Chapter 15 #2
“It rather is,” Charlie replied. “You wouldn’t be getting this worked up over someone you didn’t care about.”
Ruby stood and began pacing, unable to sit still under Charlie’s penetrating gaze.
“That’s the problem. I shouldn’t feel anything—apart from downright annoyance.
I only broke things off with Daniel recently.
I was meant to be getting married for pity’s sake!
It’s too soon. It’s reckless and ridiculous and completely irresponsible.
I came here because my life imploded, not to. .. not to fall for somebody else.”
Charlie cocked her head. “So you are falling for him then?”
“No! Yes! I don’t know!” Ruby slumped into the chair and buried her head in her hands. “Oh god. What am I going to do? This wasn’t supposed to happen!”
Charlie rubbed her back. “In my experience, you don’t get to choose who you fall for. And I should know.”
Ruby looked at her through a gap in her fingers. “You mean Niall?”
Charlie huffed a laugh. “Yes, I mean Niall. I didn’t plan on falling for him at all.
He was infuriating. Arrogant. Impossible.
” Her smile turned soft. “And I fell in love with him anyway. I thought I knew what my life was going to be. And then it changed. Completely. Not because I planned it. But because my heart did.”
Ruby swallowed hard. “What if I’m just clinging to Evan because everything else fell apart?” she whispered. “What if he’s just... a...rebound?”
“Do you believe that?”
Ruby closed her eyes. Daniel and Evan were as different as two men could be.
Daniel had been the safe choice, the one that on paper seemed perfect for her.
He had a good job. He wanted the same things as her: house and mortgage, decent car, 2.
4 children. Oh yes, he’d been perfect. On paper.
But the reality had been quite different.
If she was honest with herself, she had been more in love with the idea that Daniel represented than the man himself.
But Evan? Evan was a different beast entirely. Evan was everything she shouldn’t want. Risk. Unpredictability. Danger. And yet he sparked feelings in her she’d never felt before. He made her feel...whole. Alive.
She shook her head. “No. I don’t believe that.”
“Then you don’t want regrets,” Charlie said softly. “Trust me. Regret is far heavier than embarrassment.”
The fire crackled again, the sound sharp in the quiet. “What should I do?” Ruby asked.
Charlie’s answer was simple. “Go and talk to him.”
Ruby hesitated only a moment longer before nodding. Giving her cousin’s shoulder a grateful squeeze, she stepped out of the room and found Flora, the housekeeper, coming down the corridor outside carrying a pile of linen.
“Ye aright, miss?” she asked.
“I...um...I was wondering if you knew where Evan might be?”
“In his room most likely.” The housekeeper gave her a quick, knowing smile. “Come. I’ll show ye the way.”
Ruby nodded and followed the housekeeper through the house and up the stairs. Flora stopped outside a door at the end of the corridor.
“This one,” she said. “Well, these sheets willnae fold themselves. I’ll leave ye to it.” She glided off down the corridor, leaving Ruby alone outside Evan’s door.
What was she doing here? This was a bad idea. Perhaps she should go back downstairs. She bit her lip. Then, before she could lose her courage, she pushed the door open, stepped inside.
And froze.
Evan was sitting in a copper bathtub near the hearth, steam curling up around him.
Very much naked.
Ruby gasped and spun around so quickly she nearly tripped over the rug. “Oh my God! I didn’t mean—”
“For the love of—” Evan’s voice cut off sharply. “Do ye ever knock?”
“Sorry!” she squeaked, mortified. “I’ll just go—”
“Wait.”
The word stopped her. She hesitated, then glanced over her shoulder. He had risen halfway out of the tub, water sliding over his shoulders as he reached for a towel. That was when she saw them.
Scars. Lots and lots of scars.
They marked him everywhere—across his ribs, his back, one jagged line slicing over his shoulder. Old and new, thin and thick, pale against his skin. Her mortification dissolved into something else entirely.
Horror.
Her breath caught. Evan followed her gaze, and something shuttered in his expression. He wrapped the towel around himself with clipped efficiency.
“I’ve seen worse,” he said tersely.
“I haven’t,” she whispered. “Oh my God, Evan.”
He turned away briefly, as if gathering himself, then stepped out of the tub fully, tying the towel more securely before crossing to the chair where he began pulling on his tunic, hiding the marks that covered his skin.
“I didn’t mean to intrude,” she said quietly. “I came to apologize.”
That made him look up.
“For not telling you the truth,” she continued. “For not trusting you.”
Silence stretched between them.
“And I shouldnae have snapped at ye,” he said at last. “I’ve no right to demand truths I wasnae offering myself.”
She moved closer, perching cautiously on the edge of the bed. He lowered himself into the chair opposite, firelight flickering across the planes of his face and the faint lines of old battles written across his skin.
“What happened?” she asked softly, nodding toward his scars.
“Life.” His voice was hard, defensive. She wondered how many people had seen Evan like this. Exposed. Vulnerable. She suspected it wasn’t many.
“That’s not an answer.”
A faint smile ghosted across his lips. “Ye always push.”
“Occupational hazard.”
He studied her for a long moment before sighing.
“As ye may have gathered, my family life was...complicated,” he said quietly.
“After my parents’ deaths, Bryce inherited the earldom.
He tried to consolidate the estate—tighten his grip on everything.
There were disputes. Legal wrangling. My brothers and I were awarded small shares.
Enough to satisfy the law. Not enough to matter.
” Bitterness edged his tone. “It turned us against one another. Instead of standing together, we fought. Words turned to resentment. Resentment to distance.”
“And you left,” Ruby said.
He nodded. “I thought I’d make my own fortune. Become a legitimate trader. Spices. Textiles. Something respectable.” He huffed a humorless laugh. “Turns out respectability requires capital and connections. I had neither.”
“So you became a smuggler.”
“Aye. And that life comes with...risks.” He glanced down at the scars still visible through his half-tied tunic.
“I’ve lost count of the number of fights I’ve been in or the number of people who have tried to murder me.
” He smiled humorlessly. “So far, they’ve been unsuccessful but they’ve all left something for me to remember them by. ”
“I’m sorry.”
He rose to his feet, turned to look out of the window. “Dinna be. It’s the life I chose. And none of it is yer fault.” His voice had softened and as Ruby looked up, he turned to watch her, his gaze dark and intense. She felt heat creep up her cheeks.
“I’m sorry I hurt ye,” he breathed. “I never wanted that. I can be an unconscionable bastard at times but hurting ye...never. I just didnae think the truth about me mattered, that ye wouldnae stick around long enough for it to matter, that this wouldnae become...” He swallowed, his words drying up.
Ruby swallowed. “Wouldn’t become what?”
His eyes found hers. “Ye know what.”
Her heart was suddenly beating very fast. The room seemed stiflingly hot. She found herself rising and stepping closer to Evan, so close that she could feel the heat from his skin, smell the scent of his damp hair. His hand came up to rest against the side of her face.
“Ruby,” he breathed.
He said her name like a promise. Like a glimpse of everything that could exist between them if only she dared take the risk.
Then suddenly Daniel’s face flashed into her mind and with it came all the tangled, burning emotions she thought she’d buried. Anger. Resentment.
And hurt. Bone deep hurt.
With a gasp, she pulled away from Evan, stepped back and put some space between them. What was she doing? This was madness. Did she want to end up getting hurt all over again? Hadn’t she learned her lesson by now?
Evan didn’t move. Didn’t move towards her. Didn’t look away.
“Who was it?” he asked softly.
Ruby dare not look at him. She turned her back. Her heart was still pounding and she feared what she might do if she let herself meet his fierce, intense gaze. Instead, she stared at the window, at the overcast sky beyond. Starlings were whirling and swooping through the air.
“Who was what?”
“The bastard that hurt ye. This betrothed ye mentioned?”
Ruby went rigid. The room suddenly seemed too small. She wanted to flee. She wanted to get away from the horrible, painful emotions and this man who brought them all bubbling to the surface.
But she was done running. You don’t want regrets. Charlie’s words echoed in her mind. We don’t get to choose who we fall for.
“His name was Daniel,” she said at last. “He’s the one I was going to marry. The one I came here to escape. I thought we were building something solid. Safe.” Her voice trembled despite her best efforts. “I was wrong.”
She didn’t turn around but she heard him move. “Then he is a fool. If he were here now, I’d knock his teeth out for hurting ye.”
She snorted a laugh. “I’d like to see that.
” She turned and found him standing behind her, closer than she expected.
The firelight caught the contours of his muscled chest visible through his half-laced shirt.
“So now you know. I was desperate to escape, to find Charlie. She was always the one I went to when things got bad. So I did this ritual and Irene MacAskill showed up. Said I had some choices to make and showed me an arch. When I walked through it I ended up on that island. That’s it. Now you know everything.”
Evan’s eyes sharpened. “Irene MacAskill?”
“That’s what she said her name was. Old. Short. Eccentric. What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Evan’s nostrils flared. He muttered words under his breath in Gaelic. They sounded like curses. Then he looked at her. “Irene MacAskill came to me too.”
Ruby blinked. “What?”
“At the inn,” he said. “Before ye arrived. An old woman called Irene MacAskill. Sharp eyes. Said I was wandering too far from my true path.”
Ruby stared at him.
“She told me I’d soon be given a choice,” he went on quietly. “And that I ought to be brave enough to take it.”
A shiver ran down Ruby’s spine. “Then it’s all linked. Maybe Charlie was right.”
“Charlie?”
“She thinks Irene sent me to bring you here,” she said softly. “To help your family heal.”
Evan snorted faintly. “Aye, well it would definitely take magic to mend that mess.”
Slowly, almost hesitantly, he reached up and brushed a strand of hair back from her face. “Ye drive me mad,” he murmured. “And yet...” His thumb lingered against her cheek. “Ye make me feel like I could conquer the world. Ye make me almost believe I could be a good man.”
“You are a good man, Evan Campbell,” she said softly. “Maybe it’s time you realized it.”
He stared at her. Ruby stared right back, her heart fluttering against her ribs like a bird in a cage.
Then he leaned down and kissed her.
It was gentle at first, hesitant, as if he wasn’t sure of her reaction, his lips soft and warm as they pressed against hers.
But this is what she’d been waiting for.
Hoping for. Before she knew what she was doing, Ruby was wrapping her arms around his neck and going up on tiptoes to meet him.
His restraint broke. With a groan, Evan’s hands swept down her back, pulling her hard against him and Ruby was suddenly all too aware of his semi-naked form pressed against her.
His lips crashed against hers, his tongue slipping into her mouth, and Ruby responded in kind, not caring what came after, not caring for anything outside this room.
But too soon for Ruby’s liking, Evan broke the kiss and pulled back. Ruby steadied herself by grabbing the front of his shirt, breathless and flushed.
“Ye have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he breathed, eyes fixed on hers.
“Oh, I think I do,” she replied. “Probably as long as I’ve been waiting for you to do it.”
He grinned and Ruby found herself grinning too. She suddenly felt light, like she could float away on the breeze.
“I’ve been thinking,” Evan said slowly. “I might stay here for a while. If...if that’s all right with ye.”
Joy flared in her chest, fragile and bright. “Yes,” she whispered. “That’s all right with me.”
He smiled—truly smiled—and for the first time since she’d found herself in this time, Ruby felt as though perhaps neither of them were running anymore.