Page 7 of Scot of Desire
“Cillian Grant will have tae step over me dead body in a church before he gets ye tae the altar. Trust me, Ilyssa. Ye willnae have tae marry him.”
She blinked, stunned at the sternness in his words. They both snapped their gazes away and stared at their siblings arguing together, but once again, that simmering feeling had started inIlyssa’s gut. It had little to do with fear or anger now, and everything to do with the way Bran had declared the words.
He’s always so quick tae protect me. He’s always been at me side.
She wondered just how far he may have to go to keep his promise if she was going to avoid meeting Cillian Grant at the altar.
CHAPTER TWO
“Ye are insufferable,” Catreena muttered darkly.
“Says the woman who cannae stop speaking tae me.”
“Ye bampot!”
Bran turned away from his younger sister’s argument with Tad. He urged his horse on a little further so that he drew level with Ilyssa on her own horse.
The wind was bitter, with snowflakes hovering in the air all around them. The effect was a world caked in white, as if it had been covered by icing overnight. It did not bode well for their journey to the Grant clan, though Bran didn’t say as much. Ilyssa’s quietness was unusual enough to warrant an omen.
Bran tore his gaze from the arguing pair behind him with some difficulty. His sister was red in the face from the strength of theirargument, as Tad looked around the nearby snowy hills with indifference, taking their argument in his stride as he so often did. Bran had once thought that growing up the pair would calm them down eventually. Maybe, Catreena would start to look at Tad as an older brother, for the families were close enough, but he had been sorely mistaken.
As Tad had grown into a strong laird, perhaps somewhat wild in his personal habits and what bed he chose to make his own, he had grown even tarter in his language. Catreena, a woman who had a distinct sense of what was right and just in the world, had no liking for him at all.
“Ilyssa?” Bran whispered, shifting his horse toward her. She lifted her head mournfully, her eyes finding his own. His heartbeat quickened a little, though he tried his best to ignore it. She’d had such an effect on him for years now, though he always did his best not to overthink the reasons for it. “Are ye…”
“Well?” she scoffed, her lip curling, though it wasn’t a genuine smile. “Ye ask me that?” She shook her head in disbelief and buried her face in the wolf furs that were wrapped around her as she led their group down the hill, along a scrub path.
Bran hurried to catch up with her again, keeping his horse close to her side.
“Ye are quieter than usual,” he observed. “Usually by now, ye would have insisted we take some detour tae see some beautiful place. Or ye would have asked tae play a game out in this snow.”
“Ye always see me as the troublemaker, dinnae ye?” she challenged.
When he made no answer other than raising his eyebrow, she laughed a little. His heart leapt to see it.
That is the first genuine smile in a week.
“Ilyssa,” he whispered, steering his horse so close to hers now that their legs brushed against each other. Her smile vanished from her face. There was something in those eyes he couldn’t discern, some sort of startled effect. He put it down to her fear of what was to come as she hid half of her face once again in the wolf furs around her neck. “Trust me. Ye willnae be made tae marry him.”
She jerked her head once and looked uneasily back in the direction of her brother, but Tad didn’t seem to notice. He was too busy still arguing with Catreena.
Determined to have her attention, Bran reached out toward her. He caught her hand off the reins and took it in his own. It was cold to the touch because of the snowy weather, though she hadn’t complained, not once.
“Trust me,” he pleaded again, encasing her hand in his own.
“Ye have always watched over me, have ye nae?” she whispered. For some reason, she didn’t look at him as she said these words but looked out at the untouched snow ahead of them.
“I wouldnae have it any other way.” He couldn’t tell her why it was. How could he put into words that ever since they were little, he had felt this need to protect her? To be the one she counted on, perhaps even more than her own brother?
“Bran, I –” she began, but was cut off by Catreena’s complaint behind them.
“I’m freezing!” she declared loudly. “We need tae stop fer the night soon.”
“What would be the point?” Ilyssa called back. She pulled her hand out of Bran’s own and returned it to the reins. Strangely, his palm felt even colder without her touch. “I am going tae me doom anyway. I might as well just get there.”
“Ilyssa,” Tad barked in a low undertone from behind them. “Ye are nae condemned tae this future.”
Bran didn’t bother trying to persuade her out of this thought on this occasion. He could see by the way her eyes couldn’t rest, but darted across the snow hills, that no words would be enough. He could hardly blame her for it. Were they not escorting her to the man’s clan now, ready for a betrothal?
