Page 73 of Wed to the Highlander

Maggie ached for her baby, wailing and squirming in her arms.

“Give him to me,” she pleaded, stepping forward. “Please. He’s just a baby.”

Isla retreated, backing onto a timber spread across the void.

Maggie’s heart leapt into her throat. They were three stories up, and there was no telling what lay in the blackness. Splintered boards? Jagged stone? If Isla fell or dropped Jamie, his tiny body wouldn’t survive.

“He’s Duncan’s son too,” she said, trying a different sort of plea.

That made something inside her snap.

“He should have been mine!” she shrieked. “You bewitched him. We were to be wed—until you came with your wicked womb and cursed sassenach ways!”

Maggie crept closer, heart pounding. “I didn’t steal him,” she said, hands outstretched. “Your betrothal ended years ago, before I ever came to High Glen.”

“You can’t have my bairn!” she screamed, clutching Jamie tighter. “I’ll protect him from your evil!”

Her baby wailed, his cries shrill against the storm, and all Maggie could do was look on helplessly.

Isla took another step. The beam shifted.

“Please,” Maggie implored. “If you fall, he won’t survive. I know you don’t want to hurt him.”

Rain streamed down. Thunder cracked overhead.

“Better dead than with you, sassenach witch,” she hissed, completely unreasonable.

Boots pounded. Duncan’s voice rang out, hoarse with panic, “Maggie. Where are you?”

She didn’t dare look away. “Here! On the third floor! Isla has Jamie!”

The woman continued moving backward—taking Maggie’s precious child farther into danger.

If pleading and reason didn’t work, she’d offer her what she wanted.

“You don’t want my baby. You want one of your own,” Maggie said, voice steady despite the tremor in her limbs. “That can still happen, with Duncan.”

Isla’s wild eyes met hers. “Why should I believe anything you say? You bewitched him.”

“But he can be yours again if I’m gone. Give me Jamie, and I’ll leave. I’ll never return. You’ll have what you always wanted—what was rightfully yours. Duncan. The castle. The title.”

“You’d leave High Glen?”

“I swear it,” Maggie said, inching closer. “You’ll be the Lady of MacPherson Castle. No one will stand in your way.”

Jamie’s cries grew louder, his tiny body trembling.

Lightning flashed—and Maggie saw Duncan behind Isla, silently stepping onto the beam. But beneath his weight, the timber groaned.

Isla spun toward him and teetered.

Maggie clapped both hands over her mouth in silent horror.

“Don’t move,” Duncan ordered. “The board is unstable. You’ll both fall.”

“You came for me. I knew you didn’t love her,” Isla breathed, lost in her delusion.

“We’ll go somewhere dry and talk,” he said, voice cajoling. “Give me the bairn and come to me, where it’s safe.”