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Fiona didn’t look up from her writing. “She’s reading a letter, dear. Why?” With that question, she looked up and eyed her son.
“No reason, I just thought a companion ought tae be by her employer’s side, ye know, tae fulfill her duties.” He ripped off a piece of bread and began to chew, still avoiding his mother’s gaze.
“She dropped her letter, and a smile played on her lips. “My, my, aren’t we becoming quite the harsh laird? Amelia is free to do as she pleases, in addition to her main duties. Again, she is not a prisoner. I think she’s absolutely lovely, my dear. Don’t you? I haven’t felt so relaxed since yer father’s passing.”
Jamie stole a glance at his mother’s face. To be sure, she was looking healthier and stronger than she had in these past years. Her cheeks were flushed with health, and she had gained an energy he hadn’t seen since he was a young lad.
He placed his hand over hers. “Aye, ma, yer looking wonderfully. I don’t mean tae begrudge ye yer happiness. Amelia is a fine companion, although I donae think she cares for me very much.”
Fiona laughed good-naturedly. “I do believe you’re developing an interest in my beautiful young friend. It’s not often I see my strong son blushing when discussing a lass. She is wonderful, but I do fear something is amiss. Like she’s run from something.”
“Aye, there is a bit of anger and sadness about it. And about the interest, ma, ‘Tis no such thing going on. I only ask out of care for ye. I wanted tae make sure yer happy. I’m going riding.”
And he swallowed the last of his ale and water and kissed his mother on the cheek. She smiled, and once he left, said to herself. “Jamie Kinnaird, in love perhaps? Hmm...we shall see what I can do about this.”
* * *
After talking with William and hearing Charles’ name cursed like the cad he was, Amelia felt lighter. She returned to Fiona with a smile, and despite the dark clouds and an impending storm, they completed their walk about the grounds, into the woods, laughing and talking together as before, with their plaids wrapped tightly around them to fight the harsh winds.
After, Fiona left to rest in her chamber, and instead of drinking her tea by the fire or in the library, Amelia decided to explore the castle a bit. She hadn’t really had the time or the energy to do so before, and today, she had the sudden urge to see what secrets an old Scottish castle might hold. And a storm had begun to roll and flash outside, and her imagination soared.
“What poetry could be hidden between its walls!” She took her book with her and a plaid and decided to start with the hallway off the main hall where Donald had tried to take her. This led up to the library, which she knew well, but along that upper floor were several rooms she hadn’t had the chance to peek into.
Slowly and quietly, she crept down the hall as if she was a rogue adventurer, seeking out mysterious treasures in unknown lands.
She smiled to herself like a child with her secret adventure afoot. Just like the land had a language all its own, so did an old castle, who has stood stalwart for centuries. It spoke words of which she did not understand, but if she was to listen closely, she might catch something.
She wandered down the corridor, finding old storage rooms and unused chambers sometimes with beds and sometimes empty. But, one room at the end of the hall emitted a strange glow, and so she excitedly crept her way there, unsure of what she’d find. The door was slightly ajar, and she noticed a movement inside. She peered in through the slim opening of the door, and her heart stopped, and she took a quick inhale of breath.
A fire was burning in the hearth, and a soaking tub sat in front, unused but filled, ready for an occupant. And in front of the tub stood Jamie, naked down to his waist. Amelia knew it was wrong to watch someone at their most intimate moment, but she couldn’t will her body to move or her eyes to look away. Her tongue had turned to sandpaper, and her eyes moved from his head and slid all the way down to his feet.
He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. She’d been thinking men were just weak and useless, and maybe their minds and passion are, but not their bodies. This, this specimen of Scottish blood was a man, a real man. Amelia had never seen a naked man before. He’d just removed his shirt, she could tell, since it was pooled at his feet. He stood staring at the fire, seemingly deep in thought. His hands were on his hips, and his breeches were untied at the front. They hung low on his hips, accenting the deep lines that curved toward his manhood. Every part of his body was muscled from his calves to his shoulders. His skin glistened with sweat and glowed in the firelight. A light sprinkling of hair covered his chest and drew her eyes as she followed its path down…there, to where she saw a bulge that made her swallow slowly. She watched as a rivulet of sweat traveled from under his ear winding down to the front of his neck to land in the dip at the top of his chest. A wicked desire to follow that path with her tongue pricked her mind.
The storm thrashed outside, but she didn’t hear its sound. Her conscience kept telling her to look away, but her body was suffused with heat, and she didn’t understand it. It was that same heat she kept feeling every time he came near, but this was different. It was deep, coming from her core, something she’d never felt before and couldn’t quite explain.
Suddenly he shifted, turning towards the inside of the room, his back to her, and Amelia saw it. Thick lines of scars ran across his back from side to side, splaying out like a fan. She even noticed a circular wound that stared at her from his left side, presumably done by a musket.
Amelia gasped. She saw Jamie start, and then she quickly backed herself up against the outside wall, closing her eyes tightly, praying that he didn’t hear it, praying that she wouldn’t be caught in such an embarrassing situation and have to endure that devilishly handsome and satisfied grin of his.
“Bloody hell!” she whispered and hurried down the hallway as quietly as she could, desperate to be away from her sin and shame. She had gawked at a naked man for what felt like hours. Her face burned with shame as she hurried down the dark passage, her castle adventure forgotten.
She decided to return to the library to cool the heat that covered her skin. And it would not be suspicious to find her in the library, not as suspicious to find her outside of a naked man’s room staring unabashedly at his beauty.
The friendly warmth of the library did nothing to help assuage the heat within her, but it did make her feel safe within its stone walls and wooden shelves. The smell of leather and oil made her relax enough to take a deep breath and begin to walk from shelf to shelf, looking aimlessly at various titles. She couldn’t sit just yet. She had to pace, pace and digest what she had just seen.
Out of your mind, put it out of your mind, Amelia! So, the man is good-looking. So, he’s beautifully, incredibly, soul-touchingly, makes-me-ache handsome.
Her sensibility returned.What should that matter? He’s still an unbelievable cad.And she scoffed aloud.
But, then she paused, licking her lips, leaning her back against the wall of books, the leather spines supporting her as she let herself dip into the freshness of the memory. “I didn’t know a man could have so many muscles,” she whispered. She sighed, and crossed her arms, her eyes staring off somewhere in the distance, remembering the bead of sweat and the wicked thought that had come to her.
A peal of thunder crashed outside, and lightning lit the room up briefly. She stood up, shaken out of her daydream. “Amelia Parker, this is not like you at all! You may have been swayed before by a beautiful man with sharp eyes but no longer! Now, start reading and put this wretched thing out of your mind! ‘Tis sinful!!” She forced herself down harshly into one of the armchairs by the fire and picked up a book that she’d been reading yesterday. All of her movements were strong and quick in order to keep the dangerous image from her mind.
She sighed and cleared her throat and stared at the open book, hoping the words would call to her and bring her to rights.
She lasted for about a half of an hour like this, every muscle in her body tense, fighting against remembering and forcing her brain to read and comprehend the words, the sounds of the crackling fire and the bellowing storm her company.
“So, yer quite the lover of reading, is it?” Just like the rumble of thunder outside the castle, a low voice broke into the calm and safe space of the library.
