Page 52 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
Keira swallowed.Uncle.He wasn’t lying, after all.
“Keira—”
“Look, I forbid ye from putting yer hands on me ever again as long as we are under the same roof.”
“Ye forbid me to?—”
“Ye heard me. Very clearly, I might add,” Keira hissed.
Before Evander could say anything else, she turned on her heel and walked to the door, her hands frantically smoothing out the parts of her dress that had been wrinkled from the brief encounter.
She pulled the door open and found the curious little boy staring up at her, his wide eyes enchanting. “Aye, lad. Yer uncle is inside.”
“Keira,” Evander called again, but she didn’t respond.
She wouldn’t. She couldn’t bear to turn around and look at him. She didn’t know what she could do, and she wasn’t ready to find out either. Instead, she watched Tommy walk into the study and then left.
As she trudged down the hall, headed to the closest staircase, she could hear Tommy’s voice.
“Did ye ken there were baby goats here?” A hint of curiosity laced his question.
Soon, she disappeared down the stairs, her heartbeat matching the rhythm of her footsteps. She hurried across the floor, a new sense of determination welling up inside her.
She would never be caught off guard like that ever again. In the time she had left in the castle, the best thing she could do was make sure that she did not have to spend more time with Evander than necessary. And she certainly did not need to do it alone.
She squeezed her eyes shut in despair. Every single time she tried to confront him about something, some undeniable connection managed to pull them together and he became irresistible to her.
She had never felt such conflicting emotions until him. She couldn’t do this anymore. Not while they both lived under the same roof. Not when she was supposed to see him as the man who invaded and stole her home. She had to do something, and she had to do it now.
Her eyes flew open, and she spotted Stella walking toward her, her hands folded before her as her feet crossed the floor.
“Stella,” she called, the mere sight of her maid giving her the most wonderful idea.
“M’Lady,” Stella greeted, a warm yet polite smile on her face.
“I need yer help with something, and it is quite important.”
“Of course, M’Lady,” Stella responded eagerly.
Keira took her arm and steered her in the direction she had come from. If she was going to avoid Evander, she must make it absolute. She had to eliminate anything that could make her get caught in a corner with him.
And she had the best idea about how to exactly achieve that.
“What do ye ken about tapestries?”
18
The sun was beginning to set, and Evander had remained outside with Tommy most of the day as they both explored everything in the courtyard. It was the only way to keep his mind off the damn lass and her new rule. She couldn’t really mean what she said, could she? If she did, Evander couldn’t deny she was right. So, he did what he could to avoid thinking about it.
At first, he had taken his nephew to the stables to show him the various horses in the stalls.
“I want that one,” Tommy had declared when Evander asked him to choose a horse, while pointing to a fine brown stallion.
“A fine choice,” Evander had praised. “When ye’re old enough and properly fit, ye shall be able to ride it.”
“But I want to ride it now.”
Evander smirked. “The horse doesnae ken ye. Nae yet. It takes time to build trust between a horse and its rider. Unless the trust is there, the horse will throw ye off his back the second ye climb on it. Ye dinnae want that now, do ye?”
