Page 4 of A Virgin for the Icy Highlander
Maddie grabbed Lilian and flattened them both against the wall, a protective arm shooting across Lilian to hold her back. Meanwhile, Grace barely had the chance to stagger back against the opposite side before the man breezed through, at least having the decency to turn sideways so he wouldn’t bump into them.
Yet, not as flush against the wall as the other two, Grace felt the light brush of him as he passed her. What part of him had touched her, she didn’t know. Had he skimmed her with his fingertips? Was it his elbow? His broad chest? Or hadshetouchedhim?
He reached the secret door and pulled it open, causing music to pour out. Itcalledto Grace like a sorceress casting an enchantment, or a siren singing her deadly song, and she was helpless against it.
If we leave now, I will always wonder…
“We should go, Grace,” Maddie said, flashing her a pointed look.
Grace glanced between her friends and the door, where the man had just vanished. “Five minutes,” she pleaded. “Five minutes, then we’ll leave, and we can tell Miss Sutton that I did my dare.”
“But what about our gowns?” Lilian asked, wringing her hands.
“We can visit tomorrow,” Grace replied, clasping her own hands together, pleading with her friends. “Five minutes, for the sakeof my fearless future as a Horndean heroine. Five minutes, so that when I am yawning through boring balls, and am eventually trapped in a terrible marriage, I shall have something to daydream about. I’ll have this one fearless moment to remember.”
Maddie expelled a sigh. “I don’t think this is wise.”
“Nonsense,” Lilian interjected, surprising the other two. “Grace is right. We must seize these m-moments wherever we can find them, while we still can. I, most of all, must learn to be f-fearless if I am to survive out there.”
Maddie frowned. “I thought you said you were staying at Horndean?”
“Although I hope I can, it is not guaranteed,” Lilian replied, taking a nervous breath and shaking out her hands. “So, yes, l-let us join thiscèilidh!”
She was stuttering a little, but her resolve was fierce; Grace could see it in her friend’s extraordinary blue eyes. She’d never been prouder of Lilian than she was at that moment, seeing her friend look her worries square in the face and proceed anyway.
Maddie groaned, her lips lifting in a small, resigned smile. “Very well then, let us seize our moment.” She gave a decisive nod and adjusted her spectacles. “For five minutes.”
With all the permission she would ever need, Grace led the way, stepping through the secret door into that rare and overwhelming underworld of heat, merriment, music, laughter, song, and true, unfetteredlife.
She wasn’t certain what sort of establishment they had entered, but it was mostly below ground, with just a handful of tiny, smoky windows showing the outside world. It appeared to be a hall of some kind, or a cellar transformedintoa hall: long and high-ceilinged, with flagstone floors, and a feasting table arranged at the nearest end to the door, piled high with delicious offerings.
From the rafters hung flags with a coat of arms she didn’t recognize, alongside wreaths and ribbons that fluttered with every whirl of the dancers below. Lanterns illuminated the subterranean space, with the glowing support of two large chandeliers, crafted from antlers, that flickered at either end of the hall.
“Sit yerselves down, lassies!” a bonny woman in a red dress and an apron instructed above the din of the festivities, ushering them to the feasting table. “Have yer fill. There’s food and drink aplenty! Just dinnae throw yer bones on the floor, or else me dogs will get fat!”
Evidently, the woman, whoever she was, was the owner of this place.
Stunned into silence, the music thrumming in her very bones, Grace sat down on a high-back chair, though every part of herlonged to be on the dance floor instead. Lilian seemed equally dumbstruck, while Maddie had discreetly pulled a small book out of her pocket, beginning to read.
“I will remember this for the rest of my life,” Lilian murmured, almost to herself, her eyes glazed.
Grace nodded in agreement. “It is… extraordinary.” She reached for a succulent plum gleaming in a bowl. “It is?—”
In her awe, she hadn’t noticed the chicken leg balancing precariously on the edge of the table, and as she extended her hand toward the plum, her arm bumped a cup that unsettled a plate, which knocked the chicken leg directly off the table.
Worried about the weight of the owner’s dogs, she ducked down to fetch the fallen poultry… but instead of an eager hound, she found herself face to face with a little girl reaching for the selfsame chicken leg.
“Ye dropped this,” the girl said, surprisingly stern for her age, as she handed Grace the fallen item.
Grace took it, startled. “Thank you.” She set the leg back on the table before ducking back down. “Are you alone under there?”
The girl nodded. Her gaze drifted toward the dancers as her eyes widened with the same awe that coursed through Grace’s veins. She sat politely, cross-legged, small enough that she didn’t have to hunch to avoid hitting the table, but her fingertips tappedagainst her knee to the rhythm of the music. Her feet wiggled with the excitement she was clearly trying to restrain.
“Do you like the dancing?” Grace asked, smiling.
The girl gave a small, shy shrug.
Seeing another ‘fearless moment’ before her, Grace reached out her hand. “Doyouwant to dance with me?”
