Page 60 of Sins of the Highlander

“Ye’re wrong.” Elspeth cast a lingering glance at him as he worked, admiring his easy stride, his broad-shouldered strength, his fine, long legs. When he caught her looking at him, she lowered her gaze to her lap. “Rob doesna love me.”

Hepzibah took a few quick pulls on her pipe to make it draw well. “Ye wouldna say that if ye’d seen him fretting over ye whilst ye wandered between the worlds.”

“He was only feeling guilty, I warrant,” Elspeth said. “I wouldna be here, wouldna have been hurt if he didna still love his dead wife.”

“I should hope he does still love her.” Hepzibah puffed approvingly on her pipe and blew out a trio of smoke rings. “That’s all to the good.”

Elspeth shook her head, confused. First, Hepzibah said Rob loved her. Then she hoped that he still loved Fiona. “Why is that good?”

“A soul that knows how to love deeply is a rare thing in this world. Rob knows, ye see. And a soul that does, never really forgets how to do it.”

“Do it? Love isna something ye do,” Elspeth said. “’Tis something ye feel, surely.”

“Where did ye hear that daft idea?”

“’Tis in all the sonnets and—”

“Sonnets!” Hepzibah’s laugh cackled so, Elspeth would have named her a witch if she didn’t know better. “What a kettle of goat’s piss! Only a dreamer’s scribblings.”

Elspeth stiffened. She’d been enchanted by the idea of all-consuming courtly love described in her little collection of poetry. Was there anything finer than the adoring praise of a devoted swain?

Maybe the touch of devoted hands, she answered herself.

The memory of the way Rob’s touch, Rob’s kiss, had wakened her to something hot and dark and forbidden made her cheeks heat.

“But ye make it sound as if love isna a matter of the heart,” Elspeth said.

“Oh, it is that too, ye ken. But ye may feel all ye like and never do a bit about it,” Hepzibah said. “If a body willna put feet to the feeling, what good is it?”

Rob laughed at something Angus said, and the rich, deep timbre of his voice made some wild nameless thing inside Elspeth shiver with anticipation.

“He’s a fine, braw lad, and it stirs the blood just to look upon him, aye?” Hepzibah’s voice sank to a whisper. “But the heart is a fickle beastie, changeable as the loch. There may come a time when the feeling some call love has flown. Then what does a body do?”

Elspeth couldn’t imagine her stomach not doing flips each time she caught sight of Rob MacLaren. Not that she loved him, of course, but she couldn’t deny there were definite feelings for the man, feelings that showed no sign of abating. But Hepzibah was wise about so many things, she allowed that the old woman might know a bit about this as well.

“Tell me, Hepzibah, what does a body do if the feelings go away?” Elspeth asked.

“That’s when a soul decides to love anyway, with mind and breath and body,” Hepzibah said. “Feelings come and go. And come again. But when your soul and your will unite to act, that’s when ye know love goes clear to the bone. A body canna forget how to love once it’s done that.”

Rob started walking back toward the cottage, his frame casting long shadows on the dead grass. His mouth turned up in a smile when his gaze met Elspeth’s.

Hepzibah made a clucking noise with her teeth and tongue. “Whether yon laddie wants to admit it or not, his heart loves again. ’Tis only a matter of time before his soul and body decide to follow.”

Chapter 20

Rob insisted they sail away the next time the loch’s tide favored a swift passage to Lochearnhead. Angus fretted that Elspeth shouldn’t travel yet, but Hepzibah said she was healing well enough, and sailing was easy on a body. The muscle in Elspeth’s thigh still ached, but the pain was manageable.

Besides, Rob scowled each time she limped, so she forced herself to walk as normally as possible. Hepzibah said evidence of her injury made him feel guilty, and that’s why his face screwed into such a frown, but Elspeth wasn’t so sure.

She bid Hepzibah a tearful farewell and promised to return to visit her next summer.

“Dinna promise what ye canna deliver,” Hepzibah said. “Search your Gift. Ye know in your heart we’ll no’ meet again in this world.”

Elspeth’s brows shot up.

“Aye, I ken ye have the Sight. I see it on ye, a silver mantle all a-shimmer.” The old woman’s eyes glistened. “But ye havena decided to take it up in earnest.”

“I canna control it. The visions come when they will and in ways that make little sense. And besides, having the Sight marks me as different.”