“I did not think to store one under the carriage seat, no,” she answered sarcastically as he turned away.
A minute later, he returned with a large black cloak in his hands. It had clearly been used by one of the servants.
“Does the man not need it?” she asked, looking out into the storm and imagining him getting soaked to the skin.
“He is me man, and he’s been through worse. Do ye want to be soaked through or nae?” he asked, holding the cloak out to her more forcefully.
She took the sodden garment without comment.
As she descended into the mud and sand beside the pier, rain and bitter wind instantly assaulted her, ripping through the layers of her dress. She shivered.
Magnus immediately stepped forward, pulling the borrowed cloak from her arms with a muffled curse as he threw it over her shoulders in a shower of drops. She was just about to protest that she could quite easily have done it herself when his hands came up on either side of her face.
She froze, looking up at him, but he was not paying her any mind. His large hands gripped the edge of the cloak’s hood and pulled it gently over her hair. It was a tender and kind gesture, surprising her more than anything he had done thus far.
He stared at the hood, seemingly mesmerized by her hair but never meeting her eyes. He grunted as he noticed she was watching him, turning away and silently walking to the end of the pier.
Laird MacWatt, it appeared, did not require a cloak. He stood beneath the downpour as though he had created it from thought alone. He was at one with the storm; it seemed to Leah that he might even be enjoying himself.
As she was assisted onto the small boat that would carry them over the water, settling beneath a canopy at the rear, she watched the men begin untying the moorings from the iron rings at the water’s edge.
A few minutes later, MacWatt climbed onto the boat, followed by the captain, who was evidently the same man whose cloak she had borrowed.
The boat immediately banked violently toward the water as MacWatt’s enormous body moved to his seat. Leah gave a small squeak of alarm as she slid along the bench toward the edge, the wet cloak and the wet wood acting as a slide that she had no control over.
In the next instant, a large hand steadied her, and the boat righted itself as MacWatt took his seat.
“Thank you,” she found herself saying.
The spot where his hand had touched her felt too warm.
They set off toward the castle, the rain falling less thickly now. The captain guided the boat at the rear, and a stillness fell overeverything around them. The clouds scudded above their heads, revealing a bright full moon reflected on the water’s edge.
Leah raised her head into the breeze, smelling the salty brine on the wind. Despite the nature of her journey and the turn the night had taken, she felt that same sense of contentment and freedom she had experienced with Daphne and Oskar. Perhaps her reckoningwascoming—but not today.
“Ye’ll see the lights in the folly soon,” MacWatt murmured. “Betty will have lit the lamps, no doubt.”
There was something in his tone that she could not quite decipher. He almost sounded exasperated, but she could not think why someone doing such a courtesy would vex him.
“How long have you lived here?” she asked, looking up at the great hulking shape above them. The island was coming into view now, and the lights from the windows could be seen glowing in the distance.
“All me life. Since me faither died.”
“It’s beautiful,” she said softly. She imagined that in daylight, it would be a sight to behold.
He turned back to her, his head cocked. It was difficult to discern his expression, his good eye almost entirely hidden by the shadows.
“I never thanked you,” she found herself saying. “You’re practically saving my life tonight by bringing me here.”
He gave a low chuckle that traveled across the water, echoing around them.
“Dinnae fret, lass. I’m nae doin’ this from the goodness of me heart. Ye owe this barbarian now. Dinnae forget that.”
As he said those words, his gaze dropped to her lips, just as it had done in the carriage.
Leah cleared her throat, smoothing down her sodden gown and wishing she were inside, where she could hide from the feelings he stirred within her.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she replied defiantly. “I’ve never been afraid of anyman,and I shan’t start now.”
