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She clambered over the rocks she’d hidden behind. “Who was that man?” she asked, ignoring his order.
He reached up to hand her down to his side. “I hear something in that pretty voice of yours, and I don’t like it. This isn’t some countrified dance carouse I’m planning. It’s business I’m about here. Business that has naught to do with you. ”
“But I can help. ” Her eyes went to his sporran. “I want to help. ”
He knew it was just his paper she was after, but when he felt her gaze rake the area of his groin, it was hard to keep his thoughts from wandering to a decidedly baser place. He settled the sporran low on his hips. “You can help by keeping your nose safely out of it. ”
“But I can help you decipher it. ”
He shook his head. The girl had more backbone than folk gave her credit for. “Your job is to help me decipher books, and your wee poems, and those hero tales you’ve such a fancy for. ”
“Please, Aidan,” she begged sweetly. The wind gusted, whipping a bit of hair loose from her braid, and she tucked the fine, pale strands behind her ear. The movement pulled her bodice tight, its threadbare fabric molding to her modest curves.
She glanced again to a place between his legs. This focus of hers unsettled him. It’d been months since he’d had a woman. As for having a sweet innocent like Elspeth, that had happened only in his dreams. Add to that the fact that he’d not fully recovered from the sight of her sprawled on his bed, or the feel of her beneath him, and the cursed sporran had begun to chafe on his hardening cock.
She pointed to his groin. “Just let me relieve you of that. ”
“Mary and Joseph,” he muttered. He loped ahead to adjust himself surreptitiously, leading them on a path away from Dunnottar. “Damned fiendish woman. You have no idea. ”
“I could have an idea,” she said, completely misunderstanding. She jogged to catch up to him, slipping along the slick terrain.
He steadied her with a hand to her elbow. “Mind the mud, Beth. This bloody home of ours seems rarely to dry. ”
Though she nodded acknowledgment, her argument didn’t pause a beat. “If you’d but hear me out. ”
“You spoke, I heard you, and now our wee chat is over. ” Aidan strode ahead once more, unsure how he’d found himself in this conversation. He’d never consider involving Elspeth. He was tracking the man who’d kidnapped him, for God’s sake. It was far too dangerous. “You’ve had a peek at my papers, and it stops there. ”
“But I have a canny head for business,” she protested.
“There is one thing I know on this earth, Beth, and it’s that I’ll not allow you to entangle yourself in this particular business. ”
“But I am very capable. I’m very clever with numbers and tallies, and I can help—”
“Help?” He spun to face her. She’d been at his heels, and he had to grab her by the shoulders to stop her from running into him. “You can barely take care of yourself, how do you propose to help me?”
“What?” The color on her cheeks was high, and her eyes were bright with defiance. “Can’t take care of myself? What can you possibly mean? I run the farm!”
Aidan forced himself to keep his thoughts on track, but it was difficult. He’d sensed Elspeth’s spirit, but to see it now so unfettered, to hear her words so uninhibited, made him want to grab her, pull her close, and see what other surprises she’d kept hidden.
Measuring his breath, he gathered his thoughts. “Yes,” he said calmly, “you run the farm, but you don’t have a care for yourself. ”
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p; She opened her mouth to protest, but raising a hand, he cut her off. He’d thought long and hard about this particular topic, and he could tick off any number of examples. “Spectacles, for a start. You have trouble reading at night—don’t tell me you don’t—and you could use a pair of spectacles. ”
“Well, I just have our priorities in order. I put my family first. ”
“Family?” The word stung. Aidan was so alienated from the other MacAlpins, barely did he feel like he had any family at all. Someday this lovely woman would pledge herself to another, become some other man’s family. “Don’t speak to me of your family when your father ambles about as he pleases, in and out, leaving you to do work meant for him. ”
“He’s an old man. ”
“Whom you spoil as though he were a child. Do you have him hide away his pipe? No. The man can smoke all he likes. He can have all the bread he likes, and all the meat he can eat, and all the ale he can drink. But you?”
“Don’t be such a mule, Aidan. I eat, I drink. I take care of myself. ”
She was riled now. Forgetting her shyness, the woman she was in her heart blazed through like a glorious beacon. And damn his soul, all he could think was that she needed a thorough ravishing.
“A mule, am I?” The notion brought a wide grin to his face. But it faded quickly. Never could he take her. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—sully her.
