Page 41 of Her Highland Prophecy
The younger girl fidgeted. “We’re going to be in the kitchen tomorrow. Do ye want to maybe join us? Joan and I will help make preserves.”
It was Mabel then.
I will have to find a way to tell them apart.
“I would love to,” she said, earning a smile from the shy young girl.
“Lovely!” Mabel responded and shuffled back around in her seat.
Gordain pulled her gently through the rest of the people who were still milling around the dining hall but thankfully no one else stopped them. After the long day she had just had she felt more than ready to go to bed.
They slowly ambled back through the corridors casting long shadows on the walls in the candlelight. Diana was feeling lightheaded and warm from the wine at dinner and she leaned into Gordain comfortably.
It was still hard for her to distinguish one part of the Castle from the other, but she thought she had a vague recollection of the corridor they were in being near the bedrooms. She had certainly seen that particular tapestry before.
Even so, she felt like she would have been completely lost had it not been for Gordain holding her securely.
His hand was around her waist and, even through all the layers that she was wearing, she could feel the press of each of his fingers. It reminded her of being on Taranis, pressed up against him with his arms around her as they rode through the glens and valleys.
He was no closer to her now than she had been then, and yet it somehow felt more intimate.
“Here are yer chambers,” he said a minute later as he guided her to one of the heavy doors and released her. She leaned against the cool, stone wall beside it and looked up at his face.
He was so handsome. His red hair was tied back neatly and he had shaved the slight beard that he had been developing the last few days on their travels. It put his features into sharp relief, his face both strong and beautiful at the same time.
“Are ye all right, lass?” he asked when more than a minute had passed where she simply stared at him. His breath smelled of whisky and something that was inexplicably him as it washed over her face. It was an intoxicating combination that drew her even closer to him.
“I’m fine,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
She knew what he was thinking as his eye dropped to her lips and back up. A shiver ran through her in anticipation.
There was a question hidden in his burning green eyes that she was not sure how to answer. Did she want this? Could she just let go and let him kiss her? It would not be her first kiss, that had happened during one of the many parties she had attended, and many kisses had followed after it, but somehow this was different. It was Gordain whose lips were slowly edging downward in the shadowed corridor.
Her heart raced in her chest, everything around her thrown into blurry nothingness. The only thing she was able to focus on was the man in front of her. His hand slid up from her waist to the back of her neck.
His lips hovered an inch over her own, their breaths mingling together in the half light. Her heart now pounded in her ears, an audible swoosh that she was certain that he could hear as well.
Closer still, so impossibly close that she could feel his eyelashes on her cheek, and the butterflies in her stomach were about to explode. His other hand reached up to her cheek and she could feel the calluses on each finger as he glided them toward her ear. They stared into each other’s eyes.
Loud laughter echoed down the hallway breaking the spell that had been woven between them. It was like a cold shower in the scorching heat of summer.
Regretting every bit of space she put between them, she slowly pulled back.
What am I doing?
She would be gone within a few weeks, back home with her sister in the future where she belonged. It would be stupid to start something now that she knew would end in heartbreak for them both.
“Good night, Gordain,” she whispered, and then blindly pushed into her chamber. Her breath was coming out in harsh pants. She put her hands on the bedspread and leaned down trying to come to grips with what had just happened.
As she struggled with the laces and petticoats of the dress that she had been given, her thoughts wouldn’t leave the moment where she was certain he was about to kiss her.
It would have been so easy to allow it. To fall into his arm and damn the consequences. But she couldn’t allow it, knowing the separation that awaited them. It would be cruel to them both.
15
Gordain huffed with impatience as he stalked up and down the corridor in front of his father’s chambers early the next morning. He woke up early and had immediately gone to see him, before being told that he was not still awake.
He had gone to the kitchens to have a few bannocks while he waited and yet now that he returned, his father was still not prepared to receive him.
