Page 25 of Lost with a Scot
Anna paused a few steps above Lydia and bent a little to peer over her shoulder and get a better look at the chaos in the taproom.
Brodie and Aiden each held a mug of ale, singing and swaying and encouraging the men around them to join in. Anna guessed it to be a Gaelic song, and from the kind of laughter they elicited, it had to be a bawdy one.
Lydia shook her head and looked heavenward, as if seeking divine help. “I swear, you can never leave a Scot alone for a minute without him getting into trouble. It looks like they’ve been fighting.”
“Who?”
“Given the lack of unconscious people in the room, they probably tussled with each other. Brothers, as I understand it, are like that, always trying to put each other in a headlock or toss each other to the ground. It makes me rather glad I only had to deal with a sister growing up, and she was dreadfully difficult to keep out of trouble. I couldn’t imagine having brothers,” Lydia said matter-of-factly.
Anna gasped when she saw the bruises on Aiden and Brodie. Brodie’s nose was bloody, and Aiden’s lower lip was puffy with a bit of dried blood on his chin. With a growl, Lydia lifted her skirts and strode toward her husband.
“Ah, lassie!” Brodie set his tankard of ale down and picked his wife up by the waist, whirling her around, then shouted to a man by the fire who had a violin resting on his lap, “Give us a tune!” The man picked it up and started a lively jig.
“Put me down!” Lydia demanded, but her husband just grinned up at her. “We haven’t had dinner yet, Brodie.”
“Ye like dancing, wife. Dance with me! We can have a private dinner in our room later.” He set her down on her feet, and Lydia’s stern expression vanished.
“Oh, all right.” She started to dance with Brodie. “If it will keep you from throwing any more punches.”
“All the punches are thrown, lass. Now is the time for dancing!” Brodie teased.
Anna’s heart was full of joy for her friend, but she also felt an ache underneath. She wanted that same carefree happiness Lydia and Brodie had, but with Aiden.
As if summoned, Aiden stepped away from the men he was speaking to and halted in front of her. His eyes went wide. “Anna! Ye look... ye look...”
“How do I look?” she asked, her heart pounding.
“Ye look magnificent.” Coming from him, the compliment was somehow much more meaningful. He nodded at the others behind him and held a hand out to her. “Ye fancy a dance?”
“I’d love to, but I don’t know the steps,” she admitted.
Aiden’s face split in a wide, delighted grin that warmed Anna to her very toes.
“Dance to yer own steps, lassie. I promise I can keep up with ye.”
His words, or perhaps the way he said them, seemed to sink deep into her very bones as she somehow knew that if she danced with him, he would match her step for step, as if they’d danced a thousand times before in a dream within a dream. Perhaps they had... and it was only that she couldn’t remember her dreams.
Aiden’s charming smile had her blushing and smiling shyly back as she took his hand. She knew one sort of jig. Her muscle memory had retained the familiar pattern. She danced across the floor, her slippered feet moving about with ease. Aiden curled an arm around her waist as his feet matched hers in the complicated pattern. For all his size and strength, he moved lightly and elegantly. He adapted easily to every step she made as if he knew where she intended to go, how she intended to move.
Anna smiled and relaxed as she realized he was right about keeping up with her. Soon she forgot all about her worries and was simplydancing, carefree and wild, with the handsome Scotsman holding her as though she were a precious treasure. The more they danced, the more the shadows behind his eyes faded. The chiseled features of his handsome face were touched by an inner light of joy that softened that warrior’s edge to him.
They danced until her feet ached, and even then, Aiden merely lifted her up in the cradle of his arms, spinning around while she laughed. When the violin player finally had to rest, Anna saw that Brodie and Lydia were sneaking away up the stairs, no doubt to continue the festivities in the privacy of their own room.
Aiden set her down by one of the empty tables and collected two fresh mugs of ale from Molly and a plate of food to share. She took one of the mugs, liked the taste of the ale, and then began to gulp it down greedily. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until after they’d stopped dancing. Aiden sat down beside her, grinning from ear to ear.
“Dinna forget to eat something, lass. Ye must be starving.”
He was right, she was quite hungry, and only after she’d had several bites did he begin to eat. Even in something so small, he thought of her first, and the thought pricked her heart with a bittersweet ache as she wondered if anyone had ever stopped and cared for him the way he cared for others.
He wiped at his lip with his fingertips, and a bit of blood came away on his skin. Anna suddenly remembered that he and Brodie had been in a fight.
“Let me have a look at you,” she said, and motioned for him to come closer.
She took a cloth napkin and wet it in a cup of water, then gently grasped his chin and turned his face to her. He held still, his eyes locked with hers as she wiped away the dried blood.
“What happened?”
As she finished cleaning the wound, he reached up and caught her wrist before she could lower her hand. His knuckles were dark purple with bruises.
