Page 44 of The Pirate Laird's Hostage

‘He says you belong to him.’

‘I don’t belong to anyone.’

‘There you are wrong, for you belong to me and, now I know about Sutherland, I am more determined than ever that you won’t go back to Beharra with Cormac.’

Morna shook her head and frowned. ‘Why are you doing this to me? Why are you hurting me like this? I saved your life once. Does that mean nothing to you?’

‘It means everything to me.’ He sighed, feeling the fight leave him at the expression of disdain on her face. He wanted Morna Buchanan, that much he could acknowledge, and not just in his bed, but in his life, and she couldn’t wait to get as far away from him as possible. Suddenly it all crashed in on him, his loneliness, his bitterness, the emptiness of his loveless existence. A soft place had grown in his heart, and all it had done was give this girl the power to humiliate him and lay him low. So, it was with dread in his heart that he asked, ‘If you hadn’t been taken by Ramsay, what would you have said to the fine Owen Sutherland? Would you have accepted his proposal?’

‘No,’ she said.

‘And why is that, he would seem eminently suitable as a husband?’ said Will bitterly.

‘I would have said no because I do not love him.’

‘And who do you love, of all these men so eager to claim your heart?’

‘I don’t love anyone,’ she said, brown eyes locking with blue.

Her words were firm, but her eyes were swimming with tears. Will had spent all his life learning how to lie, and he was good at it. Morna was not. He saw the uncertainty in her eyes, he saw the lie.

If she had given another answer, told him she was in love with Sutherland, he would have relented and let her ride away with her brother, but she had not. If he was sure of anything, it was that she did not really hate him and her body’s response to his touch told him she wanted him as he wanted her. So Will took hold of her and brought his lips to within a breath of hers, longing to kiss her, to put his mark on her, to take her with a fierce possessiveness, bind her to him forever. Hope, tremulous and frail, sparked in Will’s heart, but he hid it with his usual terseness.

‘Well, Morna Buchanan, you’d best find a way to change your brother’s mind about letting you bide here with me, else we’ll all be going to the Devil, for I back down for no man.’

He turned and left her with a thud of the door and the turn of the key in the lock.

Chapter Sixteen

Morna spent a sleepless night wracked with guilt and indecision. She could not let her brother or his men die for her, nor did she want Will to die. It was a shameful fact to acknowledge, but in some dark part of her soul, she wanted him. Beyond that, Morna had seen glimpses of the pain which lay behind his hard demeanour, she had seen the wounded man beneath. Worst of all, she realised that when she had seen Cormac on that hill in the rain, her heart had risen, and then fallen, at the thought of leaving Fitheach and never seeing Will again. Of course, she could not say any of this aloud to a man who clearly saw her as a distraction, a warm body to cushion him in bed, or, worse still, an obligation, because of her helping him in the past.

When the key turned in the lock, Braya stood before her with a sheepish look on her face and a tray of food in her hand.

‘The master says you are to remain in here, safe, so I have brought you breakfast.’

‘I don’t want it. I want to see Will, now.’

‘He won’t like it if I defy his orders.’

‘He won’t like it if half his clansmen die when my brother attacks this castle. Take me to him and we can avoid all that bloodshed, I swear. Please, Braya.’

***

Morna sat astride the horse before the gates of Fitheach, trying to compose herself. Her horse was tethered to Will’s.

‘I will not tie your hands, for Cormac’s rage is huge enough as it is, but do not be foolish and try to bolt,’ said Will with a scowl.

‘I give you my word, I will not. I need to talk to him, that is all. I swear I will return with you to Fitheach, if only you would grant me this one chance to see him.’

‘You are up to something, Morna.’

‘Aye, saving your life.’

‘Very well, I will take this path and see where it leads, but I suspect nowhere good.’ Will turned to Waldrick, who was shaking his head and tutting at this side.

‘This is madness, my friend. Give him a chance and Buchanan will cut you down and take the girl.’

‘Put the best archers on the walls. We’ll bring him in close enough to see the whites of his eyes. So if you try anything, Morna,’ Will said, turning back to her, ‘it will be on you what happens afterwards. Agreed?’

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