Page 53 of The Highlander's Virgin Widow
Tommy shook his head.
“Good. So, every day, ye’ll come to the stables and feed it. Dinnae let anyone else do it. Only ye. That way, it will ken yer face and slowly begin to trust ye.”
“Can I feed it now? Please, Uncle?”
“Aye, why nae?” Evander nodded.
Tommy hurried out of the stables to go fetch some carrots.
Evander remained with the horses, his mind drifting to the moment he’d had that morning with Keira.
She was holding back, he knew that much. But it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t his fault, either. The last thing he had expected when the messy war started was to grow attracted to someone. Especially someone as eccentric as her.
But he couldn’t help it. Each passing day, each snarky comment, each unspoken word, made him grow more attracted to her. If there was anything the day had proven, it was that hewantedher, and he was certain—to an extent—that she wanted him as well.
What they were going to do about it, he wasn’t certain. At least not yet. But the way her lips had moved against his, the way she had arched into him, practically begging him to claim her…
He might have shown quite a bit of restraint in the past few days, but there was only so much he could bear. If this happened again, he would break and would not be able to control himself or what would come next.
Were they ever going to get to that point?
Tommy returned with a batch of fresh carrots, that adventurous smile still fixed on his face, one that greatly reminded Evander of his own childhood.
“I found the carrots, Uncle,” he screeched.
Evander let him move toward the stall and hand the carrots to the horse, who snatched and munched through them with no hesitation.
“Dinnae let the horse see yer fear,” Evander advised when he noticed Tommy take a step back after the horse leaned it a little too close. “Ye’re its master, nae the other way round.”
Tommy nodded and continued to feed the horse until he was completely out of carrots. Evander grabbed his hand a while later, and they both walked out of the stables, the grass in the courtyard crunching beneath their boots.
“Ye want to see the baby goats now, I reckon?”
Tommy looked up at his uncle, a wide smile that seemed to say,I thought ye would never ask,creeping onto his face.
Evander laughed as they took off once again and walked around the castle, heading to the small house he had recently built. To Thistle.
The goat was no longer as weak and wobbly as it had once been when Keira used it to anger him. Evander had managed to feed it and clothe it properly in the past few days, and now it was a healthy young goat. It was growing quickly as well, and Evander wondered how long it would take before the house was no longer big enough for it.
He watched as his nephew played rather gently with the goat and noticed that the goat took a liking to the boy almost immediately, like it did him. It was satisfying to see.
“The goat likes ye,” he noted as he watched his nephew pick out some leaves and hand them to the creature.
A few days ago, Thistle could eat nothing but milk, berries, and honey. Now, he was rapidly growing, and soon, he would be able to eat proper, solid food.
“Aye. Ma says if an animal likes ye immediately, it means ye’re pure of heart.”
Evander scoffed. “Did she say that now?”
“Aye. The turkey in the village loves to follow me around, so Ma asked me to keep being a good lad so animals willnae run away from me.”
A slow chuckle escaped his lips.
Shona had always been like that. The kind of woman who always saw the good in the world. The kind who had always thought life would always favor the true and the worthy.
“And what did she say a good person is? Or did she nae tell ye that?”
Tommy handed another strand of leaves to the goat, who bit into it happily.
