SOLVED. Historical Romance. Heroine is prisoner of hero's clan and attacked by stones Read in 2022.

[penguin123]

This story was probably published way before 2022, but I read it last year. I know it was a historical novel, but I can't recall if it was specifically a highlander romance or not. I recall that the heroine (English?) was a captive/prisoner, and she had a guard who would follow her around and treat her terribly so the hero would protect her from him. She decided to restore a garden (that belonged to the hero's mother?) and had to carry large barrels of water back and forth to do so. I think at some point the guard knocks over one of the barrels on purpose.

Toward the end of the book I believe, the heroine was at a festival and was about to cry because the clan members still saw her as the enemy. Right as she's thinking that, she's attacked by the clan members with stones, and she saw a relative (cousin?) before she passed out. There ended up being a trial where all the people who threw stones had to see her injuries, and they feel very guilty. The heroine goes up to each of them I think and asks them why they did it, and she ends up forgiving them.

[penguin123]

It was A Touch of Her Hand by Rebecca Ruger :)