Page 86 of Wicked Highland Wishes
She swallowed audibly. “Colin was to make haste to the meeting, as well, so he may be away.” She bit her lip hard before speaking again. “Lena seemed to have good knowledge of the castle and can likely help ye locate Graham if he lives and was taken. Godspeed, Lachlan. My love is with ye. Always.”
Relief poured through him that she would speak of her love to him. “And ye take mine with ye, Bridgette. It will nae ever falter.”
With that, he forced himself to turn and go speak to Neil, who he quickly instructed to see Bridgette and Marion to safety and then ride straight to Dunvegan with the Fairy Flag and the news of what had occured. When Lachlan mounted his horse and rode away, he looked back over his shoulder and lifted his hand in parting to Bridgette, Neil, and Marion, who all stood watching him.
He set a fast pace back toward Arthorn Castle, formulating a plan of rescue, attack, and revenge. Once he was satisfied, he turned his thoughts first to Lena. A dull ache spread in his chest. Lena was alive? He could hardly believe it. He was not sure he would truly accept it until he saw her for himself. He then allowed himself to contemplate what had happened to Bridgette. He could not lose her. He would not. She had stolen his heart and taken his soul. There was no living without her. Whatever came, whatever wounds left scars that changed her, he would gladly accept them all if he could just be with her.
Tears filled her eyes and her throat tightened with the need to cry as she stood by Marion and Neil and watched Lachlan leave. He stopped mid-stride and glanced back at where she stood. Her heart raced when their eyes met and locked, even at this distance. She should turn away, not give him hope that was not there, yet her feet would not budge. She drank in the sight of him. He had his sword and bow and arrows strapped to his back, and she could see a multitude of daggers in different sheaths upon his body.
He was truly a formidable warrior. His broad shoulders bespoke of strength, along with his powerful arms and legs. Her heart swelled with love but then wrenched with fear at the thought of his touch. He mounted his destrier and started away, but then he turned and raised his hand in farewell. She had thought she could not long to be out of her own skin more than she had the moment Colin had touched her, but now she longed to be out of her body and mind with a desperation that grew with every beat of her heart. Marion and Neil returned Lachlan’s farewell by raising their hands, but Bridgette simply stood there. She thought she saw Lachlan tense, and she bit down on her lip at the pain she knew she was causing him and at the certainty that she would cause him more.
As he disappeared, a shudder passed through her, and a sudden overwhelming need to inhale his scent and feel the heat that wafted from his body rose within her. Yet cold fear edged the need and won. She turned away and found Marion staring at her with sad eyes. Neil had moved ahead, and Bridgette realized with a start that she had not even noticed.
“Lachlan loves you,” Marion said simply.
Bridgette nodded. “And I love him…but love is nae always enough. I am nae the woman he fell in love with.”
“Give yourself time,” Marion pleaded, tears pooling in her eyes.
“I dunnae think time will heal me, Marion.”
Marion shook her head. “You cannot know yet. And even if it didn’t, it would not matter to Lachlan!”
Bridgette stared at Marion. Her friend’s refusal to accept what Bridgette was telling her made Bridgette aware she was going to have to flee her new home and the people who loved her—including Lachlan—because he would never be able to release her. He loved her that much.
A desperate look came to Marion’s face, as if she knew Bridgette was slipping away. “Would it matter to you if Lachlan had been so grievously hurt that it greatly changed him? Would you love him less?”
“Ye ken well I’d nae love him less. But the way in which I’ve been changed does matter! I kinnae stand his touch! What sort of marriage would that make, even if there could be a marriage? I may carry another man’s bairn! I kinnae, Iwill naeask Lachlan to accept that.”
Marion opened her mouth to argue, and Bridgette shook her head. “Cease this, Marion, I beg of ye. I dunnae wish to part angry after we arrive at Duart.”
“Part? I’ll stay with ye there until Lachlan and Graham return. Ye heard what Lachlan said.”
“I am leaving Duart,” Bridgette said quietly.
“What?” Marion gasped. “Where are you going? You cannot depart! Lachlan will come here for you!”
“I ken it, but what if Colin escapes Lachlan? I kinnae ever be Lachlan’s wife when I am the wife of another, even if there was nae something wrong with me now. Nay, I must away to somewhere he will nae ever find me.”
“Where?” Marion demanded.
“I ken a place, but I’ll nae say,” Bridgette said gently. “Ye’d tell him, and he’d come for me if he kenned where to go. I fear it would kill me to turn him away. ’Tis better ye dunnae ken where I’m going.”
Marion clucked her tongue. “How do you think he’ll feel when he returns to find you gone?”
Bridgette’s stomach clenched. “Astounded. Angry. Hurt. But ’tis for the best.” She paused. “I want ye to do me a favor.”
Marion nodded as she sniffed. “Anything.”
“Tell him I’m sorry, aye? Tell him I’ll always remember the day in the forest when he first kissed me and I fell in love with him.”
“Oh, Bridgette!” Marion sobbed, but Bridgette turned away from Marion and did not embrace her as she normally would have.
They made their way, the three of them, through the afternoon across MacLean land and finally arrived at Duart Castle near nightfall. After greeting her clansmen and women, ensuring that Marion was cared for, and seeing Neil off with five of her brother’s men to ride for Dunvegan with the Fairy Flag, Bridgette called five of Alex’s most trusted guardsmen to her and told them of her wishes to have them accompany her to Culdrich Castle.
It was the perfect place to live her life in seclusion. They rarely used the remote castle, though it had been in their family for ages, and now it would be her home. She was not so brave anymore to make the journey alone, however, and she feared her brother would never stop looking for her if she simply disappeared. She feared the same of Lachlan, of course, so once she had finished speaking to her clansmen, she sat and wrote a note to Alex, telling him what had happened—without giving all the horrible details—and beseeching him on their mother’s grave not to tell Lachlan where she had gone. She made it perfectly clear that her choice was now to remain alone, even if Colin was killed and Lachlan wished to marry her. She didn’t doubt Alex would come to try to talk her into returning, but she felt sure she could make him understand. And if she could not, she would simply have to find somewhere else to flee. She hoped it did not come to that, though.
She folded the note carefully and then took it to one of the servant boys, Alfred, and gave him specific instructions to give it to no one but Alex, no matter what may occur. Alfred adored her so she felt certain he would do as she said.
Then very late that night when she was sure most of the castle inhabitants were slumbering—particularly Marion, who Bridgette suspected would refuse to let Bridgette go—she met her brother’s guardsmen where she had instructed them to wait for her and she fled into the night, leaving all her hopes and dreams behind her.
