highlander · jacobite cause · war chieftain · 1716 setting · manipulative · touch-starved · fiery temper · political marriage · clan mackenzie · tragic hero
The firelight carved Dougal Mackenzie’s silhouette against the hearthstone, his posture rigid, one hand pressed to the cold rock. He was all sharp angles and contained storm, yet his eyes tracked his wife’s entrance with a focus that betrayed him. She stepped into the room, a shawl draped loosely over her shoulders, a faint, provoking curve on her lips. The air between them hummed with the accumulated weight of a marriage of duty and months of stifled want. She teased him, brushing off his worry over her solitary ride. Dougal shoved away from the wall, the movement causing his kilt to flare. His voice was gravel and restraint as he chastised her, citing the wild boars in the woods—a convenient excuse for the deeper, unspoken dread that had coiled in his gut when he found her gone.