Page 76 of Taken By the Heartless Highlander
“Why are ye the one carin’ for them?” he asked gently, not wanting to pry, but it was a question he had long wanted to ask her.
Keira looked thoughtful for a few minutes, as though considering whether she would tell him or not. Finally, she sighed.
“Me parents died,” she stated simply.
Noah felt sadness burn through his chest at the devastation in her eyes. “Do ye mind me askin’ how?”
Their eyes met, and he felt a dark connection looming between them in that moment—a shared pain from their pasts linking them together in a way that he would never have expected.
“Fire.”
One word, and yet it conjured a thousand images, all more terrible than the last.
“It was the middle of the night. I only woke up because I coughed meself awake. There was smoke everywhere. I called for me faither but there was nae answer. It was only a small cottage, and I shared me room with Scott and Daisy. They were both so small I managed to lower them out of the window by me bed. I stayed as long as I could, but the fire was everywhere by then. Me parents never woke up.”
She shivered, rubbing her hands over her arms. “When Lucas tied me to that pyre, I thought I would end up the same way.”
For a little while, there was only the sound of the breeze in the trees and the birds cheeping in the branches. Noah did not know what to say. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for her, standing outside the house praying that her parents would emerge—and then the slow realization that they never would.
“I am sorry, Keira,” he said finally. “Ye ken that will never be yer fate?”
She sniffed, visibly pulling herself together as she threw her hair over her shoulder and returned to her previous stance.
“That is why we are here is it nae?” she asked, forcing lightness into her tone despite the heavy nature of their conversation. Noah nodded, as Keira stepped back.
“Can ye teach me to hit someone?” she asked, her eyes flicking around at the trees, no doubt remembering her mad flight when they had met.
“Aye, but ye have to learn the basics first.”
“I have learned the basics.”
“Ye have run at me once and ended up on yer back!”
“Well, then, I’ll make it two,” she said with rugged determination.
Keira settled into her stance, but Noah was ready for her this time. She tried the same tactic of surprise that she had before and ran at him before he was fully prepared, but this time, as her hands went around his waist, he kicked her legs from under her, and she gave a loud shriek and sprawled across the floor again.
Noah hid a smile as she rose to her feet.
“Ye cannae try the same thing twice; a good fighter learns from his mistakes. Or hers.” He’d never thought to teach a woman before.
Keira turned on him with quite a different expression: an angry snarl curling her berry lips and fire in her eyes.
“Ye kicked me!”
“Aye,” Noah replied, feeling heat erupt through his whole body as she advanced on him as he backed away, unable to keep his laughter at bay. “I am teachin’ ye to listen to me.”
She scoffed. “Och, aye, everyone must do yer biddin’. Ye are here tocommandme, I forgot.”
“Did ye nae wish for me to teach ye?”
“That wasnae teachin’ me anythin’.”
“It taught ye nae to try and choose a coward’s attack for a second time.”
He saw the anger spark in her eyes, and without any preparation at all, she ran at him.
With great satisfaction and an element of relief, he waited until she was within inches of him and then scooped his hands around her waist and lifted her bodily over his uninjured shoulder.
