“There’s a candle on the table.”
“Then why do you no’ use it?”
“For what?” the girl asked tonelessly. “There’s naught for me to do in this room that I’d be needing a candle for.”
Jamie chuckled. Colen had found himself a rare female, one willing to await his beck and call.
Jamie saw the bed and moved toward it, his eyes now able to make out the girl sitting on the edge of it. He put the tray of food on the table.
“You’re no’ the girl who was supposed to bring this,” she mentioned warily.
Jamie didn’t reply. He found the candle and, after several seconds, had a fair light illuminating the room.
“Now then, lass, who…”
The words died as Jamie turned and faced the girl. He caught his breath. The vision before him was not real, it couldn’t be. The delicate oval face, the large eyes of a remarkable bright blue, the massof red hair so dark as to be magenta. Now when had he dreamed of this before?
She was staring at him with open curiosity. Under her perusal, Jamie stood tall. He could not speak. If he spoke, she might disappear. With a sudden jolt he realized why he felt that way. It was the vision! The water sprite from the pool in the glen! Her image had dimmed with the passing of time, but his vivid feelings had not.
She smiled as the silence lengthened, and Jamie thought his heart would stop at the brilliance of that smile. Then she giggled, a bubbling sound.
“I’ve been known to turn the heads of men,” she said in amusement, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “But I’ve never struck one speechless ’afore. I think I like it.”
Jamie would have taken offense if anyone but this vision had teased him so. He delighted in her laughter and didn’t mind at all.
“I…I’ve never lost my tongue so completely ’afore. But now I’ve found it, you’ll be telling me who you are.”
“I dinna think I will,” she said.
“Why?”
She shrugged prettily and looked away. “I’ve no’ told Colen, so why should I be telling you?” she answered pertly, reaching for the tray and picking up a sugar roll.
“You’re no’ a MacKinnion?” he asked.
“Heaven forbid.”
Jamie frowned. “From where do you come then?”
“The lad found me in Aberdeen” was Sheena’s evasive reply.
“Your home is there?”
Her gaze narrowed. “I’ve no home to speak of, not anymore. But who are you to be asking me so many questions?”
“Colen didna tell you of me?”
“He told me of a brother, nobody else.”
“I am his brother,” Jamie replied simply.
Then it was her turn to stammer. “Then…you’re…”
Jamie watched in amazement as she scrambled across the bed and backed up against the wall beside it. She cowered, as if trying to disappear into the stone wall.
“What nonsense is this?” Jamie demanded.
There was terror in her eyes.
