Page 6 of Sighs of the Highland Wind
At once he dropped his hands and looked at her, his eyes so hopeful that she could almost not bear to return his gaze. Everything about him spoke of desperation, and some elusive part of her earliest memories told her that she understood desperation very well indeed.
“I would like that very much,” he replied eagerly. “Thank you.”
“How long has it been since you ate?” Kenna was curious.
“I had some bread and ale yesterday morning and a few scraps a little while ago,” he answered. “And although I told you I would not steal anything, I took a handful of oats out of one of the horse’s mangers. I am sorry.”
“Raw oats are not good for a human being,” she informed him.
She wondered if he was telling her the truth or merely lying to get her sympathy.
“I know.” His voice was hollow, and Kenna thought he might burst into tears at any moment. His stomach growled again, and he closed his eyes so that she could not look at him.
Kenna could not bear to see the man suffering any longer. She had been about to suggest that he stay where he was while she went inside to collect some food. However, there was something about him that made her want to trust him, an air of wholesomeness, despite his reduced circumstances. She had always followed her instincts, and they had never before led her astray, so she had no reason to believe that they would now. The stables, although warmer than outside, were still cold and no place for a man to spend the night.
“I will find you something to eat,” she told him. “But you must be very quiet. If you make a sound that is too loud for my liking, I will make one that will wake the whole castle. Do you understand me?”
“I do,” he replied firmly. “And I will make as little noise as I can. Do you want me to take off my boots?” He raised his eyebrows in a question.
For a moment Kenna thought he was joking, then she realized what the man meant.
“No, your boots are too worn to make any noise. Don’t speak, and stay in the shadows. There is one more thing I have to do, though.”
“What is that?”
He frowned as she took a cotton scarf from her pocket and held it up to his eyes.
“I have to make sure you will not be able to find your way back here,” she said firmly. “I don’t know you. I am a compassionate woman who is moved by your plight, but I must safeguard myself too.”
The man stood up straight, raising himself to his impressive full height, and for a few moments she thought he was going to argue with her, but he nodded, then bent down so that she could reach him. Even so, he was so tall that she still had to stretch. Despite herself, she was impressed. What a magnificent physique he had! Then she checked herself. He was a tramp, and she should not be creating fantasies about him.
Eventually the job was done, and she breathed a sigh of relief. At least he could not overpower her now since he could no longer see where she was.
“Do you have any weapons?” Kenna asked, raising the rake in front of her.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dagger in its scabbard, then offered it to her, handle first.
“Thank you,” Kenna said as she stowed the weapon away in her pocket. “I will return it when you leave.”
Yet even as she said the words, Kenna found that she did not want him to go. She put out her hand to grasp his and noticed that it was so big that it enveloped hers, then she led him inside.
3
It was freezing that night, and Maxwell’s fingertips were so cold that they had become numb. Despite his best efforts, he knew that he might well have died before morning, especially since there was no fuel in his body to keep him warm. The touch of the young woman’s warm hands was akin to having his fingers wrapped in a soft woolen blanket. By giving him the apple, she had quite possibly saved his life. He gripped her hand more tightly, driven by a primitive survival instinct. At that moment she was his lifeline.
Still, although he knew she could trust him, he had to ask himself if he could trust her. How did he know she was not going to lead him into a trap? She had blindfolded him, and she could be taking him anywhere. Without his sight, he was absolutely helpless, and he had to fight down panic as they went along. He also had to think of a convincing story to explain how he had entered the castle. If he had told her that Lachlan had shown him one of the escape tunnels, it would have put her in an extremely awkward position and might even make her give him up.
Yet he had to take his chances with her. It was that or die, but at that moment he realized that dying might be the lesser of two evils. He was in Invercree Castle, right in the dragon’s lair, and if this woman turned him over to the guards or alerted the laird, he would likely meet his maker at the end of a rope.
What if she was merely lulling him into a false sense of security? He had no real idea of where she was taking him, after all. Was it likely that a woman who had just met a stranger hiding from view in the darkest part of the castle, with no really plausible story, would take him to safety? Perhaps she was leading him into a trap, but if she was, there was nothing he could do about it now.
Nevertheless, he followed her through a door in the wall, although the only reason he knew what it was was that he could hear the key turning in the lock. Maxwell knew he would never be able to find it again in a thousand years.
From there, she led him up one staircase, down another, through half a dozen doors and several narrow passages before she finally opened one last door. By now he was so completely disoriented that there would have been no need for a blindfold, he realized, because he would never have been able to retrace his steps through this maze unless he followed a trail of breadcrumbs.
A gust of blessed warmth and the mouthwatering aroma of freshly baked bread told him he was in the kitchen. He could feel the heat of a stove and hear the young woman feeding it with more wood before she pulled a rough wooden chair in front of it.
“Sit,” she said brusquely, pushing him into it before she went to close and lock the door they had just come through.
