Page 94 of The Highlander's Auctioned Virgin
Elinor opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her skin was pale. Like clouds in the sky.
“Did he hurt ye before…?” Ciaran trailed off, his eyes roaming over her, checking for injuries.
He could not even bring himself to finish the question. She could not imagine how much this weighed on him.
“Ye kenned.” The words tore from her throat. Strained. Hesitant. “Ye kenned something was wrong the entire time. Ye said it, and I didnae—oh, dear Lord.”
She raised her hand to her throat, as if trying to breathe.
“Ye cannae blame yerself for that. Nay one saw it coming.”
“But ye did.”
Ciaran shrugged. “Ye daenae become the Hound without kenning how to sniff out things like this.”
He raised his hand to her cheek. She flinched, blinking her eyes furiously for a few seconds.
“Oh,nowye’re afraid of me?” Ciaran drawled, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “After everything we’ve been through?”
Elinor shook her head. “Nay, I am nae afraid of ye. I am only shaken.”
That was true. The only time she had been truly afraid of him was shortly after she had first met him.
She was not afraid now. She was just… enlightened. She was seeing the man she was going to marry for who he was for the very first time. He had killed a man in front of her without hesitation.
She had to figure out how she felt about that quickly, because deep down, she knew this would not be the last time it happened.
“Yer braither,” she choked out as he examined her arms once again, “Why would he send yer best friend after ye?”
Ciaran tensed, a muscle ticked in his jaw. It took a moment, but then he responded, his voice still thick with anger. “Because I didnae kill him when I had the chance.”
Her throat bobbed. She had no idea what to say to that.
Luckily, she did not have to wait for long. Fergus came back, his sword now clean.
“I am afraid the room we have prepared for ye is nay longer safe, M’Laird.”
Ciaran looked up at him.
Fergus shifted his weight from one foot to the other and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. “I have asked Flora to take ye in. Her husband has yet to arrive, so ye can have a proper room. Hopefully, nay one else will find ye. More may be lurking around—we daenae ken.”
Ciaran nodded and turned back to Elinor. “Are ye ready to leave?”
The words stuck in the back of her throat, refusing to come out, so she nodded instead.
Ciaran held out his hand. She looked down at it and then back up at him. His words echoed in her mind.
“Oh, now ye’re afraid of me?”
She could not show fear. Not now, when they were still amid his people.
“Elinor.”
Her name sounded gentle. Way too gentle to have come from the mouth of someone like him.
She bit the inside of her cheek and grabbed his hand.
Fergus led them out of the hall and past a few crumbling houses.
