Page 56 of Desire of a Highlander

For a second, he froze with shock. But only for a second. In the next instant, one of his arms was circling her waist, the other cupping the back of her neck as he deepened the kiss.

It wasn’t gentle. It was hot and insistent and full of all the things neither of them had been able to say. When they finally broke apart, they were breathing harder. Ronan rested his forehead against hers.

“What’s happening to us?” he asked quietly.

She had no answers. She should not be feeling this way about a seventeenth century Highlander. But she couldn’t help it. She felt like she was standing in front of an avalanche commanding it to halt whilst all the time knowing it would sweep her away no matter what she did.

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

“Then how about we find out together?”

She placed her palms flat against his chest, feeling the thump of his heart beneath her palms. “That sounds good to me.”

Slowly, reluctantly, he stepped back and they resumed walking.

And when Ronan’s hand took hold of hers, she didn’t pull away.

Chapter 13

Elodie stood back and surveyed the row of repaired cottages with satisfaction. They were far from perfect, of course, and a million miles away from what she would have considered habitable in the twenty-first century. Their walls were rough, the floors were packed earth, and there were still gaps in places where the wind would undoubtedly find its way inside come winter. But they were dry. And most importantly, safe.

At least for now.

Over the last two weeks the teams of villagers had worked tirelessly to transform them. The leaking roofs had been repaired, the rotten timber replaced. Now the cottages housed four families.

Elodie smiled, feeling a flush of satisfaction.

Anna, Morag’s mother, emerged from one of them carrying a bundle of blankets.

“It’s better than we had any right to expect,” she said, tears glistening in her eyes. “Thank ye, my lady.”

“Please don’t call me, my lady,” Elodie said quickly. “And don’t thank me either. We’ve all done it. Every single one of us.”

“Then I’ll be sure to thank every single one of us.” Anna looked around. “Have ye seen Morag? She’s supposed to be helping me get things settled.”

Elodie hadn’t. But she could guess where the girl would be. She rolled her eyes. “She’ll be watching the fighters training again, no doubt. Along with most of the other village children. Don’t worry. I’ll go fetch her.”

She set off down the hard-packed earth of the main street but she’d not gone three paces when a young lad who Elodie recognized as one of the relay scouts, came sprinting into the village.

“Riders!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs. “Near the eastern ridge!”

Elodie heard drumming feet and Ronan suddenly burst from the direction of the training glade, Sarah, David and the other trainees just behind him, all holding weapons, all sweaty from their practise.

“How many?” Ronan demanded of the scout.

“Six. Maybe seven.”

“Armed?”

“Aye.”

Elodie’s chest tightened with dread. Oh God. It was happening.

Ronan nodded at the lad. “Sound the signal to call everyone in.”

The scout ran off and a horn blasted a moment later, its mournful note echoing around the valley, calling in anyone who might be out in the strips of cultivated land that bordered the settlement, anyone collecting firewood, anyone who had simply gone out for a stroll.

Everyone began moving, but with purpose rather than panic. After the attack on Thomas and Ronan’s encounter with the Murdoch scouts at the waymeet, he’d insisted they be ready and they’d been practicing drills for weeks. They all knew what to do.