The Highwayman (Victorian Rebels, #1)

by Kerrigan Byrne

“I was thinking,” he said some time later as she paused for a drowsy yawn. “Since ye doona have any family to love anymore, ye could love me…” Instead of meeting her gaze, he studied the way the pristine white of her petticoat bandage made his hand look that much grubbier. “That is, if ye wanted.”

😭🥹🫶🏻

Love is quite like reading, I expect. Once you know how, you can’t ever imagine not doing it.”

Dougan learned much about himself in those two blissful years with his fairy. Namely that when he loved, he did it nothing short of absolutely. Obsessively, even.

I will walk alongside ye, and stand where ye stand. I will sleep alongside ye, my heart in yer hand. This vow to my love, may no one dare sever. Even death will not part us, ye are mine forever.

I make ye my vow, beneath this sacred moon, To love and to honor you, with all that I have. May we chance to live again, may our hearts meet again, And remember that we are loved.

I’d never leave you, Fairy. Truly? Not even to be a pirate? I promise. I might be a highwayman, though.

“Dougan would rather have submitted to his thousand tortures than to have you submit to one. He wouldn’t have survived your suffering. He loves you that much.”

“Loves” and not past tense 🤭

“Let her go, Walters,” he ordered, stopping his cook from going after her and hauling her back. “Name’s Frank,” Walters insisted, though he obediently returned to Dorian’s side.

😭🫶🏻

Finally, he glanced over at his biggest and most pliable employee. “Frank?” Walters inclined his head toward the pavilion. “She named me this morning.” “Of course she did,” Dorian muttered.

🥹🥹

“What’s wrong with your Fairy, Dougan?” Dorian sighed, running into this problem more often than he cared to. “It’s me, Walters. It’s Dorian. Dougan is dead, remember?”

Mmmhmmmm sure 😉

Murdoch shifted, retreating to the washroom door. “I owe him my life, many times over. And, as such, I owe my life for yers, as well.” “How is that?” she whispered, uncomfortable with the veneration on his gentle face. “Well, ye’re his Fairy, of course, his lady wife for all intents and purposes. We promised Dougan Mackenzie that we’d find ye. That we’d protect ye. That, if we could, we’d give ye back the life that ye’re owed, the life he would have wanted for ye.”

Crying 😭😭😭

“Blackwell’s as tied to Dougan Mackenzie as we all are,” Murdoch said cryptically.

😏

“Please,” he scoffed, lip curling in distaste. “You forget I was there when Morley proposed to you. Besides, a proposal denotes a question, and I have yet to ask you one.” He pushed away from the tub and turned from her, his shoulders bunched tighter than before. “I informed you that you’ll marry me, and marry me you will.”

Oh he’s sooo 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

For someone who sounded so English, he certainly seemed a part of this wild, sharp, treacherous landscape.

“Other than Dougan, I’ve been without a family for over twenty years.” Farah pushed herself up until she stood before the Blackheart of Ben More completely nude. “What I want from you is a child.”

A different scar caught his eye, and he ran a finger across the long-healed wound. He had to make sure she never saw this, for it would expose a secret he could never reveal.

Dorian held it up in his black-leather-clad fingers so it would catch the light. “Gray diamonds are the rarest and most valuable in the world,” he said. “It seemed appropriate that you should have one.”

An empty heart full of promise, and a soul of shadows in need of sunlight.

“And you won’t have to,” he said casually. “It won’t be long before we have Warrington’s head displayed on a spike from the London Bridge.”

Oh

Her husband. A thief, a highwayman, a criminal. A coldhearted killer.

Yum

First, because Christopher Argent was an unfeeling, fearless killer-for-hire.

Yum

“Yes, but Gemma Warlow might be the one who is murdered now. Is my life any more important than hers?” Farah challenged. “It is to me.”

She was the only reason. His only reason. For everything.

Crying

“He threatened you, Farah.” The cold rage surged again. “He should not be allowed to live.”

Girl dinner

and Argent is—occupied.”

My sneaky man I'm invested

She wasn’t dead. That shot wasn’t for her. She was alive! She was alive because he was still alive. And if her heart ever stopped beating, his soul would follow her.

On god

“I thought I could live without you. But there is no life without you. Only existence. And that is a greater hell than what awaits me after death.”

From the moment I saw you in that graveyard I loved you with the strength of a man.

“I love you.” Her yawn cracked her jaw and she patted his chest. “So you said.” “I said it as Dorian. But I must tell you once per day for Dougan, as well.”

CRYING OH MY GOD

I make ye my vow Beneath this sacred moon. To love and to honor you, With all that I have. May we chance to live again, May our hearts meet again, And remember that we loved.

“Dougan Mackenzie Blackwell,” she informed him gently but firmly. “I named him after a boy who deserves a second chance at childhood. And maybe, through this one and our little Faye creature here, Dougan and Fairy will be able to experience all the happiness and magic of a childhood that we lost.”

CRYING IM IN SHAMBLES

“I lost nothing,” Dorian said as he reached for his wife and twirled a ringlet around his finger. “I found my Fairy, and that’s all the magic I’ll ever need.”