Page 42 of The Veiled Wish of a Highland Bride

Mia instinctively leaned forward, eager to hear what Clyde had to say that made him so glum.

“Yes, my friend. I have loved before.”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

“She was the bonniest lass I ever seen, and kind too. I wanted to marry her. By the heavens, I did want to so badly but… I could nae.”

“Why nae?”

“She was an heiress with a castle of her own and a clan waiting for its new Laird. Her husband. I am the war chief of this clan and a person my own brother counts on too much. I could nae just leave. My heart could nae let me. I turned her down and hurt her so deeply when I told her I could nae give her what she needed.”

Mia was hurt on Clyde's behalf, her own pain relegated to the back of her mind. He looked broken.

“I dinnae think I would ever love again, but ye…Ye, Mia, just found the person who makes yer heart flutter at the thought of him. A way it never did for Bram, I ken, and I cannae blame ye for that. My brother gave ye only hardship, all this time. Follow yer happiness Mia, wherever it might be.”

Mia was not sure she understood correctly what Clyde was asking her to do, but she felt a rush of gratitude towards him.

“Thank ye for telling me this, Clyde. I am sure that one day in the future when ye least expect it, love will enter yer heart ye once again. And this time ye’ll nae escape yer destiny.”

Clyde smiled sadly at her, getting off the seat and walking towards the door. As he placed his hand on the doorknob, he turned around and said, “Ye are stronger than ye ken, Mia. Dinnae ye ever forget that.”

With those last words, he walked out of the room, leaving Mia feeling devastated—for his love story that he never lived, and for hers that was slowly dying.

Sheneededto get out.

As she arrived just in front of the door and turned the knob, intending to try to shove it open or break the lock even, the wood opened easily as though it was never locked.

Clyde.

He didn’t tell her the story for nothing. He had left the door unlocked so she could escape and find her love, which he had never been able to do. Mia felt tears of gratitudewell up in the corners of her eyes. She had to leave, and she had to leavenow.

She hurriedly packed a few things, her skene included, and snuck out of the room, looking left and right for any stray guards. There were none. Curious.

Clyde.

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

The steady thundering of Archibald's horse was all that could be heard for what seemed like miles around. The mountains formed jagged lines across the horizon, white fog blurring their summits from view.

He slowed his horse to a steady trot. He was tired of running, and frankly he was running in the opposite direction from where he actually wanted to go. To Mia.

She had not left his mind, not even for a second, from the moment he left Murray castle. Even now, he seemed to be getting more worried the farther he got from her clan lands.

The screams she released as he fought with her husband tore through him like blades, and all he wanted to do was embrace her until she could breathe again. It was saddening that he had to leave her the way he did, in the clutches of the lunatic she called her husband… but what choice did he have?

Staying would have made things worse for her. Bram might have carried out his threat to have them both beheaded. For his head he did not care so much, but Mia staying alive was his biggest priority. As the powerful Laird he was, Bram was not going to break his vow. This he knew. Or he would have never left her.

He realized he hadn't been careful enough. If he had been, Bram would never have found out, and Mia wouldn’t be in this kind of situation.

Perhaps he could try to find a way to see her, just one last time.

He could sneak back into the keep and speak to her for a few minutes. He just needed to be certain she would be fine with him gone. Still riding, he contemplated his options, almost turning his horse around a few times. However, he decided it was best to speak to Lennox about it all first. He was out of his mind and couldn’t make a proper decision, not now. He needed to hear another opinion of all of this.

Archibald stopped his horse in its tracks, having just ridden through a glen. An idea had sparked in his mind, and for the life of him he thought himself mad.

Could he marry Mia and take her away from Bram so that she never got hurt again?

As much as the thought appealed to him, he knew that he could not. She was already married, and there was no law in all of Scotland that would permit him to have her as his wife unless her husband died.

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