Page 29 of A Virgin for the Vicious Highlander
“Did that awful noise startle ye?” Tara cooed, her anxiety melting into a smile as Dipper wriggled upward and licked her face. “Och, ye cannae eat me, wee lad! Would ye like some pheasant instead?”
She wandered off to the side of the hall, picking up her breakfast plate on the way. Cecilia followed, and the two women sat down on the cold floor and watched as Dipper lunged at the roast pheasant, gobbling it down with eager enthusiasm.
George MacGill watched them for a moment or two, frowning as if he disapproved, but he soon returned to what he had been doing—namely, discussing some matter or other to do with one of the villages at the border. The rest of the councilmen settled back into the familiarity of the conversation, all offering their opinions, talking over one another as Cecilia had predicted.
Me faither used to complain about that all the time. I once thought he used to duel them all into silence.
Her heart was heavy in her chest, and she lifted the heel of her palm to that uncomfortable spot, trying to massage away the tight feeling.
“Does the Laird do that often?” Cecilia asked, scratching the puppy’s hind quarters, his backside wiggling in a funny little dance.
Tara furrowed her brow as she offered more pieces of pheasant to Dipper. “Do what?”
“Slam doors, huff and puff, charge around like an angry bull, make everyone feel so much smaller than him,” Cecilia replied with an awkward laugh, remembering how small she had felt in Murdoch’s arms, though for very different reasons. More pleasant reasons, albeit fleetingly.
Tara grimaced, a shudder rippling through her. “I’ve never kenned him to be any different.” She hesitated, casting a cautious glance at the nearby table before lowering her voice. “He… terrifies me. Always has. And I’m nae the only one. I dinnae think there’s a person in this castle, save for his maither and Lennox, perhaps, who isnae terrified of him. Everythin’ he does or says makes me blood run cold.”
Cecilia considered the words for a few moments, wondering which category she fell into. She was not “scared” of Murdoch, but she was not entirely impervious to his intimidating manner either. Then again, if anyone had told her that she would want to be touched by him last night, she would have laughed at the ridiculousness of such a suggestion.
He was… different, for a moment. Nae intimidatin’ and coarse, but… assertive and intriguin’.
Then, of course, he had switched back to being rude and mean, heating her up until she had burned like a furnace, only to dump an entire snowdrift on top of that feeling, extinguishing it and leaving her cold.
“I didnae even ken ye, and I was worried about ye when I heard that he’d gone lookin’ for ye and ye didnae come back,” Taraadmitted, stroking the puppy. “It’s nae safe to be alone with a man like that. If that’s the only warnin’ ye ever heed, it’ll serve ye well.”
Cecilia chewed on the inside of her cheek in thought. “He has a… history?”
“With lasses?”
Cecilia nodded.
Tara tilted her head to the side. “I couldnae say for sure, but it’s a truth whispered around the castle to all the maids and other lasses that ye shouldneverbe alone in a room with him. And there’s nae often smoke without fire.”
The fear radiating from Tara was palpable, her words spoken in earnest. But no matter what Cecilia thought of Murdoch, she still could not entertain the possibility that he would cause her any physical harm. She thought back to something his mother had said.
“She couldnae be safer if she had a guard escort around her, I promise.”
Of course, mothers were the most susceptible when it came to misjudging the true nature of their sons, but Ceciliahadfelt safe with Murdoch. Just as she had felt relieved when she had seen him there in the woodland glade.
He truly is a man of a thousand contradictions.
And it was beginning to make her head hurt.
“I ought to let ye return to yer scribin’,” she said, scooping Dipper into her arms. “I’ve distracted ye for too long.”
Tara leaned over to kiss the puppy’s head. “Would it be… all right if I borrowed Dipper one day, to play in the gardens or somethin’?” She hesitated. “If ye want to be there too, that wouldnae be a bad thing. I dinnae get to meet too many new lasses, and with me faither bein’ on the council, there arenae too many lasses who want to spend time with me either.”
“I’d like that,” Cecilia said, forgetting that her time at Castle Moore would soon come to an end.
Tara’s eyes lit up. “That’s wonderful! Well then, I’ll… uh… see ye soon.”
“Aye, ye will.” Cecilia smiled and wandered toward the exit, offering her thanks and farewells to the others.
Lennox ran over to give Dipper a last rub, his boyish excitement as contagious as the winter cold, and out of the corner of her eye, Cecilia saw Aileen clasp her hands together, grinning happily.
Of course, Cecilia was not stupid; she could tell what Aileen was up to. And, yes, Lennox was as cheerful and endearing as he wasextraordinarily handsome. But when Cecilia looked at him, she didn’t feel anything in particular.
Her breaths remained steady, her heart did not beat any faster, there were no butterflies fluttering in her stomach, and no warmth tingling across her skin. He was like some of the shepherds she had encountered over the years, the sort of man who became a good friend, almost like a brother, and nothing more.
