With his help, she dismounted, thanking him again.
“It was very great to ride her. Do you think I can ride her again? I do think we could be best of friends,” she murmured with such longing in her voice.
Ruaridh’s chest tightened. At that moment, he wanted to give her anything she wished for.
Pulling her close with the arm he had around her waist, he cupped her jaw so she was forced to meet his gaze. “I brought the mare for ye. Ye can use it anytime ye want.”
“Thank you,” she said, blushing, before a mischievous smile curved her lips. “Do you think it is wise to give me a horse as a gift? What if I decide to run away?”
His expression darkened, and he pulled her closer, his eyes fixed on her lips. He felt her shiver, and he wondered what she would do if he happened to kiss her. Worse still, he wondered why he desperately wanted to kiss her.
“Ye ken how that would end. I would come after ye, and ye would end up beneath me again, and this time, I wouldnae let ye go,” he said gruffly.
Violet found herself struggling to breathe or think rationally with his spoken threat. Because there was no logical reason why the image of him atop her, as he had been in that cold forest, filled her with warmth and anticipation instead of revulsion.
He leaned forward, and she found herself shutting her eyes, her lips tingling even if he was yet to touch her. But just when she thought he was going to kiss her and ease the tension between them, he stepped back, and her eyes shot open, wondering why she had been so stupid. She watched as he turned to walk back to the castle, leaving her standing there at the paddock, trying to gather her wits.
Her father might have taught her how to avoid danger, but he did not teach her how to escape the danger that was Laird McLeod.
7
Grannie Ava chided a frowning Keira and snatched a wooden honey dipper from her. “A young girl doesnae need this much sugar.”
She split the pool of honey that spread across her toast with another slice of brown bread.
“I need the energy.” Keira stared at the toast like it had lost all appeal. One could not fault her; it was positively odious. The scraping Grannie Ava had done had left it looking like a freshly peeled bandage from a festering wound. “And I enjoy the taste.”
Grannie Ava tsked. “Why did ye have to inherit yer faither’s sweet tooth?”
Violet’s eyebrows drew together. She sat up, supporting her weight with one hand on the blanketed ground. “The Laird has a sweet tooth?”
She could not imagine it. A man of his caliber and solemnity was a slave to sugar?
His gait did not betray any proclivity to gluttony. His muscles were big as they were useful, considering he had handled her like she weighed less than a bag of flour. His chest was sturdy and broad, which his shirt betrayed. She did not need to see the rest of him to know just how well built he was.
“Does he!” Grannie Ava scoffed, as if it were a constant bone of contention. “He was an awfully rotund child with very sticky fingers that were always swiping whatever treats Cook left out to cool.”
Violet burst into laughter. She had no trouble envisioning the younger version of the Laird sneaking around the castle with chubby legs, protecting a steaming hot pastry.
“Till this day, he remains banned from the kitchen, and I have yet to find the maid who sneaks him snacks,” Grannie Ava added with a sniff.
Keira had swiped a dry piece of toast when the woman wasn’t looking and smeared it with honey until it dripped down her fingers, then twisted around so she wouldn’t be caught shoving the whole thing into her mouth. It took a total of five seconds for her crime to be committed.
She really was Ruaridh’s copy.
Violet could reconcile the image of the child Grannie Ava had described with the girl in front of her, who brought the story to life. What she couldn’t do was understand how the little thieving child had grown up to be the Laird.
“He just doesn’t seem like the sort,” she mused out loud.
The Laird must have materialized on earth as a man, and some power had put in Grannie Ava’s mind tales of a growing boy, so his existence could go unquestioned.
“Me faither is full of surprises.” Keira was beaming with pride. “I bet ye wouldnae think he enjoys dancing.”
“He does?”
They had to be jesting now.
Violet looked from the girl to Grannie Ava.
