Page 58 of Highlander's Sinless Nymph
“We must find someone to marry ye, Sassenach,” he said, with an effort. “Then, ye shall be part o’ the clan, and nay longer under yer faither’s dominion.”
“You’re well aware of what my father is capable of doing,” Charlotte said. “Do you really think that me wedding a––a Scot will deter him from coming here?”
The beat of Cogar’s hooves changed as the horse ran onto the road. The mare’s pace picked up on the smoother, mud surface and they began to gallop up a slight gradient that led towards the imposing oak gates in the walls of MacQuarrie Castle.
“Perhaps it will nae stop him,” Edward said over the racket of Cogar’s footfalls. “But it will mean that he is goin’ against the laws of this landandthe laws of the King.”
There were more people on the road. A scattering of Scotsmen and women that looked up as they tore past, staring at Edward in his breeches. Charlotte realized that here, in the Highlands, a man not dressed in a kilt was a rarity and viewed as a foreigner, and with suspicion.
“Uh, I suppose that the question must be asked;whodid you have in mind for me to marry?” Charlotte asked.
“Well, anyone would do,” Edward said, in his typical blunt manner.
Despite the predicament they were in, Charlotte bridled a little at the flippant way that Edward said this.
Especially after what happened between us at Amar Na Chrodh Mara…
“Aye,” Edward continued, before Charlotte could voice her displeasure, “any man would do. Though…”
Charlotte pushed up against the Highlander, in case she missed his next words over the clatter of Cogar’s hooves on the stone that now paved the road. They were very close to the gate now.
“Thoughwhat, Edward?” she whispered urgently into his ear. Her lips were so close to his neck that stray strands of his shoulder-length blonde hair tickled her face.
“Though,” Edward said, “I cannae, fer the life o’ me, imagine allowin’ ye to marry someone that was nae…”
“Yes?” Charlotte urged him.
“Well, that was nae me, Sassenach,” Edward said.
Something that felt very much like hope or excitement gave a little flutter within Charlotte’s breast at these words. Almost, it overrode her amazement that she was considering Edward’s words as anything other than some sort of elaborate jest.
“I mean, it’s only so that I could keep an eye on ye, ye understand?” the Highlander said gruffly. He gave a little groan and attempted to sit up straighter. “I swore to protect ye, and I will. If that means that I must wed ye to keep ye safe from yer faither, then I shall do it. If ye can bear it, o’ course.”
The horse and its two occupants clattered up the road and approached the gatehouse.
Charlotte was mulling over this idea as fast as her brain would allow it. Only a few days ago, the idea of wedding a Scotsman to escape her father would have left her either speechless with shock or breathless with laughter. Now though, she had an inkling that Edward might have hit upon the only viable course of action for them.
Steeling herself, Charlotte said, in as practical and steady a voice as Edward himself might have spoken in, “I––I agree with you, Mr. MacAlpein. I will go along with your scheme, but I have one condition.”
“Name it, lass,” Edward said.
“That we employ this plan only as a last resort––only if all other roads are blocked. Agreed?”
Edward gave a curt nod. “Ye have me word,” he said.
Edward slowed Cogar from a gallop to a trot to a walk. As they got closer, two armed Scots walked out of the gatehouse. Each man had a broadsword at his side and carried a halberd in his hands.
“Who are ye, strangers?” called one man, speaking English with a brogue so thick that Charlotte could barely understand him. He was a young man with a smooth face and a shock of bright orange hair. Charlotte could see that he was eyeing Edward’s breeches with misgiving. “I said, who are––”
The other guard, an older man, on coming closer, suddenly nudged his colleague with the butt of his halberd. “Hold yer tongue, lad,” he said, “do ye nae recognize the horse?”
The ginger-haired young fellow looked at Cogar. “Aye, now that ye mention it, it does look familiar…”
Edward raised his head that had, until that moment, been hanging forward on to his chest.
“It is I, Edward MacAlpein, lads,” he said, slowly. “Let us through. I’ve a friend o’ mine ridin’ wi’ me. I must see me faither, as soon as possible.”
“Edward!” the older guard exclaimed. “I thought that I kenned that nag o’ yers!”
