Unable to hold back from the joyous time any longer, Gunn pushed the door open wide. “And what is all this noise about?”
“Careful, Da!” Bella called out. “The floor is lava!”
“I see that.” He stretched and stepped from the threshold onto a pillow, then gave a sad shake of his head at Lorna on the floor pretending to be dead. “Alas, we have lost our beloved Mistress Mouse.”
Lorna cracked open an eye. “This game is not for the faint of heart,” she warned with feigned raspiness, then grabbed her throat and kicked her feet in one last death throe.
“Hurry, Da, and get here with us before she comes back as a ghostie and drags ye into the lava!” Bella and the other two hopped on the window seat, waving for him to hurry.
“Well, I canna have that, now can I?” With his longest stride, he stepped from pillow, to cushion, and then to cloth. But just as he stretched to step to another pillow, Lorna shrieked like a banshee, grabbed his ankle, and tripped him.
“I have ye now!” she wailed in a ghostly voice, as he slipped and dropped to the floor.
Unable to resist, he flipped her to her back and pinned her shoulders to the floor. “I willna go without a fight, wicked ghostie,” he roared.
The children squealed and cheered, but he didn’t hear them. His sole focus was locked on the smiling woman beneath him, her chest heaving with the laughter and exertion of the game.
“God help me,” he whispered. “Ye are so verra lovely.”
Her smile faltered the slightest bit, and her breathing slowed. “Are ye strong enough to banish old ghosts and overcome the evil they spread?”
He knew in his heart she didn’t mean the game. “I dinna ken,” he replied just as softly.
“Return to me when ye do ken,” she whispered. The movements of her supple lips hypnotized him. Then she shrieked and grabbed his hair. “Ye canna best this ghostie!”
He understood the need to return to the game with the children looking on, but ached to do nothing more than sink into her embrace and lose himself in her touch. But for the sake of the wee ones, he bellowed, “Aye, foul fiend! I can best ye with my holysgian-dubh.” He pulled the dagger from the sheath strapped to his calf and held it like a cross in front of her face. “By all that is holy, begone!”
With one last dwindling wail, Lorna went limp. “I am done for,” she rasped as her head rolled to one side.
“Da overcame the ghostie and saved us all!” Bella jumped down from the window seat and danced around them, cheering and clapping. Frances and Hesther joined in.
“And so ends this round of the floor is like lava,” Lorna said. She winked up at him. “Ye may let me up now, Sir Ghostie Killer.”
He refrained from groaning as he rolled back on his heels and helped her stand. “Quite the rousing game, mistress.”
“Lorna. Remember?” An unspoken invitation, an invitation he wished he could pursue, sparkled in her lovely eyes.
“Aye, Lorna.”
“Children?” Mrs. Thistlewick called from the adjoining room. “Cook sent up bread, fresh from the oven, covered in butter and jam.”
The trio stampeded from the room to enjoy their treat.
Lorna brushed off her skirts. She glanced back at one of the bedchamber doors and frowned.
“What is it, lass?” He followed her line of sight but found nothing amiss.
“Ebby was just there. I was going to offer her some of the bread Cook sent up. There’s always more than the children and I can eat.”
“Ye think of everyone. Do ye not?” Kindness shone from her. And in the few days since her arrival, all in the keep had taken to her. Including him.
“I try.” Her earlier levity faded, and she gave him a quizzical look. “Did ye need something?”
He daren’t answer that question honestly. Not when she had made it quite clear what she would say as long as Lady Murdina remained a possibility as the next lady of Thursa Castle. “I came to visit with Bella, since I had not seen her today.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Can Frances and Hesther finish their treat first? Then I’ll take them for a walk or something so ye can have alone time with Bella.”
Alarm filled him that she thought he meant to roust her and the other children from the nursery. “Nay, lass. I would never have ye do such.” With a sweep of his hand, he encompassed the delightful disorderliness of the room. “’Tis obvious she loves their company as well as yers. That was quite the rousing game I interrupted. What did ye call it again?”
