Written in 52 minutes. Basic spell check.

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“At least I know you didn’t nothing stupid last night,” Johnny muttered as he helped Jason to see to the horses while Francis took Elizabeth down to the stream to wash and stretch her legs.

Jason glared at him. “What does that mean?”

“She can barely meet your eyes,” Johnny said, with a shrug, “and you don’t look like a man who’s enjoyed the marital bed—”

Jason grabbed Johnny by the fabric of his tunic, shoved him against the tree. “You think because we grew up together that you can talk about my wife that way?” he growled.

Johnny shoved him back, and Jason lost his balance, hitting the ground. He scrambled back up and launched himself at Johnny. The two of them grunted and rolled—Jason wincing when Johnny landed a shot to his jaw, but Johnny’s nose spurted blood when Jason’s fist connected to it—

“Oh hell,” Francis muttered as he and Elizabeth returned from their short trip to find her husband rolling around on the ground with hostile Highlander. “I was hoping this would hold a few more days—”

“Aren’t you going to stop them?” Elizabeth asked, blinking up at the taciturn blond man. “Shouldn’t—”

“Johnny’s been asking for it,” Francis admitted. “He likes to needle Jason more than he should, and—” he glanced at her. “Well—”

“He doesn’t like me,” Elizabeth murmured. She wrapped her arms around her torso, staring at the men, wondering if they would truly kill one another.. She’d only really known her father and brother who were nothing like these brawny Highlanders.

“It’s not that—”

“He doesn’t trust me.” Elizabeth lifted his chin. “Neither do you. Or my husband.”

Francis nodded slowly. “It’s not personal, lass,” he said with a bit of color in his cheeks. “Just—”

“I’ve kept secrets,” Elizabeth finished. “And you three think that ‘tis so easily to transfer loyalty.” Tears stung her vision as Jason shoved Johnny again, and the other man hit the tree, grunting before he hurled himself at her husband again. “Would you think better of me if I had immediately told Jason everything that I had only just sworn to keep quiet? Why would you trust me if I broke my word? You’d only wait for the day that I did it to you.”

Francis pressed his lips together, accepted the truth of that. “Aye, well, you should know that Jason barely believes you capable of any real treachery,” he admitted. “Johnny barely trusts his own mother—” He winced as Jason punched Johnny again. “I should stop it,” he muttered. He strode forward, grabbed Johnny by the arm and shoved him back.

“Feel better?” Francis asked Jason dryly as he held Johnny back easily. “You’ve broken his pretty face more than his brother did last Michaelmas.”

Jason wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I won’t warn you again,” he told Johnny. “You’ll hold your tongue—”

“Someone has to watch your back!” Johnny exploded, “or you’ll let your—” Francis growled and the other man broke off his words, looking at Elizabeth, whose pale face suddenly colored and she stared at the ground. Johnny’s meaning was clear.

“You may not like it,” Francis told him in a low voice, “but she’s done naught to deserve the way you speak of her. You’d blacken the eye of any man who did so at home.”

“Please,” Elizabeth said softly. “I think there’s been a terrible—” Her voice faltered as she met Jason’s eyes. “This was a terrible mistake,” she finally said, but her voice was so low it barely carried on the wind. She turn and fled back into the woods.

Jason shot Johnny a scathing glare before taking off after her.

“He doesn’t even see that she’s wrapped him around her little finger,” Johnny muttered. “I’m his first, Francis. I’m supposed to challenge him—”

“Like it or not,” Francis said slowly, “she’s his wife. They took a vow in the church before God and king. She’s Lady Morgan now, and you’ve treated her worse than you’ve treated a tavern maid. It doesn’t matter what secrets or danger she’s carrying. Jason swore an oath to honor her. No one is asking you to trust her,” he said when the other man just rolled his eyes. “But show some damned respect until you know differently.”

—

Elizabeth didn’t even know where she was she was running, but the choice was made for her when she stumbled into the clearing she’d only just left with Francis, where the woods opened into a small stream.

Her chest heaving, her face flushed with shame and misery, Elizabeth stood at the water’s edge and contemplated the depth of the water. Could she go across? Simply disappear into the woods? Vanish from the world and all the people in it?

“Elizabeth.”

She closed her eyes. She’d heard his heavy footsteps behind her and hoped that he wouldn’t be able to follow—how silly was she to think she’d be able to hide from a man who likely knew these woods better than she knew the four walls of her bedroom at home.

“When we reach Perth,” Elizabeth said, relieved to find her voice steady, “you should leave me there.”

“To do what?” Jason asked, stepping up to her side, his broad shoulders brushing her arm. Elizabeth refused to look at him.

“It matters not,” she said, wishing she could dip inside his mind without having to touch him. She knew now the voice she’d heard the night before — not Jason’s, but Johnny’s, the angry man who had resented her every step of the way.

He was Jason’s first, the leader of his men, one of Jason’s most trusted warriors. And now he was quarreling with Jason, violently clashing over Elizabeth, over the secrets she kept.

How could she continue this way? She couldn’t tell any of them the truth. They’d never believe her, and she half thought Johnny would have burnt as a witch if she told them she had visions of thoughts and could hear snippets of conversations for which she hadn’t been present.

And Jason would never trust her enough to let her stay his wife. He wouldn’t chance breeding her madness and curse into his sons. Her father, in all his cruelty and anger, had been right. Elizabeth should have stayed behind.

Should have stayed quiet and invisible.

“It matters,” Jason said, “as you are my wife, and the regent has charged me with your protection.”

“It would be a mistake,” she said, “if we pretended that you could bring me to your home and others would not share Johnny’s distrust. I am not of your clan, I am from the Lowlands, and the regent forced us into this match. And—” Elizabeth looked at him, raising her chin to him defiantly. “You do not trust me.”

“Johnny disagrees with you,” Jason said slowly, “which was the source of our disagreement. I might find it difficult to accept that you keep secrets from me, but that is not the same as distrusting you.”

Elizabeth frowned, shaking her head slightly. “But—”

“And I’m sorry if you think that any of the kindness or care I’ve given to you was out of pity or a hope that I could trick you into telling me what you keep to yourself,” Jason continued. He reached for her hand, and she watched as he traced the lines of her palm, his larger, darker fingers dwarfing her own.

“I cannot tell you,” Elizabeth said softly, her breath nearly a sob. “I can never tell you.”

“I know you think that’s true,” Jason said, their eyes meeting. Not letting go of her hand, he used his other to touch her jaw. The way he had the night before. “Because your father convinced you not to. And your mother thought you should stay quiet.”

“I—”

“I am asking you to trust me,” Jason told her. “Not with your secret,” he added when she closed her eyes. “But with the rest of you. If you can promise me that your secret will bring me or my clan no harm, than I will take you at your word and not press you.”

Her eyes flew open, and Elizabeth blinked in confusion. “But Johnny and Francis—”

“Will do what I tell them,” Jason finished. “I won’t leave you in Perth, Elizabeth. Even in the Highlands, arranged marriages are common. We don’t have to be any different. I have a need of a wife. My aunt is getting older and will need more help running the keep. I want children. Sons to continue my line,” he added as her heart began to pound so fast she could hear it in her eyes. “And daughters.”

“Daughters,” she repeated, remembering their conversation the day they had wed. “Daughters would not be a burden?”

“I have a sister,” Jason reminded her. “And she was never a burden to me or my father. She’s married now, living on the Isles,” he said with a trace of wistfulness. “I haven’t seen her in more than a year. I understand the worry your brother had for you that day—it was the same I had the day Nikolas took Emily away, and I couldn’t protect her.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes, tears sliding down her cheeks. It couldn’t be real. Couldn’t be possible that he was really handing her the life she’d wanted so desperately deep down inside without demanding everything in return. There was a trick somewhere—there must be—

“Elizabeth? Will you come with me?”

“I—” She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t force the words out of her throat, afraid that if she spoke them out loud, this moment would vanish and she would wake up back in the inn with an angry husband or worse — back in Annan, and this entire adventure nothing more than the dream of a silly girl.

Jason bent down to her, his lips brushing against her so softly they felt more like a caress than a kiss. And she saw it — saw what their future might be—seated beside a hearth, Elizabeth smiling at him, her body round with child—oh, and Jason holding another child in his arms, a smiling, laughing, beautiful little boy—her chest nearly ached from the vision—or was it just a dream—

“Yes,” she whispered against his mouth. She threw her arms around his neck, clumsily kissing him back with all the love she wanted to feel for him, for the dream he’d laid in front of her, and the desperate hope that he was everything he was promising to be.

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