Before God, I do not know what this man has said to you, but you are my life, and I’d not be tray you, ever. Dear God! I love you, Bruce!” she whispered. And looking down into her eyes, those pools of blue, sapphire with sincerity and the sweetness of the bond that had been theirs forever, he knew that she spoke the truth. He drew her to her feet. “Ah, so he lied, and has not come as yet. But he will come, Annalise. Perhaps the Lord Cromwell has not taken to ordering the demise of the families of men such as myself, but neither would he punish a man, here, in what he considers the wilds of Scotland, a land of savages, who took a captive…and misused her. Our son is safe enough, following the young king in France. You can stay here no longer.” “Where would you have me go?” she whispered. “To the Highlands. To the clansmen there, honor-bound to protect you, my love.” “We could bring danger upon those men. And here, the castle—our son’s inheritance—could fall to the enemy.”
