The Rebel (4 page)

“He has been my protector, Uncle,” she quickly explained. “I was lost and alone after James was killed. Alex found me on the battlefield and saved my life. He has delivered me here safely, so I owe him a great debt.”

“As do I, it seems.” Charles reached out to shake Alex’s hand. “Thank you for bringing my niece home. I should like to repay you somehow.”

Alex shook his head. “There is no debt, sir.”

“My wife is upstairs tending to our children,” Charles replied. “Will you at least stay for supper?”

Elizabeth’s heart began to pound, for she knew what Alex’s answer would be. The time had come. He was going to leave her now, and she would have to say goodbye.

But she was not ready. She did not want him to go…

Alex paused. “I’m afraid I must return to Perth as soon as possible.”

Every breath in her body came short. Her knees went weak under the weight of her anguish.

His eyes locked with hers, and neither of them spoke for what seemed an eternity. He palmed the hilt of his sword, and she wet her lips, feeling as if someone was slowly ripping her heart out of her body. She should say something. She should beg him to stay, just one more night…

“I wish good fortune to you both.” Alex bowed slightly, then turned and headed for the door.

It opened and closed with the tinkle of a bell, and before she could work out what to do, he was gone.

The whole world fell silent, except for the beating of her heart in her ears, like thunder over her head.

No
…

Picking up her skirts, she dashed around the tables piled high with books and ripped the door open on its hinges. She hastened out into the street. Her eyes darted left and right. His horse was already gone. Crowds of people and carriages obstructed her view in both directions. Where was he? And why hadn’t she told him how she felt? How could she have let him go?

“Alex!” She rushed down the street, shouldering her way past hordes of people who blocked her way. Reaching the corner, she stood up on her toes. “
Alex
!”

But he was nowhere. He had left to return to his home in the Highlands, and it was not likely she would ever see him again.

She laid her hand on the side of a building, rested her forehead against it, and closed her eyes.

A flash memory of the first moment she saw him on the battlefield came hurling back at her, and she remembered the frightening sound of their steel blades clashing, and the fury in his eyes before he struck her down with his targe...

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined the battle would turn out quite like this. She had not expected to surrender so completely to her enemy - in heart, body and soul.

o0o

Five months later

It was a particularly wet spring in the Highlands, and by the end of April, Edinburgh was a sea of muck.

Elizabeth had spent the winter mourning the death of her brother while helping her uncle in his bookshop, assisting customers and organizing his inventory. Her cousins – two boys and one girl, all under the age of ten – lifted her spirits with laughter and games, but each night, after she read them stories, she retired to her own chamber and whispered a quiet prayer for the safety and happiness of the Highlander who had rescued her from her vengeance. He never ventured far from her thoughts, and she often wondered what he was doing at any given moment during the day. While she was gazing out her window at the moon and stars, was he, too, admiring the night sky from somewhere on the Isle of Mull?

She liked to imagine him riding his horse through a lush green glen, his dark hair blowing in the wind, his tartan pinned at his shoulder with that exquisite brooch she had once touched and admired. Eventually she began to think she was idealizing his memory, turning him into some sort of god-like, mythical hero, and she tried very hard to push him from her mind.

Then one day, on a clear afternoon at the end of April, while she stood on a stool dusting the books on the highest shelves, the door of the bookshop opened and closed. The hanging bells chimed with their familiar hollow sound, and she heard light footsteps across the plank floor as she so often did, but she did not look away from her task, for her uncle was out front.

Something, however – something she could not begin to explain - caused her heart to beat a little faster. All the tiny hairs on her arms stood on end.

Lowering the dust cloth to her side, she stepped down from the stool and peered around the tall bookshelf. A dark-haired Highlander stood with his back to her while he spoke to her uncle.

He wore a kilt, with a sword sheathed at his side.

Was it Alex? A hot fireball of excitement dropped into her belly, and she sucked in a breath to steady herself.

Do not be foolish, Elizabeth. You’re dreaming again. Surely it could not possibly be…

Then he turned and met her eyes, and her heart exploded with a burst of radiant bliss. It
was
him! Her handsome, heroic Highlander!

What was he doing here? What did he want?

Struggling to contain the juddering thrills that were dancing up and down her spine, she swallowed hard and smoothed out her skirt, before taking a few tentative steps forward to say hello.

They met in the center of the shop, where sunlight streamed in through the windowpanes, creating a sparkling beam of hazy, dreamlike rapture.

“Alex.”

She could think of nothing else to say.

His eyes filled with joy. “Ah, lassie. I’m pleased to see that you did not forget me.”

Elizabeth laughed out loud. “
Forget
you? Are you mad?”

They regarded each other with affection and a familiar sense of calm.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her uncle quietly disappearing up the stairs.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, careful not to get her hopes up. Perhaps he had simply walked into the shop to purchase a book.

“Can you not take one look at me and answer that for yourself?”

There was such hope in his expression. It was contagious, and she experienced a wild, kicking desire to throw her arms around his neck and dance a reel around the room.

“You came to see
me
?”

Oh, how ridiculous it was to speak with such casual curiosity, when her heart was practically beating out of her chest!

He flashed a smile that dazzled her witless, then laid a hand on the side of her neck, his thumb brushing lightly over the sensitive flesh behind her ear. The touch of his huge warrior hand sent a flood of desire through her entire body.

“Of course I came to see you, lass,” he replied. “I’ve thought of nothing else all winter long but your bonnie face and feisty nature. I could not live another day apart from you. I had to see you again.”

“Is that all?” she asked. “You just came to see me? To say hello again? And then goodbye?”

He ran the pad of his thumb over her parted lips and shook his head. “So stubborn, as always.

Can you not accept that I am in love with you and that I mean to ask you to be my wife?”

All the thoughts in her brain toppled. It was a terrible calamity of epic proportions. “I… What are you saying?” She was completely breathless.

He laughed. “Don’t play innocent with me, lass. You know very well what I am saying. This is a proposal. But if it’s too quick, I’ll settle for courtin’ you for a short time, at least until you can make up your mind whether or not you wish to love me.”

Her need for him erupted out of the joy in her heart. “Of course I wish to love you. I’ve loved you since the first moment I came charging after you on that battlefield.”

“Is that a yes?” he asked.

With a cry of euphoric laughter, she threw herself into his arms and knocked him backward into a stack of books that toppled off a table onto the floor. A thick cloud of dust puffed into the air.

“Or course it’s a yes!” she said with a smile, pressing her lips to his and tasting a glistening slice of heaven in his kiss. “I am so happy.”

He held her close and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “As am I, lass. My heart is yours, and I promise to love you and make you happy for the rest of my days. I will protect you and give you everything that is mine to give.”

She hugged him tight, with knew without doubt that he would keep his word. “And I make the same pledge to you.”

Then at last his mouth covered hers, and the world was suddenly, miraculously, peaceful and perfect.

-o0o-

Author's Note

Dear Readers,

I hope you enjoyed my short story,
The Rebel
. It is a prequel to my Highlander trilogy, though I wrote it after the completion of all three of those novels.

The first book in the trilogy is
Captured by the Highlander
, which takes place a year after the Battle of Sherrifmuir. (The battle was a true historical event, though the characters in these stories are fictional.)

In
Captured by the Highlander
, Duncan MacLean sets out on a path of vengeance following fictional events that occur during and after the battle. The character of Angus MacDonald, who appears in
The Rebel
in a villainous role, is an important secondary character in
Captured by the
Highlander
, and it may surprise you to learn that he is the hero in the second novel,
Claimed by
the Highlander
. Sometimes the darkest characters are the most interesting to write about and redeem.

For more information about my Highlander trilogy, please visit my website at

www.juliannemaclean.com. I e
njoy hearing from readers and can be contacted directly through my website.

Thanks for reading my Scottish tale! And please read on for an excerpt from my time travel romance Taken by the Cowboy!

Sincerely,

Julianne MacLean

o0o

Author Bio

USA Today Bestselling author Julianne MacLean is a three-time Rita Finalist and winner of numerous awards, including the Romantic Times Magazine Reviewers Choice Award, the Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence, and the Greater Detroit Romance Writers Booksellers' Best Award.

She has written more than 15 historical romances for Harlequin and Avon/Harper Collins, and is currently writing more books for St. Martin's Press.

She is a devoted wife and mother, and loves to travel. She has lived in New Zealand and Ottawa, and is now settled happily in Nova Scotia, while working on her latest historical romance.

Dodge City, Kansas

Present day

Jessica Delaney sat in the waiting room outside the Operating Room, barely able to move, much less comprehend what had just happened to her brother. “How much longer?” she said to her parents. “He’s been in there for two hours.”

Jessica’s mother blew her nose, while her father sat in silence, squeezing his wife’s hand.

“I’m sure they’re doing their best,” he said. “We’ll hear something soon.”

Jessica rose from her chair and walked to the edge of the waiting room to peer down the long hall at the surgery doors to the O.R. She thought of Gregory lying on the table under the lights, a team of masked surgeons working over him. What were his chances? Did anyone ever survive a bullet wound to the chest?

Feeling nauseous all of a sudden, she returned to her chair and sat down. She stared at a framed painting on the wall and wished this day had been different. Gregory didn’t deserve to be lying on that table. He was too young, and such a good person.

At least the gunman was behind bars. The convenience store clerk had noticed the out-of-state license plate just before he called 911.

An orderly in a white uniform walked by pushing a cart stacked with folded blue hospital gowns. Jessica watched him while he steered the cart onto the elevator. When the doors slid shut behind him, she thought of Liam, her fiancée.

Should she call him and tell him they were still waiting for news?

Jessica chewed on a thumbnail and recalled their conversation hours ago, when she’d called him at work....

“Liam, something terrible just happened. Can you come with me to Dodge?”

“When? Now? I’m in a meeting. I can’t just skip out.”

She fought to keep her voice steady. “Gregory’s been shot. He’s on his way to the hospital. I need to go right now, and I’d really like you to come with me.”

He was silent for a moment. “God, Jessica...is he going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I need to go now—to be with Mom and Dad.”

“Of course. You should go.”

“Can’t you come?”

She heard him sigh heavily on the other end of the line. “It’s a really bad time, Jess. We’ve got clients coming in tonight. It could be a million-dollar deal. If I’m not there, it might cost me my job — and you don’t know what kind of day it’s been for me.” He began to tell her about the mountain of emails and texts he still had to get through.

Jessica covered her forehead with her hand. She didn’t want to hear the details. Not now.

She interrupted him. “Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll go alone.”

“Let me know how he’s doing. Call me later.”

“Sure.” She hung up without saying goodbye and drove from Topeka to Dodge alone….

The squeak of the surgery doors swinging open pulled Jessica from her thoughts. She stood up to look down the hall again and saw a doctor in O.R. greens walking toward them. His shirt was drenched in sweat. “Mom, Dad…someone’s coming.”

Her parents stood up.

The doctor, who looked to be in his mid-thirties, kept his eyes on Jessica as he walked the length of the hall. A terrible rush of anxiety exploded in her belly as he came to stand before them.

“Mr. and Mrs. Delaney,” he said, “I’m Doctor Jake Spencer.”

He shook her father’s hand, while Jessica put her arm around her mother.

“I’m sorry to tell you this,” the doctor said. “We did everything we could for Gregory, but I’m afraid he didn’t make it.”

Jessica stared blankly at the doctor, who kept his gaze fixed on hers. His eyes filled with empathy, while hers filled with tears.

Her parents said nothing for a moment, then her mother let out a sob. “Please, no.”