Page 81 of A Highland Bride Forgotten
“Perhaps we’re right,” he said. “I was quick to label ye a fool when all ye are is naive. That…and a harlot.”
River reached up to slap him, but Finlay was too quick. He grabbed her wrist and held it in a tight grip, so much so that River was certain she would bruise. Still, she didn’t cry out; she didn’t make a single sound. She only stared at him in silence and tried once to wrench her hand free, only to fail.
“Where are ye goin’?” he taunted her, a cold, terrifying grin spreading over his lips. “I daenae think we’re done here yet. We still have much to discuss, River.”
“Here?” River scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Do ye wish to die?”
“If it comes to it,” Finlay barked, and River could hardly believe her own ears.
He’s a madman! He has completely lost his mind!
“How can ye fall in love with the man who killed yer maither?” Finlay growled, his expression twisting into that of a wild animal. “How can ye…how can ye bear his bairn? Have ye nae shame? Have ye nae thought for yer maither?”
River huffed out a disbelieving laugh. Was this truly why all this was happening? Was it all because of her mother? The woman was still torturing her from beyond the grave in more ways than one, and River, for all the love she had for her for being her mother was beginning to truly resent her—if not despise her.
“Ye’re so ungrateful, River,” Finlay continued. “I did everythin’ for ye. I kept ye safe, I protected ye, and ye…how do ye repay me? By disgracin’ yer maither’s memory?”
River wanted to ask him why he cared so much. This was beyond honor. This was beyond any vow he may have taken to protect her when he first became her guard. It took her a few moments to realize it, but then understanding dawned on her—Finlay was in love with her mother.
“Ye loved her,” River said, the words spoken on a gasp.
“Of course I loved her!” Finlay roared, and now his face was a deep shade of red, though River didn’t know whether that was from the heat of the fire or because he was so furious. “I was the only one who loved her! Yer faither…yer faither was always with a different lass, always slippin’ into some other woman’s bed. Ye have nae idea how many bairns he sired. Ye have nae idea how many siblings ye have out there. He was…he was insatiable. A sinner. He disgraced his wife, his family, his clan…and yer maither handled it with as much grace as one could be expected to have.”
“Grace?” River scoffed. “Ye call her killin’ innocent people grace?”
“Who was innocent in this?” Finlay demanded. “The women? I daenae think so. They were harlots, too, lettin’ a wedded man bed them. There was naethin’ innocent about them.”
“And the bairns?” River demanded. “Let us say I accept the women werenae innocent. But what about the bairns? What did they ever do to deserve it other than be born to the wrong parents?”
“I never harmed Arya and Colby,” Finlay said through gritted teeth. “It was yer wish that they were safe and I respected that. I protected them as I protected ye. I treated them as me own.”
“But ye would have let me maither harm them!” River cried. “Ye would have allowed her to kill them!”
“I would have killed them for her meself!”
River didn’t know why it was that admission which broke her in the end. To hear Finlay say those words, to hear that he would have killed Arya and Colby if only her mother had asked…it was too much.
“Ye would have harmed innocent bairns?” River asked, her voice lowering again.
“Of course,” said Finlay. “Anythin’ for yer maither. I would kill them now if I kent that’s what she wanted.”
That is what she wanted.
River glanced over Finlay’s shoulder, half expecting to see Arya and Colby there, but of course, they were long gone. It was a small mercy. She knew that now that now that Finlay didn’t care about her at all, he wouldn’t have a single qualm about hurting them. The only thing that had kept them alive and safe all this time, the only thing that had made Finlay tolerate them—even though River could have sworn he had loved them by the way he was acting around them—was her. Now their only shield was gone.
In the silence that followed, Finlay forced his way into the room and, like the madman he was, shut the door behind him. Suddenly, it was much harder to breathe, the air burning River’s throat, her lungs, her chest like embers.
“What are ye doin’?”
“I ken what it’s like to lose someone ye love,” he said. “Now Archer will ken it too.”
River swallowed in a dry throat, panic threatening to bubble over inside her. She couldn’t afford to panic now, though, not when she had her child and Layla to think about. She had to save them. She had to do anything in her power to delay Finlay until help would come.
She had to keep him talking.
“Why now?” River demanded. “Ye had all this time. I’ve been married to Archer for a year now…me maither’s been dead for months. Why kill me now?”
Finlay gave her a bitter laugh. “I wanted to keep ye safe, River, I truly did. Yer maither loved ye, ye ken. She loved ye dearly and she tasked me with protectin’ ye. But ye…ye also look so much like her. We’re the only thing I have left of her. We’re the only reminder I have now.”
