Page 53 of The Highlander Steals a Virgin
“I was about to say the same to ye,” Rhys said dryly.
Finn smiled, grimacing as he did. “They had me chained in some black pit… bastards barely fed me. But then one night, the guard had too much ale and fell asleep with the key ring half-out his belt. Fools.”
Rhys held up a hand. “Save the tale. Later.”
Finn gave a mock salute, eyelids already drooping again. “Fair… enough…”
His breathing slowed again, evened out.
Rhys stepped back and motioned to the healer. “Keep him warm. Two guards at the door. If he wakes and asks for anythin’, he gets it.”
“Aye, me laird.”
“And call for the council,” he said quickly and one of the guards left hurriedly.
William shifted beside him. “We’ll want to ken how he got out, and what he learned. Do ye still wish to attack?”
Rhys’s lips flattened, but thoughts were elsewhere now. Not on Finn. Nor on the Murdochs. Not even on the war undoubtedly brewing in his council chamber after they receive this news.
Amara’s face still burned in his mind. Her voice. Her hands on him. Her lips parted beneath his.
Christ, her lips…
And then the way she looked at him when he’d walked away. As if he was setting her down again, but that wasn’t the case at all. Still, the sting in her eyes had pierced him harder than any blade ever could.
I hope she stayed.
They would talk later, he’d said.
But later never came easy in a place like this.
16
Amara had worn a path in the stone as she trudged back and forth across her chambers in front of the hearth. One end of the rug to the other.
Her freshly washed bare feet padded against the cold floor as if she might pace herself into understanding, and her night gown whispered against her ankles. But the longer she moved, the less she felt in control of anything at all.
Finn O’Donnell has returned.
Rhys had left her in the study the night before in a whirlwind. One minute he was holding her like she was his salvation. The next, he was leaving, but asking her to stay.
It wasn’t until about an hour into waiting did she truly realize how soiled her three-day worn dress was and the state of her hair. So, she journeyed back to her chambers and bathed and changed.
But the moment her hands were idle again, her thoughts resumed their spiral.
In sending Finn back, had me faither sent for me after all? Did he truly want me back? Would Rhys return me like a parcel left too long in the wrong place? Would he ask me to stay?
She didn’t know what to hope for. Her father had been so quick to trade her away like cattle, but she still couldn’t decide if she truthfully wished that he had changed his mind. Nor could she make up her mind about hoping Rhys might hold onto her not because he had to, but because he wanted to.
What would that mean if he did?
The thoughts made her stomach churn.
She turned at the end of the rug, then turned again. Her fingers had twisted and untwisted the same loose curl for what felt like hours. She picked at the skin around her nail. Rubbed her arms. Hugged herself. Paced again.
The quiet of the keep beyond her chamber door was suffocating. It was just before dawn, but the silence had a way of slipping into the room through the cracks and wrapping around her ribs, pulling tighter by the hour.
It had been hours since she’d seen anyone. The light outside shifted long ago, the sky growing lighter by the minute. At somepoint Nina had slipped in quietly, refreshed the basin, left a new day gown, and gone without a word.
