Page 27

Once the grief had subsided to the level where he could think more clearly, the plan had emerged in his head.

To go back to Eilean Donan, now that his father was dead. To take his estate back.

And to present Seoc as his son and give the lad the future he deserved.

To fulfill his promise to his dead beloved.

Bryanna and Raghnall reached the pasture, and the sheep looked at them with their strange eyes, bleating worriedly. Raghnall picked a place where the horse would have enough space to walk and gallop. He helped Bryanna get into the saddle, and as always, as he touched her legs to help her up, it was like he brushed against liquid silk that burned him.

She looked beautiful on the horse, her back straight, her cheeks rosy, lips dark and red in a bright smile of delight. Her hair shone and played in the sun, an instrument strummed by the wind.

As he gave her instructions, and she listened to him with curiosity and interest, he couldn’t help but let himself relax. Just for now, just for today, he was home. In this moment, when there was just the horse, and him, and the bonnie lass who made the ache in his chest loosen up, there was no past and there was no future.

There was just now.

He didn’t know how much time passed, but soon, Bryanna could even let the horse trot. She got it to listen to her well. Raghnall became lost in her smiles and in her laughter and questions. She loved it. He could tell because her joy infected him, leaving him feeling warm, as though touched by the sun.

When they walked the horse back towards the stables, she laughed. “My backside hurts, is that normal?”

His gaze grazed over her, landing on the body part in question. “Yer arse, ye mean, Lady Bryanna?”

“Well, if you put it that way, yes, my arse. Do you remember when you learned riding? Was it the same for you?”

He chuckled as the memory of him and his father flooded him. “Aye, ’twas, and, surprisingly, ’tis one of the rare good memories I have of my father.”

“Oh, really? How old were you?”

“Dinna ken.” He let the horse stop before the water trough next to the hitching post and the animal began drinking. “Mayhap six or seven.”

“So young?”

Raghnall patted the animal’s long mane as it drank, the hair coarse, warm from its body heat. “’Tisna young, lass. ’Tis how ’tis done. He was surprisingly kind and even looked proud of me. Constantly told me how I’m definitely his son because I took up horse riding so quickly—quicker than all his other sons, and I was the youngest of them.” Raghnall turned to her and put one hand on the hitching post. “The bastart could do it so well. He could be so misleadingly kind, and the next moment, he’d stab ye in the back by criticizing ye. And if ye didna agree, he’d make sure ye kent there was either his way or the fists. And that ye were nae worth a slug’s shite.”

Bryanna’s hand covered his, and the touch sent a small jolt of awareness through him, something sweet and prickly and delicious. Her beautiful eyes were big and green in the semidarkness of the stables. “I’m so sorry, Raghnall. No one deserves a parent like that.”

Raghnall swallowed hard. How could she do that? Get into his heart just with one touch and a few words, making him all warm and melting?

He shouldn’t let her. He withdrew his hand from under hers and stepped back. “’Tis all right, lass. The man is dead, thank God, and I’m back in the clan. My past is my own to carry.” He looked at the horse, which stopped drinking and raised its head.

“Who was she?” The question came soft, but the impact of hearing it hit him like a hammer.

He froze. “What?”

“Who was she, the woman from your song?”

He looked at her, not sure what to say. She’d caught him so easily, so unexpectedly.

His first reaction was to deny everything, and he opened his mouth to do just that.

But, surprisingly, part of him wanted to tell her. Wanted to open that door into the dark corners of his soul and let her light shine there, chase the darkness away, and warm him. Heal him.

But no. He’d lived this way for years. He couldn’t trust her, couldn’t let himself get close to her. He’d only hurt her in the end.

He lifted the reins back over the horse’s head and put one foot in the stirrup. “Ye had yer fun and rode him, but I still need to visit my tenants and show them I have arrived.”

Knowing he’d been dismissive, he mounted the horse. This was for the best, he thought as he put distance between himself and Bryanna. Even if he opened up to her, it wouldn’t change his past.

And not even the sun itself could light up his dark soul.