A Highlander for Christmas Read Free Page B

time?
    “I’m sorry…both of you, but…my sister is betrothed to another.”
    Leslie blinked up at her brother, certain that her ears had just deceived her and there was no reason that her heart should be lying shattered at her feet. “What?” She didn’t want to ask, but she had to.
    “I said,” Andrew repeated, sounding more contrite this time, meeting her gaze, “you have been promised to someone else.”

Chapter Three
    SHE COULDN’T BE betrothed. It was the only thing going through Finn’s mind while he looked toward Rob. It was impossible. He’d gone to Rob weeks after the Harrisons arrived, inquiring about Leslie and if she was already promised to another. According to her eldest brother and guardian, she wasn’t. Nae. He had to have heard wrong. She couldn’t be promised to someone else. She was to be his.
    “Andrew Harrison,” he said, his voice hoarse with the emotion he fought to hold back. “What is the meaning of yer deceit? Is it because I am Catholic that ye don’t want her with me? Because I’m a Highlander, mayhap? Or does it have more to do with my kinship to the MacGregors?”
    “No, I…I… ,” Harrison stammered.
    “Why else would ye speak of her betrothal fer the first time since ye came here?”
    Finn could hear Andrew’s heart beating in the silence that had descended on the hall—or was it his own heart that echoed in his ears?
    “There has been no deceit here, Finn,” Leslie’s brother offered. “Her betrothal is a recent occurrence. It is—”
    “Recent?” Finn raked his gaze over the men in the Hall. His kin, his friends. If one of them… “Who is it? Who have ye promised her to?”
    “Andrew.” It was Leslie who spoke, her eyes wide with dread. “What is this about? Please say you jest.”
    Her brother couldn’t look at her, which tempted Finn to leap over the table and pull the life from his throat.
    “I intended on telling you sooner,” Andrew began quietly. “This isn’t what I wanted for you, Leslie. But we have no choice. We are going home, sister—to the place of our birth and the land of our father.”
    “No.”
    Andrew continued on as if she had said nothing.
    “Sadly, there will be little welcome for us since we’ve been branded traitors to the faith. Our old neighbors think us Catholic and have even promised to turn us over to Prince William’s men upon our return.”
    “Then would it not be best to keep yer family safe here?” Rob put to him.
    Andrew shook his head. “I don’t know how much longer it will be safe for us here. I know the men of Camlochlin are mighty and numerous, but you won’t hold up against William’s army.”
    “Leslie will—”
    “Be safe for certain in Dumfries.” Andrew turned to Finn, finishing the sentence for him. “I have secured it. She must come with us. It is where she belongs.”
    “Do not speak for me so!” Leslie protested.
    Her brother looked at her, his gaze soft and shadowed with regret. “You are promised to the Marquess of Dumfriesshire—” His eyes fled from her when she fell back into her seat. “It was the only way to get our home back and to guarantee our safety,” he explained, more to the rest of them than to her. “As I said, the people of Dumfries whisper that we’ve turned away from our faith. The Douglases are a powerful family. They sit in Parliament and have secured influence by marrying into Scottish and European royal houses. The marquess has promised to protect us from a scandal that could cost us our lives with the new Protestant king. To prove his support to us”—he finally turned back to Leslie—“he’s agreed to take your hand.”
    Finn’s heart beat furiously against his ears, shattering the silence in the Hall. Unable to move, he stood in his spot while something he’d never felt before coursed through his veins. Something that men like his brother, Connor, and Colin MacGregor had trained and harnessed while he’d learned to play musical instruments. He