Page 4 of Highlander’s Sweet Poison

The council members looked at each and nodded. Graeme didn’t bother to spare Alan another look as he walked by.

2

“I tried to have a conversation with him yesterday, and he walked away. Walked away! Like he was disgusted with me! ‘Tis just getting worse,” Elizabeth complained as she braided the grass.

Jillian murmured sympathetically. Her younger friend could get very worked up when it came to Oliver, but it was mostly from regret. After all, the new head of the guard at Loch Moran had once told Elizabeth to marry him, and she’d turned him down in favor of romance. Now that it looked like he no longer wanted him, she realized that she might have wanted the man more than romance.

Or perhaps she just needed something to cling to. It had been four months since the raid on Loch Moran, when Theo’s father had betrayed him and mercenaries had nearly laid waste to the village—and also since Elizabeth and Gemma and Jillian had fought for their lives and nearly lost.

“Ye could simply tell him,” Jillian pointed out. Although Elizabeth didn’t seem to realize it, Oliver was more in love with her than ever, but he was keeping his distance after what had happened. He was being respectful because when Elizabeth wasn’t complaining about Oliver, she was lost in thought, taken back to that horrible night, and everyone could see the shadows in her eyes.

The whole town was trying to be respectful. Normally, men were flocking to Jillian in droves, but in the past four months, not a single man had tried to touch her. None looked her in the eye. Few spoke to her.

It was humiliating to know they had all seen her that night at her lowest, but at least she’d survived the worst. Now, all she wanted to do was move past it. Here would be fine. They might whisper about her behind her back, but at least they weren’t calling her a witch. It was pity, not anger, that followed her around.

“I don’t want him to feel beholden,” Elizabeth said quietly, and the shadows were back in her eyes. They were relaxing by the shores of the loch to distract themselves. So far, it had not been working. “Besides, my parents have taken to filling my room with honeysuckle. I think I am going to move into Gemma’s cottage to get away from them.”

Jillian snorted. Agnes and Harry would pull something like that. After all, that’s what they had said to Gemma, and in their minds, it had worked. “Didn’t yer parents hate the idea of ye and Oliver when he first got here?”

“Aye, but now he is no longer a MacSeaver and is instead an important MacDougal,” Elizabeth said as she tried to mimic her father’s deep voice. They both dissolved into laughter. “Ye never did say if ye knew Oliver from before.”

Jillian shook her head. “Nay, but I am certain that he hated me. Most MacSeavers do.”

“Jillian.” Reaching over, Elizabeth took her hand and squeezed. “Whatever happened there, ye have nothing to worry about here. Theo will protect ye.”

“With Fletcher gone now, I expect no one will think of me anymore. I doubt Theo will need to protect me from anyone,” she said honestly. It had been a strange feeling to know that Fletcher was dead. Before his wife betrayed him, before he started to succumb to his madness, he had tried to protect her, although Jillian didn’t know why. He blamed her for his son’s death, just like everyone else. There were times when he would look at her, though, and her skin would crawl at the lust in his eyes, but then he’d just send her out of the room and ordered that no one lay a hand on her.

Now he was gone, and Graeme was laird. At least that would mean that Graeme would no longer be hanging around the loch. No, he would have more important things to do than to bother her.

Her stomach twisted, and she realized there was every chance that she wouldn’t see him again, the man who once made her insides liquify with desire but had also witnessed her at her lowest moment.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

Now that there was no threat to going back to MacSeaver lands, she was thinking seriously about staying in Loch Moran. When Gemma and Theo married, Gemma offered to find her a place in MacDougal. Still, on the loch, most of the villagers were too old or too young to pay all that much attention to her, and the guards all knew what had happened to her when the mercenaries kidnapped them, so no one dared show too much interest in her. Here, she didn’t have to worry about anyone obsessing about her.

It was a freedom she never thought possible.

“Jillian?” Elizabeth said softly. “Ye seem to be lost in thought.”

“Sorry.” Blinking, she glanced at the sun behind the loch as it started to set. “We should head back. Yer parents will have the whole guard out looking for us if we arenae back by sundown.”

Getting up, Elizabeth dusted off her dress and looked hesitantly around. This was their favorite place, but it was also where the mercenaries had abducted them. After talking for weeks about needing to reclaim it for their own, this was their first time back. Despite the light conversation, both of them were tense and on high alert.

They didn’t need to worry. Jillian had seen Oliver and three other guards watching them from a safe distance. He would never let Elizabeth know, but he did still care deeply about her.

“Will ye joining us for dinner?” Elizabeth asked.

“Marie’s little boy has a terrible cough and congestion, and I need to see to him this evening,” Jillian said as she turned her friend down. In truth, it might have been nice to have dinner with her friend, but lately, Agnes and Harry had been pushing for her to find a nice young man and marry as well, although she didn’t dare tell Elizabeth that or her friend would ensure that she was at every dinner to take the heat off of her.

They meant well. They could see the strain that Elizabeth and Jillian were under, and they only wanted to see that someone would protect them, but Jillian knew all too well that sometimes, it was the husband who was the monster.

As they started walking back, a figure stepped out in front of them. As he’d announced himself beforehand, they weren’t startled, but Elizabeth stiffened and deftly turned her head from Oliver. Jillian stifled a groan. At this rate, they would never wed.

“Evening, Oliver,” Jillian said pleasantly. “Were you searching us out?”

“Aye.”

Hope blossomed inside her. Maybe the fool would finally tell Elizabeth how he felt. She grinned. “As much as I appreciate the walk back, I am afraid that Elizabeth and I arenae going the same way. Ye should escort her because...”