Free Highland Shadows (Beautiful Darkness Series Book 1) by Lily Baldwin

excitement. “Go to her. Let her know she is not alone. Whatever her secret is, nothing will diminish her place here. Only I would see ye prosper from your marriage as much as your clan. Ye must find a way to reach out to her. I watched her stare at ye with admiration when ye exchanged vows. She wants to be yours, body and soul, but something holds her back.”
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Alex marched through the great hall, then up a wide stairwell. When he reached the landing, he glanced right toward his room and the antechamber that was meant to belong to the lady of the keep. Squaring his shoulders, he turned left and headed down the long hallway passed guest quarters to the very last door. She had chosen the room farthest from his own. He shook his head, remembering Jamie’s advice. To understand his wife, he needed to put aside his own insecurities.
    Standing before the door, he rapped softly.
    “I’m not hungry, Margaret,” she called.
    Alex wondered how often Cora had sent Margaret and her food tray away. Perhaps she wasn’t eating enough. Worry for his wife mounted in his mind.
    “Cora, ‘tis I.” He waited for an answer that did not come.
    “’Tis Alex.”
    “I cannot see ye now,” she said.
    He could tell she stood near the door. He put his hand on the heavy wood that separated them. “Cora, we must speak.”
    “Please go away.” Her voice sounded tired and laced with sorrow.
    “Cora, I want to help ye.”
    Silence.
    “Cora, open this door. We can work though whatever is upsetting ye. If ye’re grieving for your father, then mayhap ye’d benefit from a visit with Father Gregor.”
    “Leave me be,” she shouted. He heard her footfalls cross the room.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Cora’s hands gripped her head as she rocked in her seat by the bare hearth. Her heart pounded in her chest. She couldn’t breathe. A power swelled within her too great to deny. She fought to maintain control while her thoughts remained fixed on Alex. When her father first took ill, he had become obsessed with seeing her properly matched before he died, but finding the right man had proved difficult. “He must be a man of unlimited kindness and unspeakable strength,” her father had once said.
    She sighed. There was no better way to describe Alex. Beneath his severe exterior beat a gentle, kind heart. She had known this the moment their eyes had locked, and she heard him speak. She could smell deceit. It always left a pungent taste on her tongue, but from the beginning, he had spoken only truth.
    Were his kindness and strength enough, however?
    The first night they had lain together when she lost control and tore open his back proved she could hurt him as easily as anyone else.
    She just had to do what she had done at Dun Brae Castle—lock herself away—and just like her friends from the village and the servants in the castle, eventually everyone would stop trying to see her. And she would be forgotten.
    She looked with longing at the door, savoring the memory of Alex’s heat through the slatted wood. His heartbeat continued to echo in her mind. More than anything she had wanted to fling the door wide and throw herself into his arms and forget the world, forget herself. She craved his comfort. She wanted to feel his strong hands on her body again, but once more her cruel fate had cheated her of another of life’s gifts. Love could never be hers. The beast within her would destroy him. She had no choice. She had done it once, and she would do it again. She would shut life out.

CHAPTER 9
     
    Cora awoke with a start. Pain gripped her body. She swallowed the scream that rose to her lips as the bones in her back snapped.
    “Nay,” she cried, fighting the power that snaked through her cracking limbs. “Nay, please,” she whimpered, looking down at her hands that were warping and cracking. Her nails thickened and grew. She climbed out of bed on feet that were spreading and arching. Agony tore through her, but she fought the power. Then