Page 103 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
He did, that was for certain. After everything they had been through together, now that she had come out of the other side, she could properly see that deep down, beneath all the snark and poise, Evander had a kind heart. Circumstances may have hardened his heart over the years, but they never turned him into a monster.
She dropped her hands to her sides and walked out, wondering if they would have been regarded as a power couple in another world.
It was too late to find out.
Even now, as she walked through the halls, the maids still shot her cold, baleful glares, and the guests, who were thinning out with each day, looked at her like she was the spawn of Satan himself.
She didn’t care, though. Not anymore. Her reputation may have suffered the biggest catastrophe known to man, but at least Evander was alive. She wasn’t cursed. She could start a new life somewhere. Somewhere far away from here, where people knew nothing about who she was and where she had come from.
The idea sank into her like metal in water. She would need to travel to the Lowlands. Her cousin, no matter how hard she tried to think otherwise, could be her new start at life. Her former castle was the only place where she could start over.
Truly start over.
She powered on through the halls, ignoring more people and focusing on her path, her trunk now in hand. This was the toughest decision she had ever made, but she had four days to think in the dungeons. It might be a difficult decision, but it was the best one. It worked for her and the castle as well.
The castle doors came into view, and she quickened her steps. Usually, she would spend some time looking around, admiring the walls one last time, but now she just couldn’t wait to get out.
She pushed the doors open, the rays of the setting sun catching her face.
Evander walked out of the apothecary and back to his room, his body vibrating with rage. He wanted to scream, to yell at someone and curse them for causing Keira to leave, but he couldn’t find anyone to do that to. The maids scurried past him like he was carrying the plague, and normally, it wouldn’t have mattered to him.
He stepped into his room and closed the door behind him. He couldn’t sit or relax on the bed anymore. Instead, he started to pace back and forth, his heels knocking hard on the hardwood floor.
This could not possibly be the end for him and Keira, could it? She wouldn’t just leave him—leave the castle and everything she had managed to build over the past few months behind now, would she? Was she capable of doing that? Did she have the heart?
He looked out the window at the courtyard, hoping to catch a glimpse or some semblance of her walking along the green grass. But he saw nothing save for livestock and a few children, including his nephew, roaming the courtyard.
A knock suddenly sounded at the door, interrupting his thoughts, and his head whipped around. The door creaked open, and Rory walked in, a hesitant look on his face.
“I was informed ye have woken up. I had to come and see for meself,” he muttered. “Thank God. We thought she managed to kill ye.”
Evander felt his rage flare anew. “She?”
“Oh, ye ken. Lady Blythe,” Rory responded. “We thought she did to ye what she did to her former husband.”
So everyone had thought his wife had something to do with his heart failure.Hiswife. She was not Lady Blythe anymore. But somehow everyone seemed to have forgotten that part, since they spoke poorly of her in front of him.
Something about that reinvigorated him.
He mustered whatever strength he had left and walked to the door as quickly as his feet would carry him.
“M’Laird?” Rory asked as Evander brushed past him. “M’Laird, where are ye going? Ye should be?—”
“If one more person tells me that I need to be resting…” Evander growled and shut the door behind him.
He needed to find her. Stop her from leaving and throwing away whatever this thing between them was. He had been in the castle with her for so long that he couldn’t imagine his life without her.
Yes, he could not imagine his life without her. He fully acknowledged it.
He raced to the apothecary. If anyone would know where she was headed, it would be her best friend.
As he turned a sharp corner, he stumbled into Lesley—and Hudson.
“M’Laird?” Lesley greeted, the upset look on her face fading excruciatingly slowly.
Evander’s eyes darted between her and Hudson. From the looks on their faces, he could tell they had been engaged in a rather important conversation. One he would have cared about if something else was not his priority.
“Keira. Where did she go?” he asked, turning to Lesley one more time
