Page 34 of Highlander's Caged Rose
Moira looked up into Niall’s leaf-green eyes and sighed. “I wish we could?—”
“Do that again?” he finished for her, with a wicked laugh. “So do I, Moira, but I’m only a weak and feeble man and I need time to recover.”
He tried and failed to look pathetic, and Moira giggled. The more she knew of Niall, the more she loved him; his kindness, generosity, and wicked sense of humour.
“You are about as feeble as the stud horse in the stable!” she told him.
The stallion was a huge grey with a furious temper just like Niall’s horse Logie and a wild appetite for mares in season.
“You are a little mad,” Niall said as he looked down at her. “But I suppose witches are, especially beautiful white witches who practise good magic.”
Moira laughed a little sadly. “That is a very strange compliment,” she told him.
“I wish you could stay.” Niall’s voice was wistful as he looked into Moira’s lovely face.
He would never find such a woman again. There had to be a way of keeping her with him. He was damned if he was letting her go now!
15
When he left Moira, Niall decided to abandon his plan to go hunting. The weather was closing in, and it promised to be an afternoon of torrential rain and gale force winds. Sadly, this kind of weather was all too common in the Highlands, and Niall wished that his lovely witch, Moira, could wave her magic wand and make it disappear.
He laughed inwardly at the thought of the name he had given her. Little witch, or, because they were Scottish, Wee Witch.
As well as the weather, however, there was one more reason he wanted to stay in the castle. He needed to think. He needed to piece together the parts of Moira’s story that he knew and see if he could put together a whole picture because not knowing was driving him mad.
It was too early for wine, so he had his manservant bring him warm ale and oatcakes, then summoned Finn to his office. While he was waiting, he began to stride restlessly back and forward across the room, his mind full of images of Moira.
He saw her face again as her climax hit her and heard the heartrending cry she had given. It resounded in his ears as hepaced, and although he had only said goodbye to her a short while before, he wanted her again.
I will never get enough of her,Niall thought. He sighed as he leaned his head on the mantelpiece and stared into the fire in the grate.Nothing will be right without Moira, and I can never love another woman, even if I’m forced to marry her. There is no space in my heart for anyone else.
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Finn stepped in, removing his helmet as he did so. He was already soaking wet from the rain that had begun to lash down outside, and looked grumpy and irritated.
“Ye wanted tae see me?” he asked.
Niall nodded at him, frowning, and beckoned him over to a seat by the fire where he could warm up and dry off his clothes. He handed Finn a cup of ale and offered him some oatcakes, and then they sat down.
Finn looked at Niall quizzically and waited in silence for him to say something. He had never known his friend to be so quiet—it was extremely unusual.
Niall sipped his ale, still wearing his brooding frown, and when he finally looked up at Finn, he said, “I need your help, Finn.”
“Tell me what ye need an’ ye shall have it,” Finn said without hesitation. “I cannae think o’ anythin’ I widnae dae for ye.”
Niall looked at his friend and smiled. Finn had been a loyal friend since Niall’s boyhood and had never let him down once. Now that Niall had a problem to solve, Finn was his first port of call, since he was utterly reliable. However, this was a favour unlike any other he had ever asked for, and now, as he looked at his friend, he was struggling to find the right words to say.
“I need you to find some information for me,” Niall told him.
“What kind o’ information?” Finn’s brow furrowed in irritation. “Spit it out, man, I havenae got a’ day!” He picked uphis ale and took a great swig, then wiped his lips with the back of his hand and glared at his laird.
Niall laughed. Finn was the only person in Baltyre who could speak to him like this with impunity, and he knew it. “I want you to find out if there is anyone around here who is looking for a runaway fiancé,” he replied. “I know it sounds crazy, Finn, but I have to find out if anyone is hunting for Moira.”
“Have ye asked her?” Finn’s voice suggested that he thought Niall was being stupid by not doing so already.
“What do you think?” Niall asked angrily. “A hundred times over. Every time I ask her for his name, she puts up a ten feet wall of silence around herself.” He jumped to his feet and began to pace again. “She is suffering, Finn, and I cannot bear to see it any more. I have to stop it somehow.”
“I see,” Finn said thoughtfully. “An’ why does that concern ye, Niall? I have seen the way she looks at ye an’ I can guess how ye feel about her, but remember ye are betrothed tae somebody else. Have ye thought o’ a’ the trouble it will cause if ye back out o’ your marriage now?”
Niall grunted, then nodded and went over to the window to look out at the brewing storm. “I’ve thought of nothing else,” he replied, then turned back to face Finn. “But I need Moira here with me where I can protect her.”
