Page 34 of Bride of Mist
“But lass, he’s paid for your lodging through Michaelmas.”
Her eyes went round. “Michaelmas?” The lout had planned to leave her here for half a year?
“Aye.”
She spoke through clenched teeth. “Then I’ll have his payment back, because I’m going now.”
“Och, lass,” he said, scratching his chin. “I don’t know if I can give it back.”
Before he could even blink, she’d drawn herbishoufrom her boot and leveled it at his throat. “I’m sure you can.”
“Wait. I…I…” The innkeeper’s throat bobbed and his eyes widened as he raised trembling hands in surrender. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She kept a threatening eye trained on him and her weapon at the ready as he rummaged behind the counter and pulled out the Westlander’s jeweled dagger.
“Here,” the innkeeper said. “He paid with this. Take it.”
She confiscated the dagger and nodded to a basket of bannocks sitting on the counter. “I’ll take three of those as well.”
He slid the whole basket in front of her.
She picked out three wedges and stuffed them into her gambeson.
But though Feiyan was ruthless, she was also fair. Using the point of herbishou,she pried the tiniest gem out of the dagger’s hilt and flipped it onto the counter. “There. For the meal and the night’s lodging.”
The innkeeper gulped.
Stuffing thebishouback into her boot and tying mac Darragh’s dagger about her hips, she raised her mask, lowered her hood, and gave the innkeeper a curt nod of farewell.
Then she slipped out into the misty dawn.
Her step was silent.
Her eyes were sharp.
Her purpose was clear.
As he trudged through the fog-wet forest, Dougal couldn’t stop thinking about the wee lass he’d left snoring at the inn. Never had a woman stirred him quite like she did.
He wanted to believe it was only agitation. His world was naturally rocked by having to tangle with an outlaw lass on top of all the other crises of the past few days. Surely the disruption would be fleeting.
But something else tugged at his spirit and teased at his heart. A nameless fascination that kept her image fixed in his mind’s eye.
He was half-convinced she’d enchanted him. It was easy to imagine her as a child of the forest. An elfin princess. A fey creature who stole through the trees as silently as shadow and slipped through the branches on gossamer wings.
It wasn’t only her physical features, which were unique, beautiful, and enticing. There was also something compelling about her quicksilver moods. Her unexpected strength. The lively intelligence in her eyes.
She was like no one he’d ever met before.
The white mist softening the distant black branches reminded him of the mutable shade of her smoky-gray-silver eyes. Eyes that sulked one moment and glittered the next, hardening like flint and then melting into liquid pools, changing form as readily as iron in a blacksmith’s hands. Eyes that were shaded by lush and expressive brows that arched and lowered to reveal her every emotion.
Her supple mouth had been an almost irresistible invitation. It had been a long while since he’d stolen a kiss from a maid. But when her pouting lips blossomed into a coy smile, he’d been sorely tempted to taste the rosy petals.
The curve of her shoulder had beckoned to him as well, emerging from her surcoat like the pillow of a mushroom from the forest floor. Pale. Soft. Round. He’d longed to brush his lips against her tender flesh.
And when she’d leaned forward, affording him a view of the shallow slope of her breasts, his head had spun with desire, and his breath had been snatched away.
It was good that he’d left while he could, before she could awaken and work her charms on him. She might have convinced him to linger. To enjoy her company a while longer. To forget about the army bearing down upon him and his clan.
