Page 15 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
“Dinnae go,” Ellie urged, dropping her scone to grab a handful of Grace’s skirts instead. “He’ll be cross. He’s always cross.”
But Grace put on a brave face, covering the girl’s hand with her own. “Oh,darling, I can be crosser.” She winked. “Don’t worry, sweet girl, I won’t be a moment. Just promise me you will leave at least one scone for me, for when I return. Theyareall the way from India, you know.”
Ellie’s fearful expression relaxed slightly, her grip loosening on Grace’s skirts.
“Why don’t we tell you about the time Grace fought a dragon?” Maddie interjected, removing her glasses and wiping the lenses on her skirt—a sure sign that she was about to conjure up a masterpiece.
Ellie turned to Maddie, wide-eyed, her hand falling away from Grace’s skirts altogether. “Adragon?”
“Indeed. An old and very grumpy dragon named Mistress Lennel,” Maddie continued, giving Grace her opportunity to slip away.
Grace could still hear her friend setting the scene inspired by one of their teachers as she headed out into the hallway, and saw the shape of Hunter a fair distance up ahead, standing outside her bedchamber.
Taking a deep breath, certain that facing a real dragon would be far less scorching, she walked toward him.
7
She doesnae need to ken anythin’ about what came before this.
Hunter watched Grace approach, wishing he had asked the others to clear the room instead, for she wasquitethe sight in motion. He didn’t think it was a conscious saunter, but merely the way her body moved when she walked. Her hips swayed seductively from side to side, and her more than ample bosom bounced pleasingly.
Hecertainlyshouldn’t have stopped outside the bedchamber he had assigned to her, for that was temptation layered on temptation, positively asking for trouble.
“Ye’re nae here to ask questions,” he said roughly as she neared.
She stopped, allowing him a moment to tighten the reins on his discipline.
“Forgive me,” she replied with a slight note of sarcasm, “but I thought I was here to get to know you and your daughter? Was that not the agreement we had?”
His eyes flickered. “There’s a big difference between pryin’ and becomin’ acquainted.”
“And asking your daughter about her life before she came to this castle is prying, is it?” she challenged, plucking on the strings of his patience.
Had it been anyone else, he would have delivered an unmistakable punishment. But he needed her. He couldn’t escape that fact, much as he resented having to rely on anyone.
Indeed, thenecessityof her had just increased tenfold, having seen his daughter laughing and smiling with her and her friends, engaging in a way he had worried she wasn’t capable of doing.
“Ye cannae, and willnae, ask me daughter things like that,” he said firmly, his tone veering toward the icy side of diplomatic. “I forbid it. What came before is forbidden in this castle. It’s only the present and the future that matter.”
Grace folded her arms across her chest, drawing his eye. “I don’t take orders very well.” She met his gaze with only a shadow of fear on her face. “You asked me how I came to be in a place like this, and that is assuredly one of the reasons. My time at Horndean has not changed that. On the contrary, My Lord.”
“M’Laird,” he corrected, taking a step toward her. “And yer disobedience is somethin’ we canassuredlyfix.”
Her body stiffened at his closeness, straining in a way that told him it was taking everything within her power to stay right there and not take a step backward. Nor was it easy for her to look up at him, considering their difference in height, but she did so nonetheless. Her eyes burned as she held his gaze.
“That child is terrified of you,” she said evenly. “Do you think it helps either of you when you come barging in at the very moment she is just beginning to enjoy herself? Do you think that making it clear what she can and can’t say will help her speak more?”
It was his turn to stiffen, a cold shiver running through his veins as he absorbed her frosty rebuke.
Of course, she had no notion of what had occurred between him and Ellie’s grandfather. Of course, she couldn’t possibly have any idea of why it was of paramount importance to keep Ellie sheltered from her own past.
Yet, Grace made a fair point, and it rankled.
“Thelastthing I want is for me bairn to be scared of me,” he rasped, noting the raggedness of Grace’s breathing, the frantic rise and fall of her bosom. “But me command remains: ye dinnae ask about the past. Ye dinnae speak of it at all.”
“And if she wants to tell me a story?” Grace asked, her voice trembling a little.
“Ye ask her to tell ye another,” he replied, his sharp eyes watching the bob of her throat and the way her tongue slid across her lips to moisten them. “Defy me wishes, Lady Grace, and Iwillgive ye an education in obedience that yer school evidently didnae.”
