Page 31 of Saved By the Cruel Highlander
He stopped dead, pulling back. Holly pushed her lips out, trying to feel his for a moment longer. He held her by the shoulders, stopping her from getting any closer, and she understood the look in his eyes. Not the reasons behind it, but what it meant.
Elias pushed off the bed and stood up. He looked down upon her as if she had hurled an insult at him instead of kissing him.
“I’ll leave the lantern,” he growled. “Dinnae make me worry about ye like this again. Rest and recover from yer injury.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Holly woke up with a start. She put her hand on her head to check that everything she remembered had happened. The bandage was still there.
That happened, but did the kiss happen? Did he come into me room last night and make me feel happy and free, and then dashed it all by leavin’?
“Meow.”
Holly glanced toward the foot of the bed, where Ollie was waking up against her legs.
“Ye are right, Ollie,” she told him. “If ye are back in bed with me, then it must have all happened as I remember it. Ye are a clever cat for sayin’ that.”
She sat up in bed and stretched her arms above her head. She was still wearing the clothes from the previous day, and they were uncomfortable now. She got out of bed and went to the window to look out. The sun was rising high in the sky—it was late morning already. Ollie padded in a figure of eight in and out of her legs, rubbing against her.
“Ye’re bein’ friendly, but I ken it’s because ye want some food, do ye nae?”
A meow in response.
“Give me a minute,” Holly said. “If only everyone was as easily pleased as ye. Some food and a scratch behind yer ears, and ye are as happy as can be. I dinnae think the Laird will be as easily charmed.”
Ollie mewed as she smoothed down her clothes before the mirror. She still didn’t have all her things, and it would take some time for the dressmaker to sew the dresses. She couldn’t remember if the woman had taken all her measurements the previous day.
“What do ye mean?” Holly asked the cat. “I didnae mean it like that. I dinnae want to charm the Laird. I was only makin’ an observation. Ye are a silly cat at times. I dinnae want to scratch the Laird behind the ears or anythin’. Ye are the one thinkin’ such things, nae me.”
She looked at herself in the mirror. It would have to do for now.
“Come on, ye rogue. Let’s see if the kitchens have a fishbone for ye.”
Holly left the room and looked left and right. She hadn’t had a lot of time to explore the castle. She would do that another time. For now, she knew she needed to head down. The kitchens were somewhere downstairs.
She found the stairs, the cat following a couple of feet behind at all times, and made it to the ground level.
She heard voices and headed in that direction. When she turned the corner, she was almost knocked over by Eliza, who was carrying an armful of linens.
“Och, look at—” Eliza started as she bounced back a little. She caught sight of Holly. “Me Lady, I didnae mean to bump into ye like that.”
“Dinnae worry, I wasnae lookin’ where I was goin’.”
“Me goodness, yer head,” Eliza said.
She scooped the linens into one arm and reached out as if to touch the bandage before taking her hand back.
“It’s worse than it looks,” Holly told her.
“There’s blood,” Eliza said.
“Only a wee bit that seeped through. Cassandra took good care of me.”
Two maids hurried past them, carrying bundles of silver—cutlery, urns, plates, jugs, and a tangled assortment of other items.
“What’s goin’ on?” Holly asked. “Why’s everyone in such a haste this mornin’.”
Eliza suddenly looked flabbergasted. “Ye dinnae ken?”
