Page 33 of Lost with a Scot
“Aye, we’ll be back for dinner.” His bemused expression softened to one of tenderness as he offered his arm to Anna. She smiled up at him as she tucked her arm in his.
“Be careful, Aiden,” Lydia called out after them as they left the sitting room.
“Are we truly going riding, or did you think I needed rescuing from your sisters-in-law?” She dearly hoped so. She remembered now that she loved to ride. It seemed to go hand in hand with her love of horses.
“I wish to show ye my home and our lands. I also need to visit some of the tenants and their livestock. I hope ye won’t mind accompanying me.”
“Not at all. It sounds lovely.”
As they exited the castle, a groom stood waiting with Thundir and a mare saddled. They approached the horses, and then Aiden assisted her onto the other horse. There was no sidesaddle, so she swung her leg over to the other side and set her booted feet into the stirrups.
Her skirts rose up, exposing her stocking-covered legs up to her knees. Aiden noticed and blinked a few times at the sight of her legs before he cleared his throat. His face reddened, and Anna felt her own skin heating at the realization that he was noticing her legs, scandalously exposed, and she was all too aware of how much she liked him noticing.
“This horse is Nevis. She’s named after one of our mountains here in Scotland.” Aiden gave the mare a solid pat on her neck. “I didna think about a sidesaddle since Nevis is calm, but if ye want one—”
“No, I don’t mind,” she assured him. “It actually is easier to ride this way. Sidesaddles twist my back.”
He smiled at her as if relieved. Then he mounted Thundir, and Anna took hold of Nevis’s reins.
“You remember how to ride?” he asked.
“I think so. It’s like the dancing—my body remembers.”
“Good. Yer muscles have memories too, the way minds do.” He suddenly shot her a playful smirk. “Try to keep up, lass!” Then he gave a cry to his horse, and Thundir took off at a gallop.
Laughing, Anna mimicked him, and the roan mare chased after them. They raced down the hill toward the lake, then up another hill and through the fields of heather. Clouds towered over them in endless shapes of brilliant white, set against the deep-blue sky.
The wind whipped through her hair as she rode, and something tight and dark in her chest began to fade away. She was able to breathe deeply, taking in the aroma of the heather and wildflowers. A sudden flash of memory streaked like a shooting star across the night sky of her mind. She had ridden before, wildly just like this, with a young man beside her, his laughter ringing through the hills. His face was a match to her own, but masculine.
“Alexei...” The name formed on her lips, and with it came a flood of tenderness and love.
This was her brother.Hertwin. Tears filled her eyes, and the wind blew them from her cheeks as she urged her horse to catch up to Aiden’s. They galloped side by side to a small forest glen. Aiden slowed Thundir’s pace, and she did the same with her mare. They walked their horses in a cooldown and entered the woods. Tall, thick-trunked, green-leafed trees arched over the forest paths, letting the sun dapple the ground with shimmers of light. It was a beautiful glen.
If she closed her eyes, she could almost hear the trees talking to each other. The breeze and the leaves, the crack and pop of roots and branches, all formed a natural symphony. She and Aiden continued through the forest without speaking. Words weren’t needed in a place like this. It was an old forest, like the one she remembered dreaming about, but this wasn’therforest. It was Aiden’s.
His handsome face glowed with the soft gold light that filtered down from the canopy. The shadows that haunted him were gone here in this sacred place. There was only peace in his eyes as he studied the trees. He slowed his horse to a stop. With barely a sound, he dismounted and came to help her slide off her horse. They stared at each other a moment, him close to her, and then he slowly reached out his arms, indicating he was ready to catch her when she dismounted. Anna’s breath caught at the intensity of his stormy eyes. Aiden caught her, letting her move slowly down his body until her toes touched the ground. The way he carried her weight with such ease showed the immensity of his strength.
As he held her, their bodies pressed chest to chest, she thought for a moment he might kiss her, and she desperately wished he would. But instead, he pressed a finger to his lips, and she nodded, understanding that he wished for them both to be quiet.
They left the horses alone to graze. Aiden curled his fingers around hers as they walked toward a distant patch of light where the canopy opened above them. Once they reached it, they stepped out onto the edge of a sunny spread of grass and wildflowers. He faced the forest ahead of them, patient, silent, and unmoving. Anna watched him as he watched the trees. He was waiting for something, but who or what?
A moment later she had her answer. A mighty stag stepped into the light, his impressive crown of antlers rising high above him. She held her breath as the deer moved in graceful steps to stand fully in the sunlight, like a king coming to greet his subjects. He bowed his head and began to eat the tops of the wildflowers that flourished around his hooves.
Aiden still held her hand, and he pulled her close to whisper in her ear. “’Tis the monarch of the glen.”
Aiden’s warm breath on her neck caused her body to shiver with sudden longing. She wanted to turn and wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him.
“There, you see his crown?” he asked.
She refocused on the stag, though her body was still aware of the heat of Aiden beside her.
“He’s beautiful. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she whispered in return, her gaze flitting to him and back to the stag.
Aiden’s lips brushed her ear. “Aye. He is beautiful, but ye are far more so.” Then he rose and faced the stag.
The stag lifted his head and slowly turned to look at them. Aiden took a step toward the prince of the forest and led Anna with him. The deer’s quiet gaze moved between Aiden and Anna before staying on her.
“Why isn’t he running?” she whispered.
