Page 85 of A Virgin for the Stone Highlander
Aaron rolled his eyes at them.
“Ye have me best wishes,” Robert said, his words causing something to stir in Aaron’s chest. “I had a feeling with Scarlett too. But I spent a month convincing meself I was imagining it.”
Aaron huffed silently. His ears ached at the pretentiousness in those words.
Scarlett had only married for the sake of an alliance with Clan McLaren. But now, here was her husband, speaking of feelings as though he knew the first thing about them.
Surely, some fool would believe it.
“Thank ye, Laird McLaren,” Caelan said, smiling as though he had struck gold. “I shall go after her at the fair today.”
Hopeless man.
He had exchanged fewer than ten words with the lass. Way less than Aaron had said to Edith at a single supper. And yet he could hardly hold back around her.
How could a man allow himself to ache so openly over a lass?
Aaron could not imagine a time he would ever allow himself to do such a thing. He cast an irritated glance at his man-at-arms before moving away.
Strange what a woman could do to even the steadiest of men.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Aaron felt her presence before he saw her.
First, it was the scent of wild lavender that drifted toward him from behind. Next, it was the quiet sound of her footsteps as she walked up to him.
He did not know how he heard her, or how it was possible that he even knew what he had heard. But he knew that it was Edith before he turned around, and the mere consciousness of the fact caused his chest to tighten with a feeling closer to fear than irritation.
Edith slipped her hand effortlessly into the crook of his arm, and he stiffened at once.
“Good day, me Laird,” she said quietly from beside him. “I heard ye requested me presence.”
He had barely stepped away from Caelan and Robert. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Scarlett hugging her husband.
He looked down at Edith—at the top of her head as it barely reached his shoulder—and his jaw clenched at the sight.
She was not looking at him.
Her hair was a crown of auburn braids, pinned up and adorned with tiny flowers he didn’t recognize.
Where did she get those?
The white of the flowers was not her color, but it did not detract from the beauty of her hair.
’Tis nae me concern, anyway.
He blinked, almost convincing himself of the thought as he looked away from her. But in the same breath, he imagined her thick braids adorned with wild lavender and his fingers?—
His fingers curled.
“Were ye about to leave?” Edith leaned closer to him, and her sweet scent drifted up to him again.
Hell.
“Nay,” he responded flatly. “I was waiting for ye.”
The words sounded wrong as soon as they left his mouth. But there was no taking them back now. Scarlett had heard.
