Free A Highwayman's Honor: (A Highland Highwayman Novella #1) by Michelle McLean Page B

chest. “Wait until the soldiers come. They’ll be here any moment. And then shoot me.”
    Whatever she’d expected him to say, it hadn’t been that. She shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
    “Yes,” he said as forcefully as he could. “I do.”
    “No.” She gritted her teeth, her mouth pressed in a pinched line. “You just need a doctor. You’ll be fine. I’m not going to…to do that…not to you. No.” She dropped the gun on the ground beside him and reached for him, cradling his head in her lap, her hand cupping his face.
    “Don’t make me do this,” she murmured. Hot tears spilled from her eyes to land on his cheeks. “I won’t do it. You’ll be all right. You’re strong.”
    “Elizabet.” He stroked her cheek, wiping away her tears though more continued to fall. “I’m not asking you to do this for me .”
    “Yes, you are. Why else would you want me to do something like that?”
    “The soldiers will be here any moment. If they have a witness who swears you were with me at my cottage, then you will be suspect. And you’ve killed one of their men. No matter who you are, you’ll have to answer for that. Unless you tell them I did it. And prove your loyalty to the crown by shooting me.”
    She gasped and pushed away from him. “No. How can you think I’d ever—”
    “You must,” he said, putting the last of his energy into making her understand. “I’m done for, Elizabet.”
    “No,” she said, her voice cracking. “No.”
    “Come here, love.” He held out his good arm and she came back to him, pressing herself as close to him as she could get. He kissed the top of her head and she lifted her face to him. He kissed her, slow and gentle, pouring every bit of love he would never get the chance to show her into it. She broke away from him with a sob.
    “I’m done for,” he said with gentle insistence. “There’s no time for you to run. Phillip must have been captured or he’d have been waiting here for us. You need to take the gun and when you see the soldiers, shoot me. Tell them I killed their man there. And you took my gun and shot me. They’ll have to believe you if they see it with their own eyes.”
    “John. I can’t…” Her breath caught and she pressed the back of a bloodied hand to her mouth.
    “Yes, my love. You can.” His breaths were coming in short bursts now. He couldn’t seem to get enough air. Elizabet had taken on an almost ethereal quality. Her face faded a bit, edged in a glowing light. He smiled at her. “You look like an angel.”
    He reached up to cup her face and she pressed her cheek against his hand. “You can’t leave me. I love you,” she said, pain coating every word.
    His fading heart jumped in his chest. Then faltered.
    She turned her face so she could kiss his palm. “You said you were a man of honor. You promised you’d always protect me. Always.”
    John smiled. “And so I shall, love. With my dying breath.”
    A faint breeze blew over them, bringing with it the faint echo of the commander and his men.
    “Now,” John said. He grabbed the pistol from where she had dropped it beside him and pressed it into her hand. Then he used the last of his strength to haul himself to his feet.
    She lunged forward, sealed her mouth to his and kissed him with a passion born of love and desperation. Then she wrenched herself away, tears streaming down her beautiful face as she back away from him. She raised the gun.
    The soldiers poured from the maze. John didn’t take his eyes from Elizabet, or she from his. He gave her a slow, sad smile. She pulled the trigger. A scream of anguish and rage rent the air, the sound ripped from her throat as John crumpled to the ground.
    The soldiers shouted, rushed at them. Elizabet fell to her knees, dropping the gun to cover her face.
    Then John saw no more.

Chapter Eight
     
    Elizabet had not left her room since that day two weeks before. Life was unlivable. Made more so by her father’s