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“Your mind is elsewhere, and I’ve overstayed. ” Aidan stood. He hesitated for a moment, and then giving her a gentle smile, he reached across the table to sweep his thumb across her cheekbone. “Next time, put more flour in your bread, and less on your pretty self, aye?”
She watched his back as he walked to her door, feeling as though her heart had been skewered through. Because somehow, since she’d met Aidan, she’d begun to feel worthy of someone else’s tending. With a single smudge of his thumb on her cheek, she felt cared for.
Aidan left as her father entered, and the two men exchanged polite but chilly nods.
Her father strode to the fire, stoking it to life. Glancing at the dough, he asked, “Are we finally to have bread with dinner?”
“No, Da. ” Elspeth smiled to herself, making a decision. Wiping off her hands, she walked to the cupboard, retrieving a small packet of dried currants. “Bread pudding. ”
She held the spoon, and he took it into his mouth, shutting his eyes with a moan. “How did you know I longed for pudding?”
It was a perfect mouth, his full lips framed by a strong jaw. Putting the spoon down, she used her fingertip to dab a bit of pudding from the corner. “I just knew,” she said, her sultry tone implying so much more.
His eyes met hers, energy snapping between them. And then, turning his face into her hand, he sucked her finger between those perfect lips.
“Oh dear,” she murmured, her hip collapsing against the table.
“What?” Her father came over to peer at her workspace. “Don’t tell me you used all the flour again. ”
“No, Da, not that. ” She bit her lip, feeling wicked. “It’s simply gotten warm here by the fire. ”
Uninterested in domestic activities, her father found an excuse to leave, and Elspeth welcomed the opportunity to work the rest of the day by herself. By late afternoon, she had a supper plate set for him, and was out the door and on her way to Dunnottar, carrying a bowl of pudding, still warm from the oven.
By the time she arrived at the old guardhouse Aidan called home, the sky was slate gray with coming twilight. A faint halo of golden light shone in his window, speaking to a lone candle flickering inside. Her arms were tired from holding the awkward delivery during so long a walk, and Elspeth carefully balanced the bowl on her hip to knock.
The door opened abruptly, and Aidan studied her for a moment, looking baffled. As he fully registered her appearance, his puzzlement turned to concern. “Are you all right?” Stiffening, he asked in a louder voice, “Did he do something to you?”
“He?” She shifted the bowl to her other hand, giving a quick shake to her arm. “Oh, Da? Losh, no. He’d never hurt me. ” Smiling, she proffered the bowl. “I made you something. ”
“You made me something?” His anxiety flashed into anger. Placing a hand on the doorjamb, he leaned out over her shoulder, scanning the grounds behind her as though she might have been followed by a mob of angry criminals.
His eyes flew back to her. “What are you thinking, coming here alone? And for this?” He gave her bowl a disparaging glance. “It’s growing dark. You could’ve fallen on the road. Or worse. ”
She felt a queer churning in her belly as her heart fell and her gorge rose. Summoning a pride she didn’t feel, she said, “I am my own person, Aidan MacAlpin. I went where I would before I met you, and shall go where I will long after you’re gone. ”
He stared at her, his expression hard. He still didn’t move to take the pudding, so she bent and put it on the ground outside his door.
Swallowing against the ache in her throat, she turned to go. “It’s bread pudding,” she said from over her shoulder.
“Wait,” he called, after she’d gone a few paces.
Though she stopped, she felt a tear running hot down her cheek, and the shame of it prevented her from turning back to face him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
What could he have possibly meant by that? There might’ve been an apology in the words, but she was uncertain. She risked a quick scrub of her cheeks with her hand, dreading the thought he might realize she’d let a few tears spill.
She heard him step closer. “And though it may be true that you once gadded about the countryside with no one to say otherwise, the fact is, I am here now, and I’d ask that you cease your gadding, particularly after dark. ” She sensed movement at her back, then felt a warm hand on her shoulder. “Puts a man on edge,” he added, with humor in his voice.
She sniffled, protesting with a weak laugh, “It’s not dark. ”
“But it soon will be. I’ll put on my boots and walk you home. ”
Her shoulders slumped. He was going to send her home. “Oh,” she said, in a small voice.
“No need to fret. I promise you’ll be safe from me in the dark. ”
She raised her head, meeting his gaze to tell him he’d misunderstood, but his eyes held a playful gleam. Her inner heroine wanted to respond, Not too safe, I hope.
