Page 49 of Taken By the Heartless Highlander
“I’m sorry, Keira. I thought better of me own people than to be influenced by a man such as he.”
“He can be very persuasive,” Keira replied, feeling a strange kinship with those women.Who wouldn’t trust a priest?“Lucas can be quite charming when he needs to be,” she added.
Noah’s eyes hardened, and he scoffed under his breath. “Charmin’ indeed. I should like to see that.”
They continued on for a short while, but he seemed agitated.
“Ye were never tempted?” he asked, the words ominous and low.
“Tempted?”
“To marry the priest,” he said.
Keira recoiled, glaring at him in disgust. “Nay. Never. He was me friend for a time, but soon it became clear all he wanted was to own me. There is nay love in that man’s heart save for himself.”
Noah nodded. “I wouldnae wish to be in his company for a second time,” he said, looking at her earnestly. “Ye will never have to see him again.”
Keira could almost believe him when he said those words, as though nothing could harm her when she was in his presence. It was a powerful feeling.
“How is yer chest?” she asked carefully.
He glanced at her, surprise in his expression as he shook his head. “Hurtin’. How did ye ken?” he asked in confusion.
“There is a tightness around yer mouth when ye are in pain,” she admitted. “I can see ye arenae comfortable.”
Noah looked surprised. “Is that so?”
“Just somethin’ we healers observe.”
“And what else have yeobserved, lass?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.
“Och, many things,” she replied.
He looked as though he might tease her, but as his eyes met hers, he winced, his fingers coming up to rub at his chest again.
“I daenae like showin’ weakness,” he confessed, all traces of humor fading from his face. “I dinnae like the thought that it is as ye said, that it is all in me head. I can just imagine what me faither would say about that if he were here.”
They walked on for a short while until Keira plucked up the courage to ask him the obvious question.
“Is yer faither dead?”
“Aye.”
“And yer maither?”
MacAllen’s body stiffened, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword more tightly. Keira saw the soldier rear his head, a man who would fight for the people he loved.
“Aye. She’s dead, too,” his voice was laced with pain.
“I am sorry.”
They continued on their journey in silence for some minutes, MacAllen glancing incessantly behind them at first, but as they moved further from the town, any threat that might have existed seemed to fade, and he relaxed.
The path to the castle was pale against the green grass on either side of them, and Keira felt easier in herself now that they were away from the confines of the market stalls. Her new necklace bumped against her every time she moved, and it remained a source of great comfort she could not explain.
“Thank ye,” she said finally.
MacAllen looked back at her with a frown.
