Page 81 of Tempting the Highland Devil
Arran nodded. “It has been quite some time, but I am sure I remember it.”
Yvaine had never traveled that far before, but she knew that the northern weather was quite unforgiving, especially at the end of the harvest season.
The winds were harsher, and the night’s cold was known to bite. Yvaine wanted Arran to stay protected, so she had made sure he took his wool cloak for warmth and Amelia’s tonics for strength.
“It is time I put an end to this for good. I shall return safely, so I dinnae need either of ye to worry about me.”
He turned to Yvaine again and this time smiled at her. “I dinnae need ye to worry about me.”
“All I do is worry about ye,” she said with her deepening pout, and Arran laughed before he walked away from her.
“Ye should leave now,” Duncan said. “Ye have much ground to cover.”
Arran pulled her closer one more time and took her lips for a brief kiss. He pulled away just as far as he came to her then he turned and hurried down the path leading to the stables where his men waited.
When Yvaine turned to look at her brother, his knowing smile made her flush. “What is it? Why do ye look at me like that?”
“I always ken there was nay one else for ye,” he said to her. “Ye and Arran would have gotten together a long time ago if ye two were nay too blind to see that ye loved each other.”
“I dinnae ken what I felt for him meself at first,” she confided in Duncan as they began a slow stroll around the castle’s grounds together. “But now I ken that I am in love with him, and I like that I am his wife regardless of how rough the past few months have been. Arran has learned to be a great laird, and he is a good husband too.”
Duncan touched her shoulder and made her pause in her strides. “Ye neednae defend his character to me. Me friend is a good man, I have always ken that. He just needed a reason to overcome his fears, and ye are that reason.”
“I worry though that he mightnae be able to overcome his fear of turnin’ out like his faither. It is the only thin’ that scares him.”
“He will get over it with time,” Duncan answered. “Arran sided with me against his faither to do the right thin’ years ago. He is a good man, and he will realize that with time.
“Once all of this is over, ye two will have a fulfillin’ life, and we will get together always to celebrate as a family like we just did.”
Yvaine knew that she loved him. Her heart soared with her feelings every second of every day, and she longed to say the words to him.
But it might be too soon?She wanted to believe he loved her too. The past weeks have been good, and Arran had cared for her openly more than he had ever done before. He no longer tried to stay away from her or avoid his feelings, and that was a huge step. Telling him that she loved him might make him withdraw from her again, and she could not risk that happening.
Not when we are this happy together.
* * *
Towards the first hours of dusk that evening, Yvaine sat in the garden for supper with the other ladies, and they listened to Jane and Isabella tell stories to their heart’s content.
Jane had the most to say about MacGregor, and since Isabella had spent most of her life in England, she told them about the English culture.
“I hated the balls and the dancing. It was as if the only reason the English women existed was for the pleasure and happiness of the men. I lived with my father’s distant cousin, and he insisted on promenading me and his daughters in front of every gentleman that visited their household. I knew I had to get out of there and return home before they married me off to one of them.”
“They are nay allowed to ride horses or climb mountains like ye are allowed to do here,” Amelia added as they shared a chuckle.
“We arenae allowed to either,” Yvaine pointed out. “But most Highland lasses are spirited, and they dinnae conform to whatever the men tell them to do.”
The conversation about the different customs of both lands continued for some time, and Yvaine was still in high spirits when she later retired to her bed chamber for the night.
She had been distracted because she had the company of others, but once she lay in her chamber, her worry for Arran started to eat at her. While alone and staring into the darkness outside, she remembered the nights they shared and every feeling that engulfed her each time she was in his arms.
Yvaine rolled over to one side and let her mind wander over to dreams of the life she envisioned with Arran. It was a blissful sleep, and she basked in the warmth their shared memories brought her while curled under her sheets.
The creaks of her door opening after some time stirred Yvaine awake from her sleep. She murmured, sighed, and opened her eyes. “Jane?” she called out, expecting the intruder to be her maid.
“My Lady,” someone called and made Yvaine sit up almost immediately as she recognized the voice.Isabella? What does she want at this hour?
“Isabella, are ye alright?” Yvaine rose from her bed and picked up her robe. The dim flames in her fireplace made it possible for her to see Isabella standing near the door.
