Page 72 of How to Heal a Highland Heart
Twenty
“Nay!” Brodee bellowed, tugging his galloping horse to a halt as he watched, stunned, as Kinsey shoved Patience off the cliff. She fell, almost as if in slow motion, and his heart fell with her. Noise rushed at him, fear hammering in his ears. Then his raw cries drowned out the fear as the desire to close his eyes and not see her hit the ground to her death was so great that water seeped out of his eyes. She fell, and then just as suddenly, she stopped. Her body jerking and then hanging. Limp.
He didn’t understand it. He couldn’t process it. He blinked, and then—
“Christ!” He dug his heels into his horse’s sides, spurring it into an all-out gallop, William and Cul matching pace behind him. The wind whistled by him as he raced toward the mountain he still had to scale. He tried to take in all the details of what he faced to get to her, to save her.
Was there enough time? How long would her skirts, which had caught on a series of branches, hold her? Was she conscious? Was—
Her scream tore through the space between them, the fear buffeting him. He watched, unable to turn away, unwilling to turn away, as her legs swung down, the material giving. He screamed his rage, and then his relief when she did not fall farther but hung from the branch by her hands now. Soft hands. Small hands. How long could she maintain her grip?
He reached the mountain and dismounted before the beast had even come to a full stop. He climbed like a man crazed. Hewasa man crazed. Fingers digging into dirt. Rocks tearing skin. Sweat dripping in his eyes. Up and up. The terror for her was making him dizzy. He loved her. Helovedher, and he’d not even told her.
“Brodee!” Kinsey standing above him at the ledge did not even make him pause. She had a dagger in her hand, and blood smeared her gown. “She tried to kill me! I think she’s truly mad!”
Brodee scrambled to the top, and with a single glance behind him, he merely said, “William.”
“I’ve got her,” William replied, understanding instinctively that Brodee wanted him to take care of subduing Kinsey.
Brodee did not slow. He ran toward the ledge toward his wife, hislife. He dropped to his knees, scanned the rocks for a way down to her, and swung his legs over.
“Nay!” she screamed from below him. “Nay! Nay, ye will die.”
He could not waste time or breath arguing. The rocks slanted downward in a sharp series of dips, as if they had been laid one upon the other. He’d climbed enough mountains to know instinctively how to scale it, where to grab hold and where to place his feet for purchase. The wind whipped at him as he descended. Rock sliced into his hands, and fear shredded his heart, but the closer he drew to her, the faster he went. His palms grew wet with his blood, and he had to pause to wipe one and then the other on his kilt before continuing the descent.
She screamed, and he looked to her. Her horror-filled eyes locked with his. “I’m slipping!”
“Dunnae ye dare let go,” he ordered her, glancing back once more.Almost there.“I love ye. I love ye, and I refuse to lose ye.” Hand over hand, one ledge to the next, and then he was bending. He grasped the rock he was on and encircled her wrist in a death-defying grip.
“I love ye, too,” she said, tears flowing down her dirt-smudged face. “I did nae let go,” she whispered as he pulled her up toward him with a grunt.
Once he had her on the ledge with him, he wrapped her in his arms, bringing her into the protection of his embrace. His heart thudded as he pressed her body to his, and wave after wave of emotions rolled over him.
“Am I too late?” he asked, shaking as he pulled back to look at her face.
Her eyes met his. There was no confusion there—only clarity. Only love. He could see it. He welcomed it with everything he was and everything he no longer wanted to be.
“Nay,” she said, pressing her lips to his. He cupped her face and kissed her as if his life depended on it. She broke the kiss and put her palms to his cheeks. “Ye are just on time for me.”
Later that night, after Cul had helped Brodee get Patience from the cliff’s edge, Kinsey was sent with two of the Blackswell warriors to be taken across the sea to an island where she would dwell guarded for the remainder of her years with other twisted minds. Once Kinsey had departed, screaming her revenge, Mari tended to Patience’s wounds and tried to tend to those of an uncooperative Brodee, but the only thing he’d let her do was wrap his palms. As she was tending to him, Mari told them about the drugging herb she’d found missing from her supplies. It did not come as a surprise now. They bid Mari goodnight, and made their way to Brodee’s bedchamber.
She watched him as he closed the door behind them. He took her hand silently and led her to the bed, where he sat and pulled her into this lap. His gaze bore into hers, and she could see a glimmer of worry in the depths of his eyes. He reached up and tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.
“I dunnae have an excuse for nae believing in ye,” he said.
“Ye do.” She brushed her fingers over the stubble on his jaw. “Ye do, and so do I. We need to develop trust, and that comes with time and really kenning each other.” She bit her lip, almost afraid to say more. Yes, he’d told her that he loved her, but that had been when she’d been hanging by a branch for her life. It was one thing to tell her when he was unsure if she would live, but could he repeat the words now? Would he open his heart to her? To all the possibility she saw for them?
“I love ye, Patience,” he said, his voice catching. “I’ll nae lie and say I wanted to, because I did nae.” She frowned at that, and he turned his head to her and kissed her. “Nae because ye are unlovable or unworthy.”
She bit her lip again. Perhaps he knew her a little better than she realized.
“It was because I saw immediately how worthy of love ye are,” he went on. “How special ye are. Even though I have loved and lost before, it was a young love, a love of infatuation and passion. My gut kenned from the moment ye revealed to me all ye had endured, that what I could find with ye was an even deeper love—of two souls coming together. That scairt me like nary a battle ever has.”
She forced herself not to interrupt. For too long, she’d wanted to know him, wanted him to open up to her, so she could sit silent now.
“All I could think was that I should nae allow myself to love ye so I would nae ever feel pain if I lost ye. But that is nae a choice. I already loved ye. I could nae stop it. Despite all my skill, all my strength, ye defeated me, broke down my barriers without ever picking up a weapon.”
She smiled then, and he slid his palm under her gown and over her bare skin, making her shiver. “Well,” he said, his voice suddenly thick with desire, “I suppose ye did wield yer womanly weapons quite expertly.”
