Until she’d met Colyne.
Now, an emptiness she’d never experienced unraveled inside. He made her want, not only physically but with a yearning to share more than a few days of her life with him.
“Alesia?” Colyne called again.
Frustrated with the unwanted emotions he made her feel, she swam until her feet brushed against the smoothed rock. “I am going to wash out my clothes,” she said, thankful for the distance. “ ’Twill take but a trice.”
“Nay, lass. I have set a clean gown behind the rocks near where you entered. It was spared from the fire, so I brought it along.”
She glanced toward where his voice echoed, surprised by his kind gesture. How many men would have done the same?
Or cared?
Not that it mattered. They each had their own lives. Even if she longed to know more about him, to grow closer, time, as fate, stood against them.
Chapter 5
Colyne stood near the edge of the cliff, the air alive with the vibrant song of crickets and a gentle breeze sliding across the land. Yet he found little peace.
A short distance away, embraced by moonbeams, Alesia stared at the sky. From her solemn expression, she too was lost in thought. How could she nae be? The horrors of finding Stephano and his family murdered earlier this day haunted him still. Bedamned the English bastards.
“Colyne?”
The rawness within her voice nursed his guilt. He should have ensured she’d remained shielded from the carnage the English troops had left in their wake. Though horrified by the gruesome sight, she’d lent a hand, helping to bury those he’d loved.
“You are tired. Go to sleep. I shall keep watch.” His voice broke at the last. With a hard swallow, he stared at the hills of the Highlands he so loved, a home he would die to keep free.
The light scrape of slippers upon stone alerted him of her approach.
“I have made a bed for you against the cliff.” A part of him yearned to offer her succor, while another wished to seek comfort in her arms. He frowned. Either would be an unwise decision. Secrets shadowed her eyes, guided her response when he asked questions of her past, or of those who pursued her.
She halted at his side.
Her warm scent of woman and lavender melded with the freshness of the night, and his body hummed with awareness. God help him, he wanted her. But to turn to her now, to take advantage of theloss still haunting them both would be wrong. “You need to try and rest.”
A long moment passed. “I am sorry for your loss. It is hard to lose someone you love.”
“My thanks.” Through half-lowered lashes, Colyne watched her kneel and pick up a weathered rock.
On an unsteady sigh, Alesia stood. She rolled the stone within her palm. “Will you tell me about the girl who owned the doll?” she asked, her question unraveling in a fragile whisper.
Moonlight shimmered through tears trailing down her cheeks.
“I am sorry,” she whispered. “I only wanted to talk to you, to try to find a way to help you, as I know the family we buried were your friends. Sometimes it eases the pain when you . . . But I know you want to be alone.” She turned and cast the stone.
A splash echoed from below.
A sword’s wrath. Though he grieved for those he loved, she hurt and needed his strength. And damn the circumstance, he would be there for her. “Alesia?”
With a sob, she stepped into the circle of his arms.
Colyne drew her close, finding solace in her touch, hope in her presence, and a rightness he’d never expected, more so than he’d ever experienced with Elizabet. Confused, he held her, unsure what to make of this realization.
Her tears dampened his neck.
“ ’Tis fine, lass.” Murmuring words to calm her in Gaelic, he cradled her against his chest until her sobs stilled, her breathing calmed, and tremors nay longer shook her body. He stroked her hair, unbound from its earlier braid.
“Her name was Katherine.” The happiness of the child’s memories flooded him. “A wee lass. Hair black as midnight. Green eyes that danced with devilment. But a heart—” his throat tightened—“a heart filled with love.”
