Midnight Honor

He did not want to dwell on the dangers she would be facing in short order, but how could he not? She had promised to stay well out of harm's way, but how could he know for sure she would honor that promise?
    Deep in thought, he followed MacGillivray along a path that would take them through the woods, but as soon as the village was out of sight behind the trees, the tall Highlander stopped and swung around.
    “I just want ye to hear it from ma own lips that I never touched her. I wanted to. I came damned close more times than I care to admit, but she has never broken faith with ye an' I'll no' hear it said from any man's lips that she did. No' even yours.”
    “I believe you. I believed Anne last night.”
    “Last night? Last night we were both feelin' our
uisque
. I was the more fool for lettin' slip something I've been carryin' around on ma tongue like a glowin' brand, but it was damned near burnin' me. Aye, I would have let it burn her, too, an' thedevil take you, Angus Moy, if she'd given me the smallest sign that she could live with herself afterward.”
    John stopped to take a heave of breath, the bulk of his shoulders and chest making him look as dark and threatening as the firs that loomed on either side of the path. Having made the comparison, it occurred to Angus that a body could be thrown under those trees and lie there undiscovered until the spring thaw.
    “Aye,” John said, reading the wariness in Angus's eyes. “Have ye any idea how lucky ye are? Do ye ken how many times I've thought just to take ye in hand an' crack yer spine over ma knee? Ye'd snap like a twig, ye would. An' then it would be over an' done, an' I'd not have to look into her eyes an' see the hurt ye've caused. I'd tell her every day how brave an' beautiful she was, an' if she once …
once
looked at me the way she looks at you …” He had his hand raised for emphasis, but when the words and all their unspoken possibilities failed him, he curled his fingers into a fist and looked away, looked anywhere but into the face of the man whose betrayal had made Anne cry herself to sleep nearly every night at Dunmaglass.
    In the end, he settled for spitting an oath into the ground as he turned away.
    “John, I know how you feel. And I know how Anne feels, but you don't understand—”
    The fist came up again in warning, still clenched, though the Highlander did not look back. “Enough. Ye've said enough. Another word, I might just as well spare the clan the shame of seein' ye across the battlefield wearin' Hanover colors.”
    “Then that is what you will have to do, because by God”—Angus raised his voice to compensate for the distance MacGillivray's huge strides were putting between them—“I have stood here and listened to you declare your love for my wife; the least you can do is hear me out. If not as your chief, then as someone who was once your friend.”
    MacGillivray stopped. His upper torso swelled as he sucked in a deep breath, then he reached up and snatched the bonnet off his head, throwing it down with another curse. Heshrugged off the length of plaid that had been wrapped around his shoulders, and reached up with two hands to grasp the hilt of the
clai' mór
he wore strapped across his back. The sound of five feet of honed steel sliding out of its studded leather sheath shivered through the cold air and sent Angus's hand to the hilt of his own slim saber.
    He did not draw it, however, knowing it would be like matching a sapling against an oak tree, and when MacGillivray stalked back, close enough to touch the point of steel to the hard ridge of Angus's windpipe, the hesitation was mocked with a sneer.
    “Ye want to say yer piece, say it.”
    “As simply as I can, then: The reason I will be standing on the opposite side of the battlefield today is not that I want to be. It is because Forbes gave me his word … in writing and stamped with the royal seal… that as long as I served in King George's army neither Anne nor my mother would be in any danger of arrest. It was a guarantee of immunity, and had I not agreed to the terms, the opposite result would have been the immediate signing of warrants for them, for you, Fearchar, MacBean, and about two dozen other lairds of Clan Chattan. He was not going to give me any choice in the matter, just as he had not given much choice to other lairds in my position. Luckily, I was warned ahead of time and managed to convince him my years in Europe had left me indifferent to