Page 24 of Saved By the Cruel Highlander
“I will find Ollie and bring him to ye,” Elias promised.
Cassandra and Holly left his study, closing the door softly behind them.
Elias walked over to his desk and looked under it.
Just as he’d thought, the cat was curled into a gray ball underneath his desk, oblivious to the traumatic experience his mistress had just gone through.
Elias smiled. He was glad the cat had not woken up and was still in his study. It gave him the perfect excuse to check on Holly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“… n
ess, and dinnae stress her body or mind for a wee while.”
Holly realized Cassandra was talking, but she only caught the end of it.
“Aye,” she managed.
“Ye didnae hear a word I said, did ye?” Cassandra asked.
Holly could still smell him, almost taste his warm breath as his lips had hovered perilously close to hers. The areas of her body where he had held her were still warm, and they pulsed gently. She dared not close her eyes for too long, or she might dream of it.
“Sorry, I…”
“Och, it’s all right. Ye took a fine knock to the head.” Cassandra paused for a second, and her pace slowed. “It was an accident, was it nae?”
Holly could hear the meaning beneath her words and quickly answered, “Aye, I slipped.”I was startled before he could kiss me.“I must have stepped on something. Why, ye dinnae think that…”
“The Laird has a temper, but he wouldnae hurt those around him,” Cassandra replied.
Is that true, or are ye as afraid of him as everyone else in the castle?
“I dinnae ken the Laird all that well, but I ken he’s nae a man who takes orders from anyone,” Holly noted. “Yet…”
Cassandra chuckled. “Ye want to ken why he listens to me?”
“Aye, I guess I do.”
“I’ve kenned Elias since I was a wee bairn,” Cassandra told her. “I grew up in the castle, and he always took a shine to me. He has six years on me but always treated me as an equal. Now that we’re adults, a gap of six years is nothin’, but it’s a lifetime to a child. He was twelve, and I was six when he had me runnin’ through the woods outside the castle walls to hunt boars and hares. That’s a part of why he listens to me so much.”
They reached Holly’s room, and Cassandra opened the door for her.
“Go sit on the bed, and I’ll fetch some fresh linens to bandage yer head for now.”
Holly did as she was told.
Why do I feel so protective of a man I barely ken? Aye, we are to be wed, but nae for love or anythin’ like it. Is that it? It would be an insult for him to be with another woman when he’s promised to me?
Cassandra returned a few minutes later, just as Holly’s eyes were getting heavy.
“How are ye feelin’?” she asked.
“Tired,” Holly replied.
“Let me bandage yer head, then ye can get some sleep,” Cassandra instructed.
There was something about the way the healer spoke that made Holly want to follow her commands.
