Page 15 of A Forbidden Night with a Scot
If it stung her, then she could die. If it stung Samuel, then he could die, too. Alicia had witnessed it with her own eyes and she wasn’t going to trust anyone when they told her that bees were harmless.
There it was, the buzz of the bee, once again coming near them and Alicia waved her arms wildly around her head, trying to get it to fly away. The more she panicked, though, the closer the bee came, and in the end, she heard Samuel draw in a sharp breath, followed by a quiet curse—and then silence. The bee was nowhere to be heard.
Alicia hadn’t realized that she had closed her eyes, but now she opened them, blinking at Samuel in confusion. Within moments, she spotted the redness near his wrist, where his skin had been exposed, uncovered by the fabric of his sleeve.
“Did it sting ye?” she asked, her voice high and reedy and filled with terror. “Samuel, did it sting ye?”
“It did,” Samuel confirmed, calm as ever. “An’ it hurts but it isnae so bad. I promise ye. See? I am fine, lass.”
“We must get ye tae the healer! Perhaps he’ll ken what tae dae. Perhaps there is an antidote or something he can give ye tae?—”
“Alicia,” said Samuel calmly, reaching for her hands and holding them tightly in his. “I am fine. Look at me. Naething has happened.”
Alicia looked for any signs of swelling or anything that would indicate something was wrong, but found none. Still, perhaps it was too early for him to show any signs at all, so she was not fully reassured.
Perhaps sensing her apprehension, Samuel only tightened his hold on her. “I will see the healer if it pleases ye,” he said. “An’ then ye will see that everythin’ is fine.”
Alicia nodded, thinking this was the best course of action. Samuel had already been stung, after all. There was nothing she could do to change that or to protect him from it anymore. Allshe could do was hope he was right and that nothing bad would happen to him.
“It isnae the first time I’ve been stung by a bee,” he said, as he pulled her to her feet and the two of them walked back to the horses. “Dinnae fash. I didnae ken ye were so scared o’ them.”
“There’s plenty ye dinnae ken,” Alicia mumbled, the fear and adrenaline leaving her exhausted as they drained out of her. Samuel looked at her, puzzled, but she only climbed onto her horse, waiting for him to do the same before they continued up the path.
She could never tell him the truth. She could never reveal to him just how much she wanted him.
CHAPTER SIX
Samuel could hardly believe just how much Alicia had feared that bee, but then again, he hadn’t managed to overcome his fear of water, either. It wasn’t so much that he feared water himself—no, he could still be out at sea, he could still swim in lochs and rivers. He simply couldn’t stomach the thought of someone else doing it, and the moment he saw anyone jump in the water, he was instantly filled with a roiling panic.
In the end, he couldn’t blame her. They were both fearful of things that had taken the people they loved.
To calm her, Samuel pulled her brooch out of his cloak as they rode, handing it to her. “Here,” he said. “Wear this, it will help protect ye.”
Alicia reached for it tentatively, holding it in her hand as she examined the geometric pattern of twisting circles. It was wrought in silver, a heavy thing polished to a shine, and it sparkled in Alicia’s hand under the sun.
“Why?” she asked, still holding it—neither trying to give it back nor pinning it on her own cloak. “Why would ye simply give it tae me?”
“Well, sometimes a n object, something symbolic can help us overcome some of our fears,” Samuel said with a small shrug.
Alicia smiled and pinned the brooch on her cloak and the two of them spent the rest of their short ride to the castle in a comfortable silence, one neither of them felt the need to fill.
Seeing her pin that brooch to her cloak stirred something inside Samuel that startled him for a moment. He didn’t know what, precisely, it was, but now an image of her flashed in his mind, Alicia wearing his shirt and nothing else, the creamy skin of her calves and thighs on display for him as she lounged in his bed.
Shocked by his own thoughts, Samuel quickly changed his train of thought, bringing his mind back to the topic of her marriage. That vision of her quickly faded, much to his relief, though the echo of it still lingered in his mind, terrifying him like few things had before.
Had he lost his mind? What was it that he was thinking?
The weddin’, that is what matters now. Findin’ a way tae stop it. Such a shame fer this lass tae be wedded tae that man.
But Samuel still held hope that he and Gavin could find a way to avoid it. He wasn’t going to give up so easily. He wasn’t going to let Laird MacTavish do as he pleased, simply because he could.
When they reached the castle, Samuel made to walk to the healer’s quarters, Alicia following close behind, but something gave him pause. The entire castle seemed to be in a state of alarm, people rushing back and forth—servants and guards alike.
Samuel grabbed the first man in his path, a young guard who was rushing to the gates, stopping him dead in his tracks. “What happened?” he asked. “Was there an attack?”
Unlikely as it sounded in the short time Samuel and Alicia had been away, he couldn’t disregard the possibility entirely. Perhaps it had been a small mission, one meant to cause some damage before the main event.
“Nay, me laird!” said the man. He sounded out of breath, chest heaving wildly as he spoke. “It’s a wee lassie, one o’ the servants’ bairns. We cannae find her anywhere.”
