s having a rough time of it and Rowena fears losing her.”
Terese wiped at her tears. “Then we best help her.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Piper asked.
Terese shook her head and wiped away fresh tears. “No, I’m not. Let’s go. Duty always calls.”
Hester entered the room where the woman labored to birth her babe and addressed Terese. “Lachlan and his men are ready to leave. He asks for you. Would you rather I make an excuse?”
Terese stood. “I will not be a coward now that it is at the end.”
She bravely walked out of the common shelter with Hester by her side, Megan remaining with the woman. Rowena joined the two, though she and Hester stayed their steps when they drew close to Lachlan to let Terese have a moment with him.
“We thank you and your men for all you have done for us. We will be forever grateful,” she said to him and it hurt to see that he didn’t wear his usual charming smile because of her.
“Andrew and Evan will remain for now. No doubt you will see Sinclare warriors again. I will not be one of them,” Lachlan said, “though I will recommend that the church turn this land over to you and the others so that you may remain here at your home.”
That he should do that for her when she had been so cruel to him broke her heart all the more. “That is generous of you.”
“Not really,” he said curtly. “It’s simply the cost of your pleasure.”
Terese felt the slap as if he had delivered it straight to her face. She didn’t respond since part of her felt deserving of it, for she had hurt him badly. She watched him ride away and forever disappear out of her life.
“I love you, Lachlan,” she murmured. “You take my heart with you, for I shall never give it to another.”
Chapter 20
Lachlan sat in Cavan’s solar, a tankard of ale in his hand, staring at the cold hearth. He’d been home near two weeks and he felt worse then he had when he first arrived. He intended to forget Terese, put her out of his mind and get on with his life as she had so coldly suggested. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was there in his every thought and dream refusing to let go, or was it he who refused to let go?
“Lachlan!”
He jumped and the ale sloshed over the sides of his tankard. He sat straight in his chair and looked to his brother Cavan, a large, formidable man with the same dark piercing eyes of all his brothers except Ronan. Ronan had their mother’s green eyes. “I was lost in my thoughts.”
“Which is where you have been since your return,” Cavan said with concern rather than anger.
Artair settled in the chair next to him. “What haven’t you told us?”
“Nothing,” Lachlan said, hoping Artair would leave it at that, though knowing that was unlikely. He was the most practical of all the brothers, reasoning situations until he drove you mad, though he curbed his sensibility with his wife Zia.
Cavan leaned his arm on the mantel, shaking his head. “That’s not true. Something troubles you. We know it; we all know it, and damn it our wives will not leave us alone until we find out what it is.”