Page 102 of The Lyon and the Unicorn
James tucked his shirt into his breeches and wrapped his plaid around his body. Then he extended his hand to Duncan. “Come with me.”
The ghillie hesitated. “Are ye certain?”
James glanced at Clara and smiled.
“Aye,” he said. “As the lass says, we should be free to love whom we want. Are ye coming, lass?”
Clara shook her head.
“Forgive my brother,” James said. “He and I lived in our da’s shadow. We all did. But now that shadow’s lifted, we can be the men we were meant to be—I, the laird, and he, the man who can love ye freely. Because he does love ye, lass.”
Clara glanced at the path in the direction her husband had gone.
Then she shook her head.
“But not enough.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Ripples danced acrossthe surface of the loch. At the far end of the water, Murdo caught a flash as something moved—a fish, perhaps, swimming free, unburdened by honor or duty.
“I’m free of you at last, Da!”
The wind caught his voice and tossed it aside, as if it knew the futility of his words. The curse Da uttered on his deathbed would fester in his soul.
The curse he’d placed on Clara.
And now she’d disappeared.
Murdo had waited for her to return to the castle, but she hadn’t. After James arrived with Duncan, Buck trotting at their heels, Murdo went in search of Clara, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps his da had won after all.
A piercing cry came from overhead. The snowcapped peak of Beinn Urraim glistened in the sunlight, and above, two shapes circled in the air.
The eagle and his mate.
When had they known they were destined for each other? Was it at first sight, or had their love grown over the seasons until they could no longer be parted?
Murdo sighed. When hadheknown, inside his soul, that Clara was his mate?
He lowered his head in shame.
“I’ve been a fool,” he said. “A weak fool.”
“I’ll not disagree, brother,” a voice said.
James stood before him, silhouetted against the sky.
“I thought I’d find ye here—hiding in the wilds rather than doing yer duty.”
“The clan’syerduty now,” Murdo said.
James picked up a stone and tossed it into the water. “See the ripples from the stone?” he said. “They travel to the farthest edge of the loch, then back until the whole surface is covered, shifting the water to their whim. Even after the stone is long gone, it strives to rule the water.”
He sat beside Murdo.
“We can’t let the stone rule us after it’s gone. We should make our own ripples—live our lives as we wish, not as that bitter old man might have demanded.”
