Page 80 of Kilted Abduction
Ciara sat back in her chair and frowned as she let Enya’s words sink in. She wanted to believe she hadn’t given herself to a man who was simply using her for his own ends, but who genuinely cared for her. But she wasn’t sure what to think about it all.
“Why did he keep it from me?” she asked.
“Because when we were kids, our faither made us all swear tae keep our gifts tae ourselves. Tae tell nobody. ‘Twas a way tae keep us safe because ye ken people fear what they dinnae understand. And there is nae understandin’ our gifts, I’m afraid. Domhnall didnae tell Katherine about his gift at first. It took some time.”
“Was she upset as well?”
“A wee bit, aye,” she said then took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “What I’m tryin’ tae tell ye is that me braither cares fer ye. More than ye ken. Ye’ve made him happier than I’ve ever seen him in me life. Dinnae throw that all away because heobeyed me faither’s orders—'tis somethin’ he’s done his whole life, that was ingrained in him.”
Ciara was still confused and wasn’t sure what to make of it all. But her talk with Enya took some of the bite out of the venom flowing through her veins, cooling her anger slightly. Try as she might though, Ciara couldn’t seem to ignore the fact that Magnus had used his gift to get into her head. It felt like a betrayal of her trust.
“Please just think about what I said,” Enya said softly.
Ciara frowned and looked down at her hands for a moment before raising her head again and giving Enya a gentle nod.
“I will.”
CHAPTER 41
It had been a couple of days since the fight and Magnus had been keeping his distance from Ciara. His soul longed to be near her, but he understood that she needed space. Part of him was afraid she was going to leave Dunvegan and that he would never see her again, but he knew she had been spending a lot of time with Enya and Katherine. Though Enya wouldn’t reveal the substance of their conversations, she told Magnus enough for him to know that Ciara wasn’t going to run off anytime soon.
Seeing her in the corridors of the castle from a distance and not being able to touch or talk to her was wearing a deep groove in his heart. He searched his memory and could not recall a time in his life when he’d felt as bereft as he did then. Magnus wanted, more than he’d wanted anything in his life, to hold Ciara in his arms and look deeply into her sparkling emerald eyes, and to tell her he was sorry for keeping the secret he’d kept from her.
But Enya had counseled him to keep his distance. She’d told him Ciara would come around eventually. Every day that passedthough, was taking a toll on his spirit. On his heart. He was climbing the walls of Dunvegan and was on the verge of begging Domhnall to send him away to scout for Fairfax and his men. He felt the need to do something because haunting the halls of the castle like a ghost without direction was killing him.
On his way to the practice yard to blow off some steam, Magnus rounded the corner and ran into Ciara. He jumped back as if startled and stared down at her. She had the same look of uncertainty on her face Magnus felt upon his and they both stood still and silent for several long moments as if each of them was trying to figure out what to do.
It was the strained silence between them that cut Magnus so deeply. He would have given anything in that moment to hear her laughter again. He swallowed the lump in his throat and ran a hand through his hair.
“Are ye all right?” he asked, finally breaking the silence.
“Aye. I’m fine,” she replied softly. “And ye?”
He shrugged. “As well as I can be, I suppose.”
Another tense silence descended over them, pressing down on Magnus so hard, he thought his knees might buckle. If things between them were ever going to be fixed, he knew it wouldn’t be by waiting and saying nothing and just hoping she would get over it. He knew they needed to talk, that he had to do something to shake the malaise that gripped them both.
“Ciara, I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I didnae tell ye. I’m sorry it seemed as if I was makin’ a mummery of me feelin’s. I wasnae?—”
“Are ye certain of that?” she shot back. “Are ye certain that doin’ yer duty isnae more important than usin’ me feelin’s against me?”
“’Tis nae what I intended.”
“And yet, ‘tis what happened all the same, isnae it?”
Magnus lowered his gaze, doing his best to rein in his emotions. On the one hand, he understood why she was upset. On the other hand, he was frustrated that she didn’t seem to be trying to see things from his point of view. It felt like she was invalidating everything that had happened between them. That she was letting her anger cloud her thoughts.
“Ciara, if ye were in me boots and it had been yer family under threat from Fairfax, ye would have used every tool at yer disposal tae protect yer clan,” he said. “And ye cannae tell me that’s nae true. Ye’ve told me as much.”
“But I wasnae the threat.”
“I ken that,” he snapped. “But there may have been things ye kent or had overheard without realizin’ they were important that we needed tae ken. Ye’ve been in a room with Fairfax and yer faither?—”
She gritted her teeth. “Nae when they were plannin’ on makin’ war. I wasnae included in those conversations.”
“I ken that. Now that I’ve seen intae yer thoughts, I ken that. At the time though, I didnae and I was ordered tae find out.”
“And ye always follow orders, eh?”
