Page 5 of MacAlister's Hope
He settled next to her on the stone, close enough so the heat of his body seemed to reach out and caress her arm, then slowly ease around her, as if he embraced her. The sensation took her breath away.
“What is it that I do not remember?” she asked, hoping her voice would not betray how his nearness unsettled her, but of course it came out breathless. She rolled her eyes at herself. She might not be used to the attentions of men, but that did not mean she could not keep her mind on his words, rather than the nearness of his thigh to hers.
“Aye. You have been looking at me all afternoon as if you almost remembered me.”
“I have?” Of course she had, but she had not known he was aware of it. “I am sorry. I did not mean to be rude.”
Kieron laughed, a slow moving rumble that made her smile.
“Why are you laughing at me?” she asked now, not sure whether to laugh with him, for surely she deserved his amusement, or to be embarrassed that he had caught her.
He leaned close enough that their shoulders touched and Fia could not stop the buzz of awareness that ran through her at his seemingly unintended contact. But he did not move away.
“I am not laughing at you, but at myself. In my vanity, I thought you would remember me, but it is clear you do not. We met a long time ago, back when I was an unhappy lad and you were a wee lass. Wee Fia they called you then.”
“Some still do,” she said, but now she looked at him openly trying to imagine this confident warrior as a boy, but still she could not. “Where did we meet?”
“A summer gathering at Lamont Castle, maybe seven years ago. Elena had brought her family from Kilmartin. I remember she was pregnant that time, too.”
“With Ailish, her youngest,” Fia said, the memory of that summer coming back to her. “Nay…” She cocked her head, trying to line up a long forgotten memory with the man who sat beside her now. “It could not be you.”
“Aye.” He shifted, pulling one knee up on the stone so he could face her. “I was a pitiful lad, picked on by the likes of Tavish and his mates. Even the Lamont lads, who did not ken me, joined with him in tormenting me, and the MacLachlans as well. Hiding from them was my only choice by that time.”
“I do remember.” She was shocked that such a scrawny lad with no confidence had grown up to be so sure of himself that he would reprimand Tavish in front of his warriors…that Kieron would admonish him for doubting her. She saw the confrontation between the two men through new eyes, and realized Keiron had told her the truth when he apologized, but that did not explain… “How did you come to change all that? Clearly, you are well respected, and Tavish, for all that he is the chief’s son, seems to defer to you, to accept your counsel…and your reproofs.”
Kieron reached for her hands, his large hands completely enveloping hers. “You do not recall everything about our meeting, I see.”
Fia closed her eyes to search her memories, for his face, so near she could feel his breath upon hers, was almost as distracting as his hands were. “I found you hiding behind a boulder very much like this one,” she said quietly. A gentle squeeze of her hands told her she was right. “You were…” she hesitated, for she did not want to embarrass him.
“I was so angry I could barely speak, and I was trying not to cry.”
She kept her eyes closed and nodded her head. “Aye. We talked a bit and I do not think I saw you again until we were leaving a few days later. You were outside the gate, still hiding from the other boys, I think.” She let her eyes drift open only to be caught in his penetrating gaze again. “You waved goodbye and you were smiling.”
“I was. But you do not seem remember the most important thing: you changed the course of my life that day. I was ten and four, scrawny, weak compared to the other lads, but you made me see that I had something they did not.”
“I did?” He smiled and she thought she could sit there in the warmth of it forever.
“You did.”
“How?”
He ran his thumbs over the backs of her hands, making it hard to focus on what he said next. “You told me that I had a mind that could parry each of their thrusts, that I was more than just a warrior in training, I was smart, wise to their ways. You pointed out that I knew when I was outnumbered, and where to hide that they would not look, and that I demonstrated great wisdom in that moment.”
She nodded, the day coming back to her quickly now. “I do remember. I had seen you several times in the few days we had been there, and every time one of the bigger lads tried to grapple with you, or corner you, or force you into a fight, you found a way out, usually with a sharp comment that sliced at them as effectively as a sword. Symon asked me what I was giggling at once. I pointed you out and told him what you’d done. He had smiled down at me and said you were a wise man to use your wits when muscles would not suffice. I simply told you what he’d said.”
“And it changed the way I thought of myself. No one else had ever said such a thing to me, only that I needed to practice my fighting skills more, or to stand up to the other lads more. After that day I no longer considered myself a weak boy, but as a wise warrior. From that day my life was no longer theirs to break. It became mine to make, and I have you to thank for that.” He leaned forward and placed a sweet, lingering kiss on her cheek.
Fia’s breath caught in her chest and her heart seemed to cease beating, leaving her light headed.
“I have wanted to…”
“I see the two of you have kissed and made up,” Tavish startled both of them, his voice raised for all to hear. Brodie glowered at all of them from just behind the man. “But I’ll not have you distracting the wee lass from her duties to my father with your kisses and promises, Kier.”
“I was not—”
“He is not—” Fia said at the same time. She glared at the man across the fire, her old dislike of Tavish combined quickly with her earlier, still deserved, anger at him, making her sharper with him than she intended. “He is not distracting me, nor is he making me any promises.”
Tavish laughed, ticking Fia’s irritation even higher.
