The Passion of London [Highlander's Love #1]

Chapter 18

For a second, Evie stared, stunned at Connor. The prolonged silence only made the nerves jump more frantically in the warriors chest. He would've sworn at that point that even being in the middle of a battle was not as nerve-wracking as waiting for a reply from the redhead lass that had captured his attention and his heart from the very first moment he saw her.

"Lass?"

The thing was though, she had been so sure that she was about to wake up from a wonderful dream, Evie didn't dare move, or say a word. She wasn't even sure she heard correctly! So when the curious query came, she couldn't help but ask, "Would you mind repeating yourself, Connor?" Her tone was breathless, trying her best to twist in her seat so she could peer up at his facial emotions as he answered. Did she hear correctly? The way he had looked when Evie had reminded of everything that a relationship with her could entail was still etched deeply in her mind. His stricken, horrified look when she reminded that marriage to her would make him an English lord of the realm.

What would've changed his mind?

"Marry me, lass. Ye love the Highlands, my home, my lands. Ye are more alive here then I have ever seen ye back at home."

"What about my father? Cavalon Castle? You... You will need to take all of them, and the title of Lord if you do marry me. It is detailed in my dowry and the papers my father will need you to sign. You-"

Connor had blanched when she reminded him, but tightened his grip around her waist as Hammond rode up to them and extended a hand at Evie. "Come cousin, ride with me. Connor needs to get back as quick as possible, afore he bleeds to death."

"Wh-" she started asking, only to gasp when upon further scrutinizing, noticed the slow drip of blood from the back of his head onto his shoulders and neck. "Connor! Why are you here when you are injured! Hammond, how could you let him?"

"He's staying with us for too long, I think. He's got the MacKenzie's stubborn streak." her cousin muttered back in return. Evie struggled to be released, but Connor was unrelenting until Evie scowled at him. "Connor, we shall speak upon our return to the Keep, but we must have haste right now. I will not have you bleeding to death!"

"Promise, that we shall speak?"

"I promise, you stubborn mule. Now let me go." 

Mollified by at least a possibility, he released her and Hammond easily lifted Evie from Connor's horse to his, making sure she was fitted into his saddle, instructing two of the MacKenzie warriors to stay close to his captain at all times, before a loud command from him had everyone picking up pace again as they galloped towards the crest of mountains that separated them from the Drummond holdings.

"What happened, Evie?" Hammond asked quietly, once they were a distance away from the rest of the men. The laird had noticed his cousin's rather pensive look, curious if his captain had anything to do with it.

"I... Did Connor come to you to Cavalon Castle willingly, at first?"

Hammond raised his brows at the curious question, but answered anyway. "Nae, he dinna. But he wouldna let me enter what he deemed as the devil lands myself. So he made himself come."

"He still doesn't trust the English, then? I don't blame him really." At his surprised look, she quickly explained. "Gillian told me the story, or as much as she can tell. I... He asked me to marry him, cousin."

"And your answer was?"

"I don't know. I was hurt when I reminded him what a relationship with me would mean at first, just before we got to MacKenzie Keep. But after Gillian's story... now, I don't know if I can ask that of him. To be one of the ones who had taken away his whole clan."