Gifts of Desire (12 page)

             
The thudding sound of running on the stairs brought him abruptly back to himself.  He dropped his hands from
where they gripped
her arms,
not
even
knowing how they had gotten there,
and stepped back, just in time to see Gregor
peer
through
the open door. 
Catching sight of
Ceann
,
he
rush
ed
into the room,
all
out of breath and clearly agitated.
 

             
“
Laird
, there
you
are!
  I’ve been looking everywhere.
”  He stopped
short
when he noticed
Ella
.
 
“Oh, am I…
i
nterrupting?”

             
“No
.” 
Ceann
snapped.  “What is it Gregor?”

             
“Men spotted at the border
, south of here, armed
”
.

             
“Who are they?”
 
Ceann
asked
, trying not to sound as flustered as he felt.

             
“I
can't
say, they show
ed
no colors, and we
were just out on a regular patrol, so we
didn
’t
have enough men with us to get close enough to find out.
”

             
“
Most likely MacDonalds again.  They’re growing bolder by the day with this
outlandish
quest to conquer all of the highlands. 
They are naught but a thorn in our side! 
Let’s go, then.” 
Ceann
followed Gregor
out of the room
without a backward glance
, rushing to th
e stables
, stopping only to don
the rest of
his weapons
.
  H
is men-at-
arms were already there
,
eager and
ready to fight
.
  He
hastily
gave orders to a couple of men
who were
to stay behind and
guard
Ella
; he didn’t want her taking the opportunity to run off
. 
The men
grumbled
under their breath a bit
at missing the possibility of a battle, but obeyed their laird without question.

             
In a matter of minutes
,
Ceann
rode out
on Fallon
, the rest of the men following.  Armed men at the border of his land was never a good sign.  Hopefully it was just a band of cattle raiders that could be
dealt with swiftly
, and not a larger attack
.  He was
oddly
in no mood for a
full-fledged
battle, not when his mind was occupied by what he considered hi
s biggest problem at the moment, the one that seemed to consume his every thought.
  Ethan would laugh at him, he knew, and tell him how lucky he was to have such a beautiful problem.  Most other men would probably already have bedded her by now and dea
lt with
any
consequences
later. 
But not
Ceann
.  He had sworn years ago not to be led about by lust,
n
or by any woman. 
No
, if he could not have all that he really wanted, he would not torment himself with glimpses of what could be.  He would rather accept his fate
now
and throw himself into the
things he knew he could do well, like fight and protect his people.
  And so the fact that he had nearly kissed
Ella
in the library this very morn rattled him to the core.  He had thought his forced indifference to women was one of the things he was good at.  He had certainly managed well enough for the past three years.  Why now, suddenly, was it all he could do not to
imagine tearing her gown off and taking her
,
swiftly and
without gentleness
?  He groaned.  He was caught in a trap of his own making.  He could not stand to have the lass near him, yet he could not send her away without the possibility of endangering his people.  He had best work
harder to find
out who she was
and send her on her way
, before h
e lost what was left of his sanity
.

             
When they reached the border where the armed men had been sighted, they found
nothing
but a few tracks.  Though
Ceann
sent men to scout the area in each direction, they returned with no sightings
; nothing.
  Neither were any of the farmers nearby missing any cattle. 
How very strange.  What had the men
been about, if not raiding or thieving
? 
Ceann
lingered a bit longer, and then,
satisfied that there was no immediate danger, started for home.  He left
a small patrol behind, to make sure the men did not return
.
 

             
A wasted afternoon,
Ceann
thought.  And there was so much to be done at Tulloch.  He h
ad been away for two months, no
, longer, and now there were many things that needed his attention.  His steward, Grant
, kept things running smoothly in his absence, but now
that he was home
the full weight fell back onto his shoulders.  Sometimes he almost preferred battle to the huge responsibility he bore for the health and welfare of his people.  With both
of
his parents gone, and being
their
only child, he
now and again
felt
as if he were
alone in the world, except for Ethan, on whom he could always depend.  Ethan, who thought he should take a wife.  A wife who would share in his duties; a strong and capable woman who would stand by his side and help care for his people.
  B
ut he wouldn’t take a wife.  No
, to do so would only
prove
to the world that
he
was cursed.  It would weaken his authority as laird, perhaps even tempt others to rise against him and take what was his. 
I
t was best that there would always be doubt.  But to have a wife to warm his bed, to tend his wounds
after a good fight
, and aye, to take over the care of the keep; a woman as beautiful and as intriguing as Ella…
  

             
To his
utter dismay
,
Ceann
found his heart sped up when he thought of
her,
and heat pooled in
his groin
, making the saddle increasingly uncomfortable.
  He
uttered a series of
vile
curses
, drawing the curi
ous looks of several of
the
men who rode near him.
  Which made him curse again.
  Such thoughts would do him no good, would only make him long for things he couldn’t have.
 

             
Ella
had
watched from the window
at the end of the hall
as the group of warriors rode
off
. 
He had kissed her
.  She could still feel his lips
on
hers.  Well, she admitted, it wasn’t so much of a kiss as just
a brief touch of his lips, but even so, it had left her wanting more
, much more
.  Strange, she had been kissed many times before, stolen moments with this sweetheart or that…
but she had never felt heat
race through her veins as it did with the touch
of
Ceann
’s lips on hers.
She shook herself, here she was dreaming when the laird had been
called away,
and
now she could continue searching the li
brary without
risking
hi
s
interference
. 
On her way to the stairs s
he
paused at
the door to the study
. 
Did she dare?
  She listened intently for anyone nearby, and then
carefully tried the latch.  B
ut the door wouldn’t open
; t
he study would have to wait for another day. 
She
sighed, almost relieved that she would not have to intrude upon
Ceann
’s personal sanctuary this day.  She
went
back
to the library
, instead,
and
carefully
eased the door to the room closed
behind her.  She
set out
methodically going through the
books
, looking for anything out of the ordinary, though not really expecting to find it
so easily
. 
She had reached the second
row
and was pushing a book
of poetry
back into i
ts place
,
when sh
e heard a sound in the corridor
. 

Chapter 6

             
There
was a dull thud, as if something large and heavy had fallen against
the door
.  S
h
e stood
abruptly
, fearing she had
been caught
snooping again
. 
S
uddenly
the door
swung open, and
a
man’s lifeless body fell into the room, blood seeping out from under him
in a slowly spreading pool of red
. 
Ella
had
only
just raised her hands to her mouth to stifle a scream when another
man stepped over the lifeless body
and into the room. 

             
“Make a sound, lass, and
you
’
r
e
dead.”

             
She swallowed the scream and instead drew in a ragged breath.

             
He looked her over for a moment, as she stood frozen to the spot, willing herself to think of a way out of this. 
She knew with a cold certainty that this was not one of
Ceann
’s clan
smen
.
  He was dressed in breeks and a dirty, torn shirt, and he wore no plaid that would give away his identity.  His eyes were cold and hard, and fear raced in a cold line up and down her back.
 

             
“Och, I see
you
’
r
e
every bit as
pretty as they say
”
, he drawled.  Grabbing her arm,
h
e
drew a
small dagger
and held it
to her throat
in one swift motion.  His hand came up to squeeze one breast appreciatively, even
as he dragged her from the room
, and her stomach churned in panic and revulsion
. 

             
“Not a sound, my pretty little lass
”
,
he hissed against her ear.
“
I’d hate to have to
kill
you
to save me own hide, but
know
that I would without a second thought.”

             
Just a few paces down the hall, he kicked at a wooden panel, and to her
bewilderment
it swung open to reveal a second staircase. 
A hidden passage.  Just
my
luck
. 
She thought such things were only
found
in
children’s
tales
, where the
dashing
hero crept through
a secret entrance
to rescue his lady love locked in
a
castle tower.