Page 13 of The Highlander's Auctioned Hellion
My God, she looks like Angus when she does that.
“What’s all this commotion?” he said firmly, as the two girls exchanged glances.
There was a scuffling sound from somewhere on the floor, and Callum stiffened.
If that’s a rat, I’m slicin’ off its head.
His hand moved to his sword, and Eilis pointed a warning finger at him as if she were a grown woman.
“Ye willnae hurt her. We were just tryin’ to catch her.”
“If ye have befriended a rat or a bird in me house, it willnae live to see another day, lassie.”
“That’s cruel!” Amy said, finding her voice and peeking out from behind her bed. “She hasnae done anythin’ to ye!”
“Who hasnae done what?” he demanded. “What are ye two hidin’ in here?”
Tension rose between his shoulder blades as irrational suspicions grew in his heart.
Perhaps they are as duplicitous as their mother.
The scuffling sound happened again, and then something black streaked across the floor behind one of the cabinets.
Callum strode over, picking up the heavy piece of furniture with one hand to get to the rodent.
But instead of a rat, he saw a tiny bundle of black fur in the corner, huge green eyes looking up at him in terror. It was a kitten, nothing more, and a scrawny one at that.
“Where the hell did a wee cat come from?” Callum muttered, bewildered.
“She’s our pet!” Eilis insisted. He turned on Amy, who was sniffling now, tears building in her enormous eyes.
“Is that so?” he asked. “And why would ye think I’d let a cat into me castle?”
“She needs lookin’ after!”
“And what do two wee girls ken about lookin’ after a kitten? Looks more like a ball of soot than an animal. Are ye sure it isnae cursed?”
Eilis, who was definitely the boldest of the two, pushed past him, her little hand resting briefly on Callum’s calf as she tried to shove him aside. It felt like an ant pushing against a brick wall.
Amy crouched beside the terrified bundle and picked it up. The kitten immediately curled into her tiny arms, shivering violently, a small cry of fear escaping its tiny pink mouth.
To his dismay, Callum felt something crack in his chest.
Dinnae be stupid, man. Ye cannae let them keep it just because they look so sweet together.
“Please, Uncle Callum? We’ll look after her, feed her, and brush her every day!”
Callum sighed. The knot of tension in his shoulders growing stronger by the second.
But the two girls had lost everything that they cared about; their father had died, and their mother was gone.
Some mother that witch was.
He knew he should say no. The kitten would be a nightmare for the staff and would likely get itself stuck upside down somewhere, causing all sorts of strife.
But the little girls were looking up at him as if he were something other than a monster for the first time. They were both imploring him to allow them this one gift, and to finally see no fear in their eyes was a powerful thing.
“All right,” he said wearily. “But ye will be responsible for it. It doesnae leave yer side, and if it gets lost, ye will find it yerselves and nae bother me staff. Understood?”
