Page 10 of To Wed a Laird (English Brides and Highland Vows #1)

CHAPTER NINE

They rode slowly, since Cormac was being very careful not to startle Elspeth. She had not ridden a horse since her mother died, and he was worried because her skill then had been that of a complete novice.

He had seen Rose riding on one occasion when Nell had persuaded the head groom to allow her to borrow a horse, and he had seen that she was an accomplished horsewoman.

As well as that, there was no denying her care and affection for his daughter; out of all the ladies he had employed to care for Elspeth, she was by far the best. He thought so, and apparently so did Elspeth, so he had made up his mind; Rose Tewsbury was here to stay.

He had been thinking about both of them and the influence the Englishwoman was having on Elspeth.

It was as though a happy spirit had awoken inside Elspeth and taken over her soul.

He could see that she still had bouts of sadness and was sometimes very temperamental, but Rose seemed to have the ability to calm her down in a way that none of the other women had been able to.

This had a calming effect on him too. He had not realised how much of his time he had been spending worrying about his daughter, and now, almost without him noticing, the burden was lighter.

He could see the way Elspeth was clinging to Rose, how they laughed together and shared jokes, and it seemed to him that his daughter was regaining the brightness she had lost when her mother died.

And she was lovely. Although, of course, that was a quality that was not a necessity in a governess, it pleased him to be able to see and admire Rose every day.

Admire?

Was it just admiration, or were his body and feelings not telling him it was more than that? Every time he spoke to her, he had to look away or cut the conversation short because of her bewitching eyes.

Damn it! What was she doing to him?

When they left the meadows where the sheep grazed behind them and went into the woods, they stopped chatting and listened instead to the birds singing, the rustle of small creatures scuttling in the undergrowth, and the sighing of the breeze in the trees.

Rose looked up at the canopy of leaves above them, which formed a lacy pattern of green and gold and sent shafts of sunlight onto the forest floor, forming a dappled pattern on the carpet of leaves.

There was a delightful woody scent in the air, intermingled with the fragrance of fresh air and wild flowers. Rose looked enchanted.

“This place is so beautiful,” she remarked happily.

“Mammy always said so too,” Elspeth agreed. “She said it was the most beautiful place in the world.”

“I agree with her,” Rose said, smiling. “It is almost magical.”

Rose’s mind suddenly went back to her girlhood, when she and her sisters would climb the trees in their garden. Now she would happily have done the same again had circumstances permitted. She laughed aloud at the thought.

“What are you laughing at?” Elspeth asked, smiling.

“Oh, I was just thinking about the trees I used to climb when I was your age,” Rose answered. “With my sisters. We got up to a lot of mischief!”

Elspeth laughed, then said, “I wish I had sisters.”

Her voice was sad, and Rose wished she could magically conjure up some siblings for her since she was so lonely.

They rode on, but instead of turning away to go to the loch, Cormac pointed towards a little rise a short distance away. “We can see the village from there,” he told them. “It is a beautiful view, so I will take you up there first, and then we can go to the loch.”

Rose watched him as he led the way, riding a few yards in front of her.

From this angle, she could see the breadth of his shoulders and back, tapering down to his narrower hips.

His powerful thighs were holding on to the saddle, keeping his magnificent stallion completely under his control.

Even his hair was perfect, glossy, black and tamed only by a thin leather thong.

She felt a strange sweet pulse between her thighs, a part of her body she had never thought much about before, then she began to tingle all over.

My god, she thought in a panic, what is happening to me?

Rose had never felt this way before, but she knew it had something to do with Cormac. He was a heady mix of masculine strength of both body and character, yet it was tempered with gentleness and kindness.

And was there vulnerability too? Yes, she had seen it, especially when Elspeth talked about her mother. He was an extraordinary man, and the more Rose saw of him, the more he affected her in ways that she could hardly bear to admit to herself.

She had no idea how she was going to cope if he married again, but who knew what the future held? Rose knew that there was no hope of her enjoying his affections, but it was a lovely dream.

Anyway, she was only a governess, and she was what the Scots dismissively called a Sassenach, so why was she worried? It was not as if Laird Cormac MacTavish were going to look twice at her.

Rose shook the thoughts out of her head and concentrated on admiring the scenery as they emerged from the woods and came out into the open again.

She contrasted the high, rugged hills, with great granite outcrops jutting through the bright, green grass, with the smooth and level grasslands of her own country.

Rose thought it was very intimidating, yet she would not have changed a thing, since she had come to love this rough, hard, beautiful land.

The people were a little wary of her and her southern English accent, but Rose was sure that in a while she would be able to win at least some of them over.

Even the staff at the castle seemed to be warming to her a little, albeit very slowly indeed.

Rose and Elspeth reached the top of the hill and dismounted, then looked down. The village of Inverrigg lay below them, not the tiny place Rose had imagined, but a substantially sized village on the shore of a great grey body of water.

Elspeth and Nell had told her the story of the monster in the loch; a giant serpentine creature dwelling deep in the waters, and although Rose did not believe it, she was surprised at how many people did.

She thought of it now as she looked at the loch, then her eyes drifted to the village, where she could see the roofs of the cottages, some thatched, the more expensive ones tiled.

Smoke drifted from their chimneys. There was a church with a pointed spire on one side of a market square, although there was no market that day.

The well in the middle of the square had a little crowd of people around it waiting their turn to draw water. They were too far away for her to see properly, but she imagined them all talking and laughing with each other as neighbours do, just like her own country’s folk.

It was so peaceful and soothing that Rose could have stood and watched all day.

Then she turned her attention to Cormac, who was standing gazing down at the village with a faint smile on his face, and wondered what he was thinking about. She swallowed nervously as she looked at him, wondering how it would feel to kiss him, then she reprimanded herself.

Where had that thought come from?

Her thoughts were about to drift away in a dangerous direction, but at that moment, Elspeth tugged her sleeve. “Time to go,” she said in a bossy, authoritative tone that made Rose laugh.

Once again, Cormac helped them onto the horses, and this time the feel of his hands on her body made Rose tremble with desire, a feeling she had no idea how to deal with. If only Cormac MacTavish were not a Laird, she might have a little chance of getting to know him better.

Heather, the little mare, was calm as they turned and moved slowly down towards the loch.

The horse was eager to please and easy to handle, and Rose was just congratulating herself on how well she was doing with her riding when suddenly a blur of red shot past them in the shape of a fox, which disappeared into the woods.

Heather, taken by surprise, neighed and reared up in fright.

Elspeth screamed and began to slide sideways out of the saddle, but Rose grabbed her, pulling her tightly against her own body.

However, she was also falling from the horse, but she managed to twist around at the last moment and hit the ground first.

As she fell, she felt a sharp pain in her ankle as her foot caught in the stirrup, and she cried out as her shoulder hit the ground.

Elspeth had landed on top of her but quickly managed to roll away, seemingly unharmed, but the force of her weight landing on Rose’s body had knocked the wind out of her.

Rose lay for a moment, gulping in great breaths of air and clutching her sore foot. Elspeth scrambled to her feet and was bending over her, her face anxious. “Rose! Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Rose gasped, trying to reassure her, although she was still gasping for air and her ankle was shooting spears of pain up her leg. “Just a little tumble.” It was a lie, but she did not want Elspeth to worry.

Cormac appeared then, “Elspeth, are you hurt?” he asked anxiously.

When she shook her head and said, “No, Da. See to Rose first,” she looked fearful.

Cormac gently guided Elspeth out of the way before bending over Rose. His expression was one of sheer terror as he looked at her.

“Lie still for a moment,” he said, trying to sound calm. In truth, he was looking anything but composed. Rose wondered if his mind kept going back to the terrible day when Catherine died. Was he more frightened now than he had been at any time since then? Most probably…

He noted that Rose’s foot was the same one she had hurt previously, and hoped that the two injuries would not cripple her.

“Tell me if I hurt you,” he instructed, as he began to feel her arms, her shoulders, her legs and her ribs. When he reached her ankle, she gave a gasp of pain, and he stopped at once.

“I am taking you straight back to the castle,” he said grimly. “Can you stand up?”

Rose nodded, and he helped her to stand, but as soon as her injured foot touched the ground she flinched and let out a long moan of sheer agony.

Cormac did not waste a second, but scooped her into his arms without a word, and they moved across to Heather, who was now standing placidly munching grass as though nothing had happened.

Rose made a show of protesting for a few moments, but in truth being in Cormac’s arms, wrapped in the leathery, manly scent of him, was heavenly. She felt safe, warm, protected with her head against his hard chest, listening to the firm, steady beat of his heart.

Cormac lifted Rose into the mare’s saddle again, then took a thick piece of fabric out of his saddlebag and gently wrapped Rose’s injured foot in it.

“This should help a little if your foot bumps against the saddle,” he told her, “but it will still be painful.”

“I can bear it,” Rose assured him with a valiant attempt at a smile. He looked so anxious, she thought. There was something about his attentiveness that made her feel special, as if she was the only person in the world that mattered to him.

“Tell me if you need to stop for a while,” he instructed.

Rose nodded. “I will,” she replied, trying to ignore the pain and keep the smile pasted onto her face.

Cormac lifted Elspeth onto his horse then leapt on in front of her, then they made their way, agonisingly slowly, back to the castle. Elspeth, obviously fearful that something serious had happened to her, kept glancing over at her with a deeply anxious expression on her face.

Rose smiled and occasionally winked at her to make light of the situation, but Elspeth did not smile back.

At last, they reached Inverrigg Castle, and Rose breathed a deep sigh of relief. Cormac lifted Elspeth from his horse and instructed one of the guards to fetch Nell, then turned to Rose.

He had been carefully avoiding looking at her during the journey, not wanting to see the pain in her eyes behind her cheerful facade, but now he saw her face assuming an expression of sheer agony.

Nell came rushing to meet them, concern written all over her face as she saw Rose. “What happened?” she asked fearfully.

“Nothing serious,” Rose assured her. “Just a little tumble.”

“Rose saved my life.” Elspeth’s eyes were full of tears as she looked up at Nell.

Rose shook her head, indicating to Nell that she was exaggerating,

“I don’t think we were in as much danger as that, Elspeth,” she said gently.

However, she had no time to say anything else, since Cormac’s hands were around her waist and she found herself being lifted gently out of the saddle.

Again she found herself cradled in the haven of his body, close to his beating heart, firm body and manly musk.

If she had not been in such pain, she might have considered herself to be in heaven.

Cormac was having similar thoughts as he lifted Rose from the back of the little horse and into his arms. She was not heavy, and he knew he could carry her a long way if he had to.

However, the sick room was only a short-distance away, but at that moment he wished it was further away so that Rose could be in his arms for a long time.

Rose was perfect in every way. He had not realised that what she had given to his daughter was not only knowledge, but herself.

She was attentive, patient, and as he now realised, loving.

She was beautiful, and as she lay in his arms he could smell the fragrance of the light floral perfume she wore, and her own body’s scent.

And those eyes… They had captivated him since the first moment he looked into them, and he knew they always would.

When he looked down into them now, he found her regarding him, but this time she did not avert her gaze, but held it.

That was the moment he realised that losing her would leave a great gap in his life that would be difficult to fill.

For a few moments, something magical crackled between them, but when they reached the sick room door, Rose reached out to open it, and the spell was broken.