AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Killing it on the adventure tour, Molly.
Lewis doubled back to us and pulled a green first aid kit from his pack. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“No.” I couldn’t focus on anything beyond the fire in my palms.
“Her leg.” Duncan nodded at my shin.
Exposed by my cropped leggings, my right shin must have taken the worst of the fall, and a two-inch gash seeped blood. It didn’t look deep, it had just…removed a lot of skin. I didn’t even feel it yet. Probably a bad sign.
“Oh.” My stomach fluttered, but for some reason, I thought about breakfast, and an awkward giggle bubbled out of me.
A line formed between Duncan’s eyebrows. “Are you uncomfortable with blood?”
“No, I was just thinking about Rupert’s blood pudding.” Now he looked at me like I’d hit my head instead of my leg. I patted his arm. “I’m okay.”
“I think I’m supposed to be reassuring you, here.”
“Everything okay down there?” Bea called from farther along the path.
Great. Next I’d have to hear about how women in her day didn’t go around falling about on mountains, either.
“Arnav, would you take the others on up to the summit while we get Molly wrapped up?” Lewis ripped open an antiseptic pouch and gently swabbed at my bleeding leg.
I hissed as the wipe did its work. The numbness went away, at least. “That stings.”
He cleaned my injuries and dotted on salve before bandaging everything up. “How do you feel?”
I felt like a child who had fallen off my bike away from home—one part reassured, and two parts unsettled. Mostly, though, I just wanted to move past the “Molly embarrasses herself daily” part of this trip.
“I think I’ve experienced a little undue pain and suffering.”
Panic spread across his face. I could almost see the wordlitigationflashing behind his eyes. Injuries on tours like this must be every guide’s nightmare.
“I’m kidding. I’m fine, really.” Scraped palms and road rash on my leg weren’t all that bad. Also, I only had my own negligence to blame.
Worry still creased his brow. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Each man got a hand under one of my elbows and helped me stand. The pain in my leg wasn’t awesome now that I put weight on it, but I would power through and say nothing more of this stupid fall for the rest of the trip. Maybe someone would fall into a lake to draw the attention away from me.
“Steady there?” Duncan asked.
“Steady as a bagpiper in a hurricane.” My giddy laugh didn’t seem to reassure him.
“That’s not a thing.”
I climbed the last of the way with Duncan at my side like a bodyguard ready to throw out a hand if I looked shaky, but we finally reached Ben Macdui’s summit. A cairn marker stood at the top, and a dial pointed to the other peaks in the mountain range. It hadn’t been a perfect trip up, what with all the bandages plastered on me, but I’d made it to the top of a mountain.
Triumph coursed through my veins. I’d bagged amunro.
Some of the threatening clouds had cleared, and although the foggy cover still hemmed in most of the view, the mist that enveloped the nearby mountains made them mysterious in the quiet. I took dozens of pictures as I spun in a slow circle, entranced by what I could see of the crags, glens, and lochs below.
High-pitched bagpipe keening carried to me on the wind, tingling up my back like fingers tracing along my spine. Arnav held his phone aloft, blaring out Scotland’s national anthem, its rhythmic tune familiar thanks to the countless YouTube videos I’d watched leading up to this trip.
The others mostly ignored this show of national pride—only Duncan seemed at all moved by the gesture. Looking out at the Cairngorms below, his stoicism increased tenfold. With the pipes ringing in the background and his stern brow facing into the harsh winds, I could imagine him as a Highlander decked out in his kilt and claymore two centuries ago.
I didn’t hate the image. I might have even lingered on it way too long.
He caught me watching him, and a spark of something primal lit inside me. I had a sudden urge to go to his side and…I wasn’t even sure what.Anything. Equal parts unsettling and thrilling, I hadn’t had this sort of reflexive response to a man in ages. Maybe ever.
