Page 18 of Claimed
Drew rose from the stool and started to pace the scrubbed wooden floor of her bed-chamber. However, the act soon made her dizzy, for the room was tiny. There was nowhere to go.
I haven’t lived.
Until now, she’d lived a restricted life. But out here on the road, she’d tasted what freedom might feel like. The last two days had awakened something in her, a longing that refused to be quietened. She was like a bird loosed from its cage—she wanted some adventure, before she entered a new prison.
Heaviness settled within Drew then. She sank down upon the bed and listened to the howling wind and rain outdoors. Inishail inched ever closer. It was too late now to wish for excitement.
Drew was unusually silent when they set off the next morning. She noted that Broderick, and one or two of the other men, kept glancing her way while they saddled their horses. Although not a woman given to prattle, Lady Drew usually embraced the morning.
She liked to greet her escort and comment on what the weather might hold for the day’s journey.
Yet this morning, she kept her own counsel.
“Are ye well, milady?” Aidan asked. “Ye are very pale this morning.”
Drew pursed her lips and allowed the young warrior to help her up onto her mount, a leggy courser they’d hired at Lochalsh. The beast was spirited and a far less comfortable ride than the sweet-tempered palfrey she’d left behind at Kyleakin.
“I’m well, thank ye.”
It was a lie. She felt tense and tired. She’d barely slept overnight. Instead, she’d lain for hours, staring up at the darkness, wondering at how she’d managed to reach thirty-six winters without truly living.
Long, hard years stretched before her, and yet she had few memories to sustain her.
Adjusting her skirts, Drew glanced up to find Broderick watching her. He’d mounted his horse and waited in the center of the dirt yard behind the inn. “If ye wish, we can take more rests today, milady,” he said after a pause. “I don’t want to deliver ye to Inishail Priory unwell.”
Drew cast him an imperious look, her spine stiffening as she squared her shoulders. “I’m not made of silk,” she reminded him. “I don’t need to take more rests.”
Broderick raised a dark-blond eyebrow. “Ready to ride out then, milady?”
Drew nodded. Despite that she was already weary, she welcomed being out in the fresh air and on the road. There was a restlessness within her this morning that made her want to give her horse its head. She wanted to gallop into the wilds and never return.
Urging the courser forward, she rode past Broderick and out into Invershiel’s only street: an unpaved way with deep ruts. It was a blustery winter’s morning, with a wind howling in from the north. The village folk she passed had red cheeks from the wind’s stinging chill, but the rainclouds of the day before had cleared. This morning, white clouds chased each other across a pale blue sky.
Not bothering to glance behind her to see if her escort was following, Drew nudged the courser into a brisk trot. Then, turning onto the highway, she urged her spirited mount forward. The courser kicked up its heels and sprang forward into a fast canter.
Moments later another horse pulled up alongside.
Drew glanced over to see that Broderick now rode shoulder-to-shoulder with her. “In a hurry this morning?” he asked, raising his voice to be heard over the thunder of their horses’ hooves.
Drew grinned at him. Just this brief spurt of speed had lightened her mood. “Aye … this gelding chafed at the bit yesterday, so I thought I’d let him stretch his legs.”
To her surprise, Broderick grinned back, a gleam in his eye. “And there was me thinking ye were trying to outrun us all.”
Their gazes held for an instant, and then Drew swung her attention back to the open road before them.
An idea rose within her then—a thought so outrageous that her breathing stalled, her fingers clenching around the reins. Her already racing heart started to pound in her ears.
Heat flooded through her lower belly as the idea grew, taking shape fully in her mind.
No, she couldn’t be so bold. She was about to enter a priory; she shouldn’t even be entertaining such thoughts. She’d never behaved recklessly with men. Now certainly wasn’t the time to begin.
And yet now that the idea had seeded in her mind, it would not die.
She remembered then the desire she’d seen darken Carr Broderick’s gaze as he’d stood with her outside his room inThe King’s Arms. If she bade him, would he kiss her?
If I asked him, would he lie with me?
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