Page 36 of Lost with a Scot
“Help me carry these two men and the woman to my home,” he directed several of the sailors. “If the rest of ye can please take the ones who didn’t survive up to the kirk graveyard and see them buried, I will pay ye for yer trouble.”
By the time they reached his house, the woman’s skin was cold to the touch and she was shivering. The two men were doing a little better. He instructed his housekeeper to put the woman in his bed and the two men in the beds in his surgery. The fisherman saw to the two men, while Arthur and his housekeeper focused on the woman. His bedroom blankets were thicker than the ones in his surgery and would help her temperature rise. They stripped her of her wet clothes before they tucked her under the sheets. They would have to warm her up slowly—too fast and she could die. Arthur heated several stones in the fireplace and then tucked them under the woman’s feet and back beneath the sheets.
“Is she one of them foreign ladies, like the one that handsome young lad found?” his housekeeper asked in a whisper.
“Aye.” Arthur sank down onto the nearest chair, exhausted. “And I think this woman knows Mr. Kincade’s foundling girl.”
His housekeeper bustled about the room, tutting softly and muttering about strange women washing up on shore. She gently tucked the sheets around the woman and touched her forehead, then turned her focus on Arthur.
“Can I get ye some tea while ye wait for her to wake, Doctor?” the housekeeper offered.
“Yes, thank ye, and bring me some paper. I must write an urgent missive. If what this woman said was true, then I must tell Mr. Kincade to take Anna to London to find her brother. It sounded quite urgent.”
He would have a message taken to Castle Kincade as swiftly as possible. Then he would do his best to care for the woman now lying in his bed.
CHAPTER9
Afull week had passed since Aiden had rescued Anna from the ocean, and in those seven days Anna had grown far more confident and, he suspected, more like herself, even though she still lacked so many memories. Aiden was delighted to find that Anna was amusing, intelligent, and adventurous. And her love for animals was almost as strong as his own.
He worried each time he asked to take her out on horseback that she’d say no, but she seemed to thrive on the time they spent together out in the country. He’d always felt that nature was healing for one’s body and soul, and it seemed Anna agreed. It helped that they often ended up tumbled in the grass, kissing each other beneath the late-autumn sun and losing track of time altogether. Kissing Anna had to be one of life’s greatest pleasures. He adored the way she’d gaze up at him, dreamy-eyed and soft, and he’d feel like a blessed man. Everything she did fascinated him—the way she talked, the thoughts that ran like quicksilver in her mind. Being with her filled that hollowness inside him that he’d always tried to pretend he didn’t feel. With her... he felt whole. He felt no weight upon his shoulders and no burden upon his soul.
They rode everywhere together and stayed up late after dinner talking in the library while he tended to his tawny owl, Honey. The previous night, he’d shown Anna the nest where Honey was roosting on her eggs. They’d climbed a ladder to the top of the corner shelf where the owl had made her home. Honey had eyed them with half-closed eyes and was entirely unruffled when Aiden stroked her feathery breast and even allowed Anna to do the same. His wee beasties seemed to adore her as much as they adored him, which delighted Anna to no end and pleased him far more than he could ever say. It was as if she was always meant to be here with him.
He was enjoying every moment of watching her come out of her shell and become the woman she’d been before the shipwreck. She seemed to enjoy teaching him Danish, and he was rather surprised he was picking it up quickly. It helped that each time he successfully mastered a word, she rewarded him in kisses.
They were becoming closer each day, but he had not dared to touch her intimately again the way he had in the meadow. He wanted more than anything to take her to bed, but he didn’t want to rush something so important to both of them. He still stole plenty of kisses in all sorts of places that made her giggle afterward with a sensual delight that proved to be the best kind of torture for him. The haunted look that he had once seen in her eyes had faded beneath her natural joy.
Now he stood in an alcove, watching her in a huddle with his sisters-in-law. They were all dressed in day gowns that were the height of London’s latest fashions, which he only knew because Joanna and Lydia constantly spoke of clothing, when not discussing politics or social issues. Anna stood out from the other two women in her cream-and-blue satin gown. Her dark-russet hair was pulled up in a loose Grecian fashion, and a blue ribbon studded with star-shaped jewels was wound over her hair like a headband. She looked regal. No doubt that had been Lydia’s intention when she’d purchased the clothes and other items in North Berwick.
Anna said something, and the other two women laughed. Aiden’s heart swelled with such joy as he knew he was glimpsing a possible future. If he married Anna someday, this could be something he would see every day. She could have friendships with Lydia and Joanna. She could live here and give his home light and hope. And in return, he would give her everything she could possibly desire. He would be whatever she needed him to be for her to be happy. He didn’t let himself think past the bright and glittering future they could have together.
He decided that whatever the old Romani woman had seen, he wouldn’t let it cast storm clouds upon his and Anna’s horizon. If that day came, he would do whatever he had to in order to protect her, but until then, he wanted to live a life of joy with her for however long they might have.
The three women broke apart when he stepped out of the alcove and walked toward them.
“Afternoon, Aiden,” Lydia and Joanna said before giggling behind their hands like schoolgirls. Anna flushed but smiled at him, and it made him feel like he could do anything in the world so long as he had that smile to carry in his memories.
“I thought ye might wish to visit the mews with me?” he asked her. “I have a few birds to take out hunting.”
“Yes, of course. I’d love to.” She winked at Lydia and Joanna before coming toward him. As he had done so often of late, he took her into his arms and kissed her without a care as to who was watching. Anna smiled against his lips, and they both laughed as their mouths broke apart.
“You really shouldn’t do that in front of them,” Anna whispered, as if scandalized. “They keep waiting for you to behave.”
“Doyewant me to behave?” he asked.
“No,” she replied without hesitation. “I just wonder... is it like this for other people? We just ran straight into each other’s arms and haven’t looked back since.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “Is it because we both think this is destiny? What if it’s not? What if we’re wrong and this is all... I don’t know... just a shared dream?”
Her words created a hole of dread in his chest. “Are ye having second thoughts about me? If ye are, that’s all right, lass. We did rush things,” he admitted. But it had felt so right to him the moment he’d taken her in his arms that day on the beach. Why would he ignore what his instincts told him was the right thing to do?
“No, but that’s what I mean, Aiden. Shouldn’t I be second-guessing all of this? I keep wondering if something went wrong inside me when I hit my head. I...” She paused, then frowned. “Am I being silly?”
Aiden tipped her chin back to see her tawny brown eyes. “Do ye trust me?” he asked.
She curled her fingers around his wrist, holding on to him. “I trust you in a way I don’t think I’ve ever trusted anyone else. I shouldn’t know that for certain, but I feel it’s true.”
He stroked his thumb over her bottom lip as he gazed at her. “If ye ever change yer mind, I will understand,” he promised. “I dinna wish to force ye to do anything ye dinna wish to do.”
“Thank you.”
