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Alisdair shot up from his chair and ran out to the watchtower. Isla was already there, watching the rider approach, her whole body trembling. She did not even notice his arrival.

He felt the sudden urge to comfort her, to remind her that she was safe, but he held back and looked at the lone rider, his sharp eyes scanning the horizon for hiding troops.

“Dear Lord!” Isla exclaimed, before rushing down the steps to the courtyard and running toward the gates.

Alisdair frowned and looked back at the rider. From this distance, he could see that it was a woman.

“Open the gates!” Isla ordered.

He hurried down after her, with Ewan at his heels.

“Ye daenae give orders,” he growled.

“It is Mary!” she exclaimed. “She is me cousin.”

“A Sinclair.”

“Me cousin,” she insisted. “I trust her.”

Alisdair’s jaw tightened.

She turned to face him. “She might be bringin’ news from me uncle,” she suggested.

That drew his attention.

Everyone in the courtyard looked at him, waiting for his orders.

“It is just one rider, me Laird,” a guard called from the watchtower. “I see no others.”

Isla held Alisdair’s eyes, chest heaving, fists clenched, jaw set. Demanding, challenging, and imploring him at the same time.

“She must have risked a lot to come to me,” she hissed. “Let her in!”

He narrowed his eyes at her, but she stood her ground. He almost smiled at the fire in her. But then got angry at himself.

“A spy?” Ewan snarled.

“Ye thought the same of me,” she reminded him.

“Hm,” Duncan interjected. “Has MacLeod Castle always been afraid of women riding alone, or is this a recent development?”

The cold look Alisdair shot him could have frozen the loch. Isla smiled gratefully at him.

Alisdair looked back at her. She stood there, chin raised, eyes pleading, and he knew he had already lost this fight. He could deny her nothing when she looked at him like that.

Alisdair dragged a hand down his face and sighed.

“Open the gates!” he ordered.

The guards ran to obey the command, and soon a woman on an exhausted brown mare rode inside, drawing to a halt in the center of the courtyard.

“Mary!” Isla ran to her.

The woman dismounted and closed the remaining distance between them. The whole courtyard held its breath as the two women met in a warm embrace.

“Isla!” Mary cried, holding her tight.

They both pulled back and laughed, before hugging again, as if unable to believe this was real.