Page 36 of Hard-Hearted Highlander
Rabbie didn’t want to look away from Miss Holly’s profile. There was something maddening about her, but there was also something quite captivating, too. Particularly because she was English and yet did not employ towering hair or a powdered face to make herself attractive as so many of them did. She seemed quite at ease in plain frocks and hairdressings and her tongue wagging freely.
Even more startling was that Rabbie was noticing these things at all.
“She is happy with your sister. She’s rather fond of her.”
Rabbie had to shake off the admiration of Miss Holly to glance in the direction of Miss Kent. “A pity she’s no’ to marry Cat, then,” he said.
When he looked back at Miss Holly, she was frowning. As she was wont to do. Particularly in his direction.
“She’s really quite...different once you know her,” she said, clearly searching for the right word. “She is diverting. And sweet. And very accommodating to those she cares about.”
“She’d make a fine governess, then.”
Miss Holly snapped her gaze to him. “She’ll make a goodwife. What more can a man ask?”
So much more than that, Rabbie thought. A man could ask to love his wife. To want to be with her at every turn. Was that too much to ask?
Miss Holly suddenly gasped. “Look!” she said, dipping down. “It’s a farthing.” She picked up the object and held it in her hand. Rabbie leaned over, peering at it.
“Aye, that it is.”
“Where do you suppose it’s come from?”
“Och,any number of men, aye? This is a ship’s cove. Seaman, their families—all of them walk through here at low tide.”
She turned it over in her hand. She was smiling, delighted with her find. “It’s good luck,” she said.
“It’s no’,” he said.
She slipped it into her pocket. “You are curiously determined to see gloom in everything.”
“On the contrary—I see the truth in everything.”
She studied him, assessing him. He noticed the flecks of brown and green in her eyes, the dark lashes that framed them.
“Aye, come on, then!” Aulay called to them. Rabbie glanced away from her eyes. Aulay was waving to them, gesturing to the path. The tide was coming in and the beach would soon disappear. Catriona and Miss Kent were still in a tête-à-tête,already walking up the path. Vivienne and her family were halfway up the hill and into the forest, along with Fiona and Ualan. Miss Holly quickly started after them, as if she feared the tide would swallow her before she reached the path. Or perhaps she feared she’d be left alone with him. But as Rabbie followed her, she suddenly exclaimed and turned around, running back toward the sea, lifting her skirts to keep the hem from the sand. When she reached the edge of the water, she put her hand in the pocket of her gown, then hurled something into the water. The farthing.
She ran back, slowing as she neared him, working to catch her breath.
“You threw the farthing into the sea,” he said.
“I did,” she said breathlessly. “I made a wish.”
“I donna know this custom, throwing good coin away.”
“It’s not a custom,” she said, and began to walk. “But as there is no wishing well about, it seemed the next best thing.”
“What folly, tossing coins into the sea. It’d be better use to you in your pocket, aye?”
“There’s nothing wrong with believing in a bit of magic, Mr. Mackenzie!” she called over her shoulder.
There was something completely wrong with believing in folly. He hastened to keep step with her and fell in beside her. “Well, then? What did you wish?”
She laughed with surprise, and the sound of it shot down his spine. “You are mad to ask! To reveal my wish is to ruin it.”
“That’s the superstition of fishwives,” he said, feeling annoyed that she would waste the money and allow her obviously superior feminine mind to believe in such farce. “You’re a fool to believe it.”
“Now I may addfoolto the list of attributes you’ve given me. Shrew, harridan, fool... I’m astonished I’ve not been rounded up by the authorities and put on a ship back to England. How can you be so sure of your beliefs? Have you ever tried wishing for something?”
