Page 66 of A Nameless Highland Laird
Guilt overtook her, knowing that she had interrupted his sleep. That was all it took for her to start crying all over again.
“Charlotte?”
The concern in his voice had her trembling. There was a gentleness there that had been so utterly lacking in her conversation with Alec. She was powerless to stop the tears from flowing. How she had so many tears to cry, she didn’t know. All she knew was that they were still streaming down her face.
“What happened?” he asked, immediately wrapping her into a hug.
In that short of a timespan, all signs of his tiredness vanished. His eyes opened and sleep no longer crowded his expression. There was only concern.
His arms encircled her, one at her waist, the other across her shoulders. She didn’t try to fight it as she leaned further into him. Her forehead met his chest and she gripped his robe, clinging to it as though it was her only anchor that kept her from drowning in her sea of sadness. He rested his chin on the top of her head and she could feel him turning to look down the hall as if that would give him some kind of answer as to why she was at his door in the middle of the night in her current state.
“Shh,” he soothed. “Whatever it is, we can take care of it, aye? I will fix whatever is wrong.”
She wanted to tell him that there was no fixing the mess she had made. She wanted him to understand that she might have ruined everything for them that night. But the words lodged in her throat.
“Come sit, come tell me what happened.”
He led her into his room, not bothering to venture into his sitting room. Instead, he settled them onto the sofa situated right in front of his fireplace. He let go of her only long enough to stoke the fire back into a roar and then sat beside her, letting her curl up in his arms.
For several minutes she made no effort to move. She relished the feeling of being safe in his arms. She could almost believe him when he whispered that everything was going to be fine. But then Alec’s words would come floating back into her mind and any hope she might have had would vanish again.
“Charlotte,” he murmured against her hair. “Ye have to tell me what is going on so I can help ye fix it. Please, what happened?”
She sucked in an unsteady breath, it catching a few times before finding her lungs. With nothing but willpower, she slowed her tears and pulled back far enough to be able to look at Cameron.
“It’s Alec.”
Cameron’s eyes immediately darkened, though he did not interrupt her.
“He came to my chambers almost as soon as ye left. He must have seen us return to the castle. He must have been watching. I knew he had gotten into the habit of following me around, but the last time we spoke, I told him to stop. I thought he had. I guess I was mistaken.”
“What did he say?” Cameron asked ever so gently.
“He yelled at me. He told me that I did nae love him anymore. That I was too infatuated with ye. I told him that what he thought we had was nae love, but that it did nae matter—we could nae see each other anymore. I did nae want to see him anymore, Cameron.”
Her voice broke and Cameron started to rub her back, lending her his strength. She swallowed another breath and forced herself to continue.
“I told him it was nae appropriate for him to have followed me here when I was to marry another. That I needed to think of my reputation, of my clan. He—he said such awful things. He yelled and screamed about how nay one would ever love me, how I was used up now. He claimed to be the only person to ken who I was and still love me. But then he threatened me. He told me I would regret abandoning him. That he would see to it that ye and I would never be happy together.”
“Did he say anything else?”
She hiccuped, the sharp sting of reliving everything Alec had said stealing her air.
“Nay. Maybe. I can nae remember. But he stormed out.”
Without another word, Cameron pulled her back to his chest and hugged her tightly.
“Everything he said was a lie, lass. He is nae the only one who cares for ye. Nor is he the only one who kens who ye are.”
She nodded against him, her tears flowing once more.
“I dinnae ken what he is planning on doing, Cameron. But I have never seen him so angry. I have never seen him in such a state.”
“There is nothing he can do that we cannae undo. All we can do right now is try to stay calm. Keeping yerself up all night is nae going to help anybody. Aye?”
He clasped the sides of her face with his hands and pulled back just far enough to look into her eyes. His own were filled with such confidence, such self-assuredness that she knew she could trust him.
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