Page 11 of Winter Longing
“I should nae have come,” she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “But I wanted to see for myself that ye...how ye fared.”
“Who are you?” It was his most pressing concern, afraid she might disappear, leaving him to kick himself for not knowing her name or how to find her again if something even stranger happened that what already had.
She stopped, several feet away from the foot of the bed. The candle was now behind her, putting her face in shadows.
“I am Ailsa.”
“Elsa?” He repeated, struggling to understand her thick accent.
She nodded, but repeated her name, pronouncing it just a little bit differently, so that it sounded likeAl-sa.
“I’m Cole,” he introduced himself. “Cole Carter. Did you bring me here?” He asked.
She shook her head. Her dark hair, which earlier had been whipped about by the wind, was tamed now, pulled away from her face in a subdued knot, not a strand out of place. Asgorgeous as she was right now, a golden vision, Cole decided he almost preferred that earlier, outdoor Ailsa, and that wild and windswept look.
“I did nae—I arranged it, of course, but I could nae lift ye. The guards did so, conveying ye from the Little Forest to the chapel.” She pointed over her shoulder, where presumably, the chapel was.
No, she wouldn’t have been able to move him. She was petite, possibly five-three at the most, and slim. At six-three and weighing 220, he was at least a foot taller than her, and he would guess more than a hundred pounds heavier.
“Did you say guards?” She had her own personal security?
“Aye, the castle guards.”
Only a few answers had come his way, but he was not enlightened at all, only more puzzled.
He rubbed his hand over his forehead and then through his hair. “I guess I’m more confused than I thought. Castle, chapel, guards—what is this place? Where am I?”
The first part of her response was incomprehensible to him spoken in a rush, words jumbling together. But he did catch fragments and bits of it. “Your brother, I got that. He didn’t want me brought here—you got into a bit of trouble.” Cole shook his head, feeling simple and stupid. “I’m sorry, I’m really struggling to understand your accent. I don’t know what alairdis, or that other—are you sayingtorsion?”
“Torr Cinnteag,” she repeated, slowly this time.
“And what is Torr Cinnteag?”
“This is Torr Cinnteag,” she responded, the hint of a smile curving her mouth as she opened her arms to include all the room. “And beyond—the castle, the village, the farms, the land. My brother is laird...um, chief of everything that is Torr Cinnteag.”
All right, they were getting somewhere. Her brother was a big shot, maybe the mayor or whatever Scotland’s equivalent was.
“And what? He doesn’t like outsiders? Helping people? That he gave you shit—sorry, gave you grief for bringing me here?”
She shrugged and downplayed his concern. “'Tis done.”
“You didn’t happen to see another man, did you?” He asked hopefully. “About my size? With darker hair, tattoos, kind of looks like he belongs in a biker gang? He was wearing a bright red sweatshirt and navy coat.”
“Ye were alone,” said the beauty. “And the guards have nae found another within the boundaries of Torr Cinnteag.”
“Within the boundaries? Okay, so how big is this...town? City?”
“Aye, Torr Cinnteag. Sinclair land. Thousands of acres, it is. Ye were nae alone? Lost yer friend as well as yer way?”
“Honestly, I haven’t seen him in more than a day. We were separated when... on the mountain.”
“Ye were separated from Rosie as well?”
“Rosie?” His brows knit, wondering how this woman would know of Rosie.
“Yer wife? Or lover?”
His frown deepened before he made a face that might have been interpreted as,Ew. “Rosie? What? No, why would you—?”
