Page 10 of Highlander’s Sweet Poison

“Aye.”

“But ye no longer believe that?”

“When I found her, she was just as human as ye or I,” Graeme muttered. “And so damn broken. When I tried to pick her up, she was whispering that she was glad it was over, and I realized what my clan had done to her for all those years. What I had done to her. She didnae kill my cousin, and she deserves her peace.”

“So what will ye do if she is found guilty? They will expect ye to execute her, and I wilnae allow that,” Theo growled. “She saved my wife’s life. She helped save my land.”

Graeme turned and glared at him. For all the animosity between them, surely he didn’t think Graeme would execute a woman based on something that couldn’t be proven? “The council can only advise guilt. I make the final decision, and I assure ye, I wilnae be killing Jillian MacSeaver.”

Theo looked over at Oliver, who nodded. “There may be another way.”

6

“Ye should have let me swat him with the broom,” Elizabeth said darkly.

They’d slowed their path from Gemma’s house, where they’d had dinner together. Many of the villagers had gathered by the shores, but Jillian, Elizabeth, and Gemma had wanted a quiet night to themselves. Gemma and Elizabeth were heading to the festivities, but they had walked Jillian to her cottage—in time to see Graeme letting himself in.

“I think he was more concerned with Reginald and his ax,” Jillian said as she tried to keep her annoyance out of her voice. It was one thing for him to sleep outside her door every night, but this was her home, and she had not invited him to stay.

“Reginald was rather disgruntled at not being able to use his ax,” Elizabeth said mildly. “Perhaps I will go get him.”

“Nay,” Jillian sighed. “I can handle this. Ye two go ahead and have a good time.”

“Are ye certain that ye dinnae wish to come with us?”

She did, more than anything, but by now, word would have spread about her leaving, and she was too tired to listen to everyone’s sympathetic condolences. Tonight she just wanted to get a good night’s sleep so that she could tackle everything she wanted to do before she left in the next coming days.

Now, it seemed, she would need to kick Graeme out first.

“Aye, but I will join everyone in the next coming nights, I promise.” Turning, she gave them both a hug. “Enjoy tonight, and I will see ye both tomorrow. Gemma, do ye know when ye and Theo are planning on heading back?”

She rubbed her belly. “Not until we are certain that there is nothing more we can do. Get some sleep, Jillian. I promise that none of us will rest until we figure out a way to make everything all right.”

After bidding them both good night, she tightened her arms around her body and hurried to her cottage. It wasn’t because she was excited to see him, although the idea of him in her home made her pulse jump. No, she and the other ladies had stayed out too long, and she was chilled because she hadn’t brought a cloak.

Opening the door, she shuddered when she saw that the fire was already going. Graeme rested on the floor by it, his back against the wall, and his eyes closed.

His clothes were bloody.

“What happened to ye?” she gasped before she remembered that it wasn’t the first question that should have come out of her mouth. After all, she couldn’t care about the well-being of her possible executioner.

“Theo,” he said without opening his eyes. “Dinnae worry, lass, he was in the same shape, but he decided to clean up so his wife didnae see him in that condition.”

“‘Tis a shame because Gemma would murder ye for injuring her husband, and that would take care of my problem.”

His eyes opened at that, and he regarded her carefully. “Is that how ye see me, Jillian? As yer problem?”

Her heart pounded in her chest, and she turned from him as she grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. There was a time when Graeme hadn’t made her life easy, but then again, he’d saved her life. What was she supposed to think of him?

“Nay, my problems began long before I ever laid eyes on ye, Graeme. But ye did not help things. Know that ye are my laird, and my life is in yer hands.”

“I wilnae execute ye, Jillian.”

If it came down to his power over the clan or her life, she wasn’t sure she could believe him. After all, he’d hated her for so long. “Then I will spend my life in the dungeon. We both know I will be found guilty.” Pulling the blanket tighter around herself, she stared into the fire.

“Ye never speak of yer life with Fulton. Was it a happy marriage?”

“When I first met him, I thought he was like every other man. By the time I married him, I thought he was the most wonderful man on this earth.”