Page 80 of Enchantment of a Highlander

The desire wrenched within him, so palpable it took his breath for a moment.

He watched her, unable to look away and unable to deny what it was he knew in the depths of his heart.

He wanted Celia for his wife.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Darkness had settled outside and rain lashed against the shuttered windows, but Duart Castle was warm and dry. Comfortable, even.

Celia had not expected comfortable.

“Will ye tell me about when ye saved the children in the village?” Duncan asked from where he lay propped against the headboard of his bed. His lips pursed to blow the steam from the mug in his hands.

She folded her arms in front of her waist. “If I can be honest with you…”

Duncan nodded vigorously.

“I was actually frightened.” She paused until he took another sip of his tea. He needed to drink it all before going to sleep. “But Alec was brave. And if it weren’t for Alec being so very brave, I might not have made it out alive.”

Another sip.

“Did ye make a baby come to life?” he asked.

Goosebumps prickled her skin. “Where did you hear that?” she asked through cold lips.

He took another sip. “They’re saying it in the village.”

She shook her head. “The baby was already alive, but sleeping. I merely woke it from its slumber.”

He set his mug down and seemed to consider this a moment. “But ye saved his mother, aye?”

“I healed her, yes,” Celia said carefully.

“And pulled her from the street so no one would kill her,” Duncan encouraged her. He took another sip.

“Yes. But I was scared then, too. Between you and me, I thought of Alec and pretended I was as brave as him.”

Duncan drained his cup and Celia took it from him.

“He’s no scared of anything, is he?” Duncan asked.

She wrapped her hands around the still-warm cup. “I wouldn’t say that.” She tucked his blankets around him and smoothed his hair from his face, the way she would do to a child. “I’ve seen fear in his eyes.”

Duncan’s mouth opened in slack shock. “At the village?”

“Oh no, nothing like that.” She smiled at him. “The only time I’ve ever seen Alec afraid was when you went missing.”

His chin jerked up. “Truly?” His voice cracked with the onset of manhood.

“Truly.”

A smile lit his thin face.

“Now you need to get to sleep,” she said in a gently firm voice, lest another stream of questions begin.

He nodded against his pillow. His grin still had not faded.

Celia strode from the room and glanced back at him one more time before leaving. Something in her heart warmed, a palpable tenderness for the fragile boy and his open affection.