The Highlander's Home (Searching for a Highlander Book 3) by Bess McBride

Author:Bess McBride [McBride, Bess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bess McBride
Published: 2017-12-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Someone shook my shoulder gently, and I opened my eyes to gray light. Iskair, standing over me, held out a hand.

“We must leave,” he said.

Groggy, I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. The fire was out. John, Torq and Andrew were just at the point of walking out the door.

Torq handed me the cup of water.

“From last night,” he said when I looked into it. I drank it and handed it back to Iskair, who tucked it into the folds of his kilt.

He handed me an oatcake, and I bit into it as I followed him to the doorway. He walked with a limp.

“Are you in pain?” I asked.

“A bit,” he said, “but I have no time for such weakness.”

He descended a few steps and turned to hold out his hand for me. I hesitated, and he dropped his hand.

“Mind yer step,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“Do what, mistress?” he said, reaching the bottom of the stairs and looking at the men walking toward the beach. I couldn’t see the boats yet.

“Reject your help.”

“It is naethin. Dinna apologize. I ken ye are afraid of me. I saw the fear in yer eyes last night.”

“No!” I said, reaching the ground where he had waited for me.

He strode off after the men.

“I’m not—” I called after him but bit back my words. I was afraid of Iskair, although I didn’t think he would ever hurt me. I stared at his rigid back. To say that I was afraid of him and still know with certainty that he would not hurt me made no sense at all. But then what did anymore?

The men paused and waited for me, and I hurried to join them. We walked onto the beach, and I saw the birlinns then—two beautiful Nordic-style boats with curved bows and tall masts holding furled white sails. Each boat held eight oars, and the men on the birlinns moved around. The boats had been pulled onto the beach, and we wound our way through the mud and around rocks.

When we reached the boat, Iskair turned to me and spoke in a low voice. “I have to touch ye to set ye into the boat, mistress, or if ye wish, one of the other lads can haul ye up.”

John and Torq were busy climbing in and didn’t hear the exchange.

“Oh, Iskair! I’m so sorry.”

“Still no need to apologize. What is it to be?”

“You can help me get in, please.”

Iskair took me by the waist and tossed me easily into the boat. I landed on my feet and sat down on the nearest bench, next to Andrew. Torq reached over the edge and helped pull Iskair in. I didn’t know what Iskair looked like climbing into a birlinn when he wasn’t injured, but he seemed to manage just fine.

He took up a seat next to one of the oars, but Torq waved him away.

“Save yer strength. We have enough arms. We will have need of ye later.

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