Page 31 of Enchantment of a Highlander

The key was heavy in her hand. Solid.

She slid it into the latch and turned until the she heard a metallic thunk indicating the locking mechanism had been sprung. She pushed into the dark home, expecting to be hit with the musty odor of disuse.

The sweet scent of new wood greeted her inside.

A sliver of light from one partially opened shutter revealed the source.

Sources.

The tension in Celia’s shoulders relaxed in surprise and she pulled in a sharp breath.

A sturdy table and four chairs, all newly constructed, sat in an empty corner and a large chest of drawers and cabinets occupied almost the entire side of the wall next to the door.

The most shocking of all, though, was the massive four-poster bed at the back of the room.

Celia walked toward it carefully, her footsteps soft on the wooden floor lest a loud noise somehow shatter this incredible dream. A thick white blanket rested across the top.

This was too much.

All of it.

She turned abruptly and set her bag on the new table. Ruadh slinked into the cottage and stopped. His tail flicked.

“Too much, isn’t it?” she asked.

His golden eyes turned to her and he shrank back to the door, as if confirming her words.

She pulled his tattered blanket from her bag and set it beneath the table so he might feel more comfortable. He dashed across the room and all but leapt into it. He turned several times before settling into a tightly wrapped ball with his nose tucked into the crook of his bushy tail, then gave a great sigh.

She watched Ruadh with a prickle of envy. He carried no debts on his slender shoulders.

And soon neither would she. Tomorrow when she went to the castle to see Duncan, she would tell Alec she could not keep the gifts he’d bought her.

• • •

Alec took his time returning to the castle. There was much to do, he knew, but he needed time to let his thoughts settle, to let his body cool.

The sun was sliding into the cliffs by the time his castle came into view. The guards he’d hired were not at their sanctioned posts, but milled about in clusters.

Alec narrowed his eyes and nudged his horse toward the easternmost portion where the majority of the men gathered.

Before he came into speaking distance to ask why they’d abandoned their posts, his gaze fell on the chunk of protective wall that had once stood there, which now lay in large chunks of stone and soft mortar. The hole it’d made gaped open, wide and vulnerable.

Duart Castle had been attacked.

Chapter Ten

Alec stared at the costly castle wall now lying in a heap of stone on the ground. With the barrier breached, anyone could enter the castle.

It had been the last of the castle wall to be repaired, as most of it had been missing three months prior.

He swung a leg over his horse and covered the short distance to where the guards stood over the wreckage. His thoughts fell to Wynda, who’d already been through so much, to Duncan, who was in no condition to defend himself, to the families of the guards, who sought residence and employment in the keep.

“Where are the women and children?” he demanded.

“Inside and safe,” a man with a thick red beard replied. “The bastards dinna get in.”

Alec knelt by the rubble and examined the mass of stone and soft, gritty mortar. “What happened?”