Page 61 of Sins of the Highlander

“Oh, aye, o’ course we’re all different. God doesna repeat Himself. Surely ye ken that by now.” Hepzibah gave her a basket filled with a couple loaves of rye bread and a round of cheese. “Dinna fear what ye dinna understand. Decide to understand it.”

Elspeth sneaked a glance at Rob under her lashes. “There’s much I dinna understand about a lot of things.”

Hepzibah laughed. “Admitting your ignorance is the first step to learning aught. And I’ll tell ye a secret. Opening yourself to your Gift is easy. Ye just stay out of its way and accept what comes, even if it makes no sense at the time.”

Hepzibah also cast a quick glance at Rob. “Opening your heart to another? Now that takes some doing.”

“I dinna think he wants me to try.”

The old woman waved her objection away with a bony hand. “Men dinna know what they want half the time. Oh, they’re good at recognizing hungers of the body, all sorts, but hungers of the heart go unnoticed ofttimes unless they’ve a woman to point it out to them.”

“Come, lass,” Rob called out to her from the deck of Angus’s boat. “We’re wasting the tide.”

“I thank ye.” Elspeth folded Hepzibah into a fierce hug. “For everything.”

She headed toward the shore, leaning very lightly on the cane, but Rob sprinted toward her and scooped her up. His scowl faded once she was in his arms.

She draped her arms around his neck, enjoying the added warmth of being so near his body. The westerly wind had taken a bitter turn. “I can walk, ye know.”

“Aye, but no’ fast enough to suit me,” he said gruffly as he carried her and her basket of food the rest of the way.

Rob set her gently into the boat, untied the line, and shoved the prow into the loch. A thin skiff of ice had formed along the shore, but the hull of the boat crackled through it with ease. Rob gave a running leap and landed on the deck beside her, setting the boat rocking wildly.

She wobbled, trying to bear most of her weight on her good leg. Rob caught her in his arms again.

“No’ going down, are ye?”

“No, just trying to stay upright while ye bobble us about,” she said and pulled away from him. Being treated like an invalid made her hackles rise.

The sail filled with the breath of the loch, and the boat glided into the center of the dark, open water. Hepzibah and her little cottage fell swiftly astern, but Elspeth kept waving until the wisewoman was lost to sight.

“Ye’ll be most comfortable in the cabin,” Rob said. “Hepzibah gave us an extra blanket for ye. ’Tis spread on the pallet.”

She was still wearing his cloak. Even with only his plaid for warmth, he seemed impervious to the growing cold. Not a hint of gooseflesh rippled on his exposed neck. Elspeth almost told him she’d be most comfortable in her own chamber in her father’s keep, but she realized that wasn’t true.

It made no sense when she examined the bald facts of the matter, but she honestly didn’t want to be anywhere except with Rob MacLaren.

As she ducked into the cabin, she wondered if this was one of those things Hepzibah would say she shouldn’t fear, just decide to understand.

Rob commandeered the tiller from his friend instead of joining her in the small space. Her belly spiraled downward with disappointment, but she soon had other company. Angus and Fingal crowded into the cabin with her.

The big man regaled her with tales of the loch as they skimmed over its surface, and his deerhound sidled up to her, sharing his shaggy warmth.

“Poor Fingal,” Angus said with a rough pat on the dog’s head. “He’s grown quite attached to ye, but he’ll have to bid farewell to his lady fair soon.”

“How soon?”

Angus peered out the open front of the cabin, taking note of passing landmarks. “At this pace, we’ll make Lochearnhead by nightfall. Then, come morning, Fingal and me will point our noses home.”

“And what will Rob and I do?”

Angus shrugged. “That I dinna ken. I agreed only to this part of the venture. And once I deliver ye safe and sound to Lochearnhead, I’m square with yon laddie.” He hitched a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of Rob and the stern.

“If ye dinna mind my asking, what did ye owe Rob for?”

“The daft bugger kept me from being alone in the world. Single-handed, he saved me only nephew from being hanged by the English a few years back.”

“Really?” It was a fearful thing for a Scot to fall into the hands of English justice.