Page 19 of Seduced By the Reckless Highlanders
“Indeed I do,” he replied. “Both parents and three sisters, one older, the other two younger.”
“Oh, it must be lovely to have sisters!” Keira breathed, smiling dreamily. “What are their names?”
“The older one is Margaret,” he replied. “Then there is me, then Catriona, then Bettina. I have three nephews and three nieces so far! Margaret is with child again.”
“Are you a happy family?” Keira asked eagerly.
“We have our squabbles, but there is a lot of love in our family.”
Murdoch’s face glowed when he spoke of them, and for a moment, Keira smiled too, then she lapsed into gloom again.
“I wish I had a family like yours.” Her voice was husky with unshed tears. “I would give up the castle and the servants and settle for a little cottage with enough to eat and clothes on my back. A good, steady husband would be nice too.” Then she shook her head. “I will never have a home like that.”
Murdoch leaned forward to look into Keira’s eyes more fully. “Never say never,” he murmured. “We have no idea where life will take us.” Then he reached across the gap between them and touched her cheek. “You always seem so calm and courteous to the servants, but you are not calm now.”
There was a question in Murdoch’s eyes, and it was not only a question about her disposition but about the way she was allowing him to see her for the person she really was and to touch her in this intimate way. His hand stayed on her cheek, his thumb stroking her cheekbone, and she felt herself being drawn to him as if her will was no longer her own.
Keira leaned forward as his face came closer and closer to hers until there was only a fraction of an inch between them.Then, abruptly, she came to her senses and jerked away from him. What was she doing? He worked for her father. He was the enemy!
Murdoch sat back and covered his face with his hands. What on earth had he been thinking? One day this woman would be mistress of a castle or a countess and he would still be a nobody. He was utterly ashamed and embarrassed, and he could feel himself blushing.
“Forgive me, mistress,” he begged. “I was a little overwhelmed.”
“So was I.” Her voice was sharp. “The fault was not only yours. You have never had to deal with my father in a personal way, Captain. Sometimes I feel as though I could beg for any scrap of affection just to fill the emptiness I feel sometimes. My father does not care a particle about me. I am nothing more than a pawn in his cynical game.” Then she shook her head irritably, realizing that she was telling him far too much about herself. “I am sorry. You don’t want to hear all my whining.”
While Keira was speaking, she had been gathering her arrows and storing them in her quiver, which she slung over her shoulder before turning to mount her horse.
“Mistress?” Murdoch said tentatively.
Keira raised her eyebrows in a question as she turned back to him.
“Everything you have told me today is strictly between us,” Murdoch assured her. “I swear never to breathe a word to anyone.”
She gave him a shadow of a smile. “I never thought you would.”
“If you need to talk at any other time, I am here,” he assured her.
He had never felt so nervous. What was it about this woman that drained him of all his confidence?
“I will not,” Keira replied. “But thank you.”
A moment later she was gone, and Murdoch lay on his back on the forest floor, looking up at the sky through the treetops. It had been a bruising encounter even though not a punch had been thrown.
10
“Keira!” Adaira stepped into her room and came across the room to hug her, then spotted the bruises on her neck. She looked at them in horror and put out a hand to touch what looked like the thumb mark, then recoiled as if the mark had burned her. “Did Archie do this?” she asked furiously.
Keira nodded. “He was only trying to scare me, Addie,” she said, trying to sound soothing and failing miserably. “He would never have killed me. I am of too much use to him.” She was not at all sure of that fact, but she needed to be calm in front of the two women who were family to her. She turned away to hide the tears of anger in her eyes, but Adaira had already seen them.
“Forgive me for disagreein’ wi’ ye, mistress,” Moira interjected, her round face flushed with rage, “but If I hadnae been here, I think that is exactly what might have happened. The man is as evil as the devil himself, I tell ye.”
“No, he will not harm me. He needs me,” Keira insisted. “He needs me for one of his schemes. He has paid a large dowry for me to marry an English earl, which he cannot really afford, by the way. The Earl of Champling is bringing goods to trade with local merchants here, but my father is going to keep him captivehere and ask for a ransom. No, he was merely overwhelmed by anger, as he often is. He would have come to his senses.”
She glanced at Adaira, whose face was absolutely livid with fury.
“He might have come to his senses after he killed you,” Adaira growled. “Does he not realize he will bring down the wrath of every Englishman for miles around on us? He is not only evil but completely idiotic. Damn, if I was a big man, I would?—”
“He will never carry out his stupid plan.” Keira interrupted grimly. “Because we will stop him.”
