Well, Aila had always been one for empirical evidence over the hypothetical.
Now she had it.
In magnificent abundance.
She shook her head at her wayward thoughts. She was here to complete a mission. Nothing more.
And to have a spot of fun.
Nay, while the blond one in particular — Finn, was it? — looked like he could provide a pure good time indeed, that couldn’t have been what Auld Donell meant by his suggestion.
“Woot’s a telly?” The young lad still by her side gaped up at her revealing a pair of missing front teeth. “And I still dinnae ken what fu—”
“Wheesht, lad.” Finn hushed the child with a fierce scowl.
The boy’s face fell into a similar frown. “But Da, ye always said curios—”
“Wheesht!” The man slashed an impatient hand downward.
“But Da—”
“Wheesht, I say!”
Aila sighed at the clash of male wills. “If I might—”
That hand sliced the air again. “I saidwheesht!”
A righteous burn of offense washed away Aila’s star-struck awe. She pierced him with a scowl of her own. “Did ye just shush me? For real?”
To his credit, for a passing moment Finn appeared shame-faced by the deed. Most like, his impatience with his inquisitive child had boiled to the surface and he hadn’t intended to include her in his exasperation. In her experience, men said and did many things they didn’t intend. She might have let it pass if she hadn’t been shushed just so by another arrogant man recently enough for the reprimand to sting. If the humiliation of being schooled like a child didn’t still burn in her heart.
“Mayhap if ye guarded yer tongue…”
“Guardmytongue?” The sarcasm began to flow as she interrupted before he had the opportunity to somehow justify himself. She took a step toward him, glaring up — aye, up. Way up.Och, but he was a mountain of a man…. Nay, she wouldn’t allow his magnetism to sidetrack her. “Who are ye to censure me on the words I choose to employ, may I ask? I dinnae need some arse of a man telling me what to do.”
Aila bit her lip, her face afire. Displacement, her therapist would have called it. Blaming all men for the sins of one.
The man’s eyes snapped with anger. He bent his head until they were practically nose to nose. “The bairns dinnae need to be hearing —”
“I wisnae talking to them. I dinnae even ken they were there.”
“Then who were ye talking to?” His scowl deepened at her silence. A low growl rumbled from deep within Rab’s throat bore a distinctdon’t talk to my human like thatvibe. “There’s nae one else about.”
“She might’ve been talking to the pup, Da.” This from the little girl. Rab’s grumble ceased as he panted merrily at the child.
Da? This cranky, smoldering man had fathered these two sweet children? Their mother must have been an angel to provide balance to the gene pool.
“Och, she isnae talking to the dog, Effie. She’d have to be off her heid to think he’d understand,” the boy said.
All eyes on her, that frisson of apprehension that had been washed away by this man returned. Aila recalled where she was.Whenshe was. In her time, one might be called a variety of names. Witch, bitch, or worse. However, she’d watched enough television to know there were two things people never made light of in the ancient times.
Witchery and madness.
If the truth were known, in their eyes, she’d be guilty of both.
Ten minutes in and she was faltering. She didn’t like the feeling. She hadn’t liked it when her relationship with her mother toppled. She’d hated it when she and Kyle had fallen apart. Bugger it, she was better than this.
“Of course, I wisnae talking to the dog.” Aila squared her shoulders as far as the heavy trunk would allow and met Finn’s skeptical gaze straight on. Though the heat in his eyes was not at all sensual, his impact had that effect. She felt it to her toes and reminded herself about his angelic wife out there somewhere. “I was merely talking to myself,” she managed. “As one does.”
