McCabe - 2 Seduction of a Highland Lass by Maya Banks

Author:Maya Banks
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2011-08-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

“Keeley! Keeley!”

Keeley turned her head to see Crispen

bolting across the great hall toward her. She

braced herself, having become well acquain-

ted with the way Crispen “greeted” her.

He flung himself around her, nearly

knocking them both to the floor, but Keeley’s

preparation kept them upright.

She laughed and pried him away from her.

“What are you about, Crispen?”

“Will you go outside and play with us in

the snow? Will you, Keeley? Mama can’t go.

Papa has forbidden her outside the doors.

She’s not happy, but Maddie says ’tis good

because Mama is ungainly and as round as a

pumpkin and she might fall on the ice.”

Keeley hesitated, nearly laughing at the

flood of words from the lad’s mouth.

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“The storm is over and the sun’s out. ’Tis a

beautiful day. Papa has been out training

since dawn. We can play on the hill and Gan-

non and Cormac can come along.”

“Slow down,” she said with a chuckle.

“ ’Tis the truth I’d welcome a bit of fresh air.”

Crispen’s face lit up. “Then you’ll come?

Really?” He all but danced out of her reach

and around the hall.

“If you’ll give me a moment to don warmer

clothing, I’ll be glad to come out with you as

long as you have the laird’s permission.”

Crispen nodded eagerly. “I’ll go ask him

now.”

“Very well. I’ll meet you back belowstairs

in a few minutes’ time.”

She watched as Crispen dashed out of the

hall at full speed and then shaking her head,

she headed toward the stairs to don clothing

appropriate for the bitter cold.

When she returned, both Cormac and

Gannon stood in the hall surrounded by

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Crispen and several other children. They

looked wearily in her direction as she

approached.

Grinning, she made it a point to enthusi-

astically greet each of the children and then

she asked if they were ready to proceed out-

doors. Surrounded by their lively chatter, she

stepped into the cold and shivered as chill

bumps prickled up her spine.

“ ’Tis cold today!” she exclaimed.

“Aye, ’tis,” Cormac grumbled. “Too cold to

be standing still watching over children.”

Keeley slanted a sly smile in Cormac’s dir-

ection. “ ’Tis likely Christina will be joining

us.”

His expression brightened and then he

glanced rapidly in Gannon’s direction and

adopted a more bland look.

“Come on!” Crispen urged. He tugged at

Keeley’s hand until she gave in and hurried

up the hill toward the area where the chil-

dren played.

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Teams were quickly formed and Keeley

groaned when she realized the game was

tossing balls of snow at one another with as

much force as they could muster.

Thankfully for her, Gretchen was on Kee-

ley’s team and she was quite adept at hitting

her target. The boys howled with outrage

every time Gretchen pelted one of them in

the face.

Breathless with exertion after an hour of

steady warfare, they called a truce and stood,

hands on hips, gasping for air.

Crispen and Gretchen were whispering in

low tones and kept staring over at Cormac

and Gannon.

“You ask,” Crispen muttered.

“Nay, you ask,” Gretchen demanded. “ ’Tis

your father’s men. They’ll more likely do it

for you.”

Crispen jutted his chin out. “You’re a girl.

’Tis fact girls always get what they want.”

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Gretchen rolled her eyes and then

punched him hard in the arm.

“Ow!”

Crispen glared at her and rubbed his arm.

“We’ll both ask.”

Gretchen smiled serenely and the two ran

in Gannon’s direction.

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