Page 26 of Highlander's Rebellious Affair
She nodded and she practiced the steps he told her. The horse started with a slow trot, and as they passed the gates of the Castle, and continued into the village, Hope admired Galloway.
They passed the market, and she watched the peasant women gather around their stalls to sell. Most of them had vegetables out on wooden tables, men gathered around a small bench to drink ale while discussing loudly, and banging their fists against the table.
Whatever they did, they always had their swords sheathed in the waistband of their kilts. Galloway men unlike Drummond men were feisty, and most of them had locks of black hair and full beards covering half their face. She preferred Ian’s trimmed beard, and the small pout of his lips that did things she had never imagined to her.
When they reached plains fields, she saw men practicing their fencing and some farmers far off tilling the soil. The village was busy, and she enjoyed watching an entire world outside the walls, servants and guards she was used to.
Ian sent the horse into a full gallop when they passed the fields and they headed toward the mountain she could see far ahead. Hope knew they would stop riding before they got to the mountain, even though it seemed close from where they stood, it was still very far off.
As she anticipated, Ian directed the horse left and they came to a halt on a field. When Hope dismounted with his help, he led her forward and she realized they were standing on a cliff.
She looked down, and gasped, “Oh, it is so bonnie.”
Her cheeks flushed as the wind hit her face, and ruffled her hair. She turned to him, laughed, then turned back around and spread out her arms by her side so the breeze could ruffle the sides of her dress.
Ian covered her palms with his as he leaned into her and linked their fingers and they remained that way, enjoying the view of the farther mountains and the clear blue sky. Hope inhaled deeply, and filled her lungs with the fresh air, then smiled to herself.
She loved it here, and she never wanted to leave. Ian spun her around gently, and stared deep into her eyes, then he kissed her. Her heart soared as his lips touched hers, her mind spun out of control, and the warmth that spread through her could only mean one thing.
She was falling in love, and it was not just with his home, Galloway. She was falling in love with him.
* * *
Ian and Hope rode back to the Castle later in the evening, after spending their time by the cliff, laughing and talking about everything there was to talk about. She told him about her love for knitting, and her fear of bugs, and he teased her about both.
He enjoyed spending time with her, and there was nothing else he could compare that had filled him with so much joy before. Ian had never been in love, so he couldn’t tell if this was love making his heart pound this way whenever he was around her, or if it was the intense attraction he felt. Either way, he never wanted it to stop.
Hope was alone in the garden the next day when he went out to meet Rhea in the village with Callum, and together they took Orlaith to the fields where his father’s tomb lay. After she sat beside it for a long time, she finally lifted her teary eyes to Ian and whispered, “He told me to leave, Galloway, that he would send for me, but he never did, so I knew he was gone, and I always wished I could see him one last time.”
“He was stabbed in the gut,” Ian whispered back, his throat tight as his emotions overclouded him. He clenched his fists by his side, and exhaled when his sister reached for his clenched fists and covered it with hers.
He opened them, and she linked their fingers. Ian reached into his kilt and took out the dirk he had always carried with him. “This belonged to my faither, and this was used to kill him, so I ken it was someone close to him.”
Orlaith rose to her feet and wiped her face. Her eyes fixed on his after she looked at the dirk, and he could tell she recognized it. “This was made from gold, but this was nay yer faither’s,” she said and swallowed. “Only noble men in Galloway have a dirk carved out of the finest gold with delicacy and I knew the goldsmith who made yer faither’s dirk. This is similar to what he had, but this was not his because he had left his in my chambers the last time we met.”
Ian’s brows quirked up.I knew she could be useful.
“Do ye remember his name? This goldsmith, do ye ken his name?”
She nodded, and then a smile crept up her lips. Orlaith started humming the song about the treasure again, and Ian knew she was slipping out of her lucid state again. He placed his hands on her shoulder, and shook it gently.
“Orlaith… I need ye to answer, and tell me who this goldsmith was. I just need his name… Orlaith.”
“Peter Macgregor,” she replied him, blinking. “He made me this jewelry; I can never forget.”
Her hands moved to the gold chain on her neck. As she brought it out, Ian saw that it shone, just like his father’s dirk. They were both made from gold, and that meant his father had found the Treasure of Galloway.
It couldn’t be far off now, Ian was certain. Orlaith continued to hum the song on their way back to the cottage where she stayed with Callum and his family. Ian told Callum of his plan to search the mountains in a quest to find the treasure.
When he returned to the Castle, he checked the chamber for Hope but she was not there, so he decided to stroll the garden in search of her. As he walked past the second landing on his wing, he spotted her standing at the far end. A smile crept up his lips, and his heart tumbled in excitement, a feeling he was getting used to having whenever she was around.
As he drew closer, he noticed she wasn’t alone. He saw Lyall standing in front of her, his guards behind him, and Ian clenched his fist as a powerful need to protect Hope surged through him. Without thinking about anything else, he marched toward them.
20
Hope took a walk around the east wing of the Castle where Ian and his sister stayed. Since she arrived, she had only walked around the garden, and since she had nothing else to do, she decided a walk would help take her mind off anticipating Ian’s return.
As she strolled, she had watched some men in the central courtyard argue about something, and she stopped to watch them even though she couldn’t properly hear their arguments in Gaelic. She didn’t notice when Lyall walked up to stand beside her, and she couldn’t tell how long he stood by her side before she noticed his presence.
