Page 60 of Taken By the Heartless Highlander
“Do ye ken when he will return?”
“Nae. But ye have a visitor to occupy ye in the meantime.”
Keira felt her heart pick up speed, and she glanced furtively around her, but Callum’s expression turned kind, and he shook his head.
“Nae the priest. I’d kill him meself if he tried. It is some villagers. They asked for ‘our healer’, which cannae be Deindre. They must have heard of yer arrival.”
Keira thought back to the man she had helped on the lane to the loch and nodded.
“I’ll go to them, thank ye,” she said. Callum gave another short bow and continued on his way as Keira went outside, hearing a hubbub of several voices in the courtyard.
The same man she had helped by the side of the road was standing at the base of the main stairs with an elderly woman on his arm.
He hailed her as soon as she appeared.
“That’s the lass!” he said with a friendly smile and approached her, limping a little, indicating the woman behind him. “I brought me maither. It took several hours to persuade her, but she’s not been well, and I thought ye might be able to help.”
“I am quite well enough. Ye are fussin’ over nothin’,” the older woman responded stiffly, just before she was wracked by a hacking cough.
Keira caught the man’s eye, and he rolled his eyes at her. She hid a smile and approached.
“Will ye come to me chambers? I’d be happy to tend to ye.”
“I told ye!” the man said triumphantly. “Ye dinnae want to listen to rumors, Maither.”
Keira looked back at him. “Rumors?”
“Aye, some nonsense about a witch livin’ in the castle. Maither got quite upset about it when I said ye had helped me on the way home, but me leg is healin’ well, and since she saw that, she decided she could trust ye.”
Keira, to her shame, did not have the strength to ask where the rumors had come from. She was too afraid that the man might know of Lucas personally, and she didn’t wish to hear his name, let alone hear the lies he was spreading about her.
“Ye are most welcome. I’d be happy to help ye. Come, I shall see what we can do for ye.”
CHAPTER24
Noah stoodin the great hall of Dougal Castle alongside his fellow lairds, looking at a map of their lands laid out before him.
He flicked a quick glance at Camden Lyall, whose perpetual smile and easy manner were setting his teeth on edge.
“What is that melancholy expression for, MacAllen?” Camden asked, his booming voice echoing around the halls. “Are ye challengin’ Dougal to a duel? We need some excitement in this place.”
“I would think ye have enough excitement with MacDunn on the loose,” Noah replied irritably. “And why would I challenge me brother-in-law to a duel?”
Camden snorted. “Och ye're correct, ye are friends now, I had forgotten,” he replied, giving Jack a knowing smile across the table.
“Could ye stop, Camden? Ye are pluckin’ feathers to agitate the birds, and there is nae need,” Amelia’s voice cut in as she approached them.
Her belly looked even more swollen than the last time Noah had seen her. Her face glowed, and as she looked at her husband, she was a picture of contentment.
Jack extended an arm, and she settled into his side.
That is a marriage,Noah thought.That is a world I will never ken. Even if Keira accepts me, I can never expect that easy familiarity between us. I must keep her at a distance for her own sake.
There was a rumbling growl behind him as Murdoch Blaine approached the table. He was a hulking figure of a man, covered in scars from head to toe, with much of his face hidden by a mask. But as he looked at the map, assessing the damage MacDunn had left in his wake, his gaze was intelligent and assessing.
“Lady Dougal is right,” he said sternly, giving Camden a reproachful glare, “are we discussin’ MacDunn or banterin’ like fools?”
Laird Moore had a brooding nature and was difficult to get to know. Noah still hadn’t heard him speak more than a few words over all the times they’d met as a group.
