Ella’s gaze went to the woman’s face. Of course, she had heard her thoughts. Her mind had nearly screamed them. She felt a blush come over her cheeks, and looked down at her feet.Your work here is far from done, she had said. The treasure she had yet to find, of course. And here her first thought had been of a man… she felt her blush deepen.She knew that lately, her quest seemed less important than it had when she’d first arrived, or at least less pressing. Instead, she had been making new friends and a new life where she shouldn’t be, and worse, falling for the Laird of Tulloch. Falling hard. She took a deep breath. “I know…I’ve been searching, but I haven’t found it yet. I won’t fail, I promise.I just need more time.”She paused. “And a clue as to what I’m actually looking for would perhaps make it easier…”
The old woman chuckled softly and pointed a gnarled finger at her. “Your problem is, you are looking for a physical object,notthe treasure you were told to seek. You have already found it child, you just have yet to realize it. We had thought it would be more obvious by now, but perhaps ‘tis too much a part of your nature to seek what is good for others yet deny yourself. We perchance hadn’t considered that your wills could both be so strong. ”
Ella wrinkled her brow. Why must the Elders always speak in such riddles? It was enough to drive one mad at times. Almost worse than Malcolm. Almost.She’d already found what? Had she had her hands on the very thing she sought and yet not known it? She certainly had thought herself more observant than that… Wait…not a physical object?
The old woman laughed at her bewildered expression and at her rambling thoughts.“You have done fine lass; the Auld ways run strong in your blood. I but meant that your eagerness to help others has blinded you to your own needs. To your own destiny, and that of yourone true mate. You have found the man you seek, but you still have much work to do to give him that which he himself needs, and that which you will create together.”
“The man?”Could it be that simple?“It’sCeannI’m here to find?” Ella looked disbelievingly at the old woman, her mouth gaping open, even as she realized in her very heart that it was true. It was what she had least expected, but secretly most wanted. Treasure, indeed! Her heart fluttered and then beat faster at the thought that she was now free to spend time with him without guilt plaguing her over it. But what treasure was she to give him?Herself?He didn’t seem to want her, or at least he didn’twantto want her. “But how do I… I mean, he pushes me away at every turn...”
The woman gave her a wry look. “Surely a lass as smart as yourself can break down the defenses of one mere man. Why, I myself could have done so when I was younger, and did.‘Tis not so difficult. Men are simple creatures, when it comes down to it.”
Ella bit her lip. “Aye, but I’m afraid I don’t have much experience in those things.”
“Och, you don’t need any, lass. It’s in your blood.You are a woman, made by Nature to join with a man. A woman can make a man weak with hunger, and then fill him up and make him whole. She can revel in her power over him, just as he revels in his power over her. You only need listen to what your body craves, to what your heart tells you to do.”
“I’ll try, but I don’t think that stubborn man will give in easily”, she said ruefully, studying her feet and trying not to imagine her humiliation if she went about trying to seduce Ceann and failed.
“You, child, are the one who can heal his heart, and make him whole. It is your calling to do so, as you have wanted to from the beginning. Let go of your doubts now and allow your heart lead your actions.The rewards will be greater than you can imagine, for the both of you.”
When Ella looked up again, the woman was gone. Whether she had slipped silently away into the trees, or had only been a vision, she didn’t know.Let your heart lead your actions…And what, then, did her heart tell her to do?She knew what her body wanted, and her heart… aye, itwanted exactly the same thing. She held a burning desire to possess the man she knew Ceann really was beneath the anger and the pain he clung to so tenaciously. And an even greater desire that he possess her. She began to pace along the narrow path, wondering if she would ever manage to break through to his heart .What she wouldn’t give to have the heart of such a man! She would have to go slow and gentle, as one would tame a wild beast, she mused. Lead him to eat out of her hand… and then...She giggled outloud, anticipation and hope churning in her blood.And her greatest burden had been lifted from her shoulders; no more searching the castle. She had nearly tripped on a tree root before she noticed how dark it had gotten. The other women would have noticed her missing by now and might be worried. She had best get back and help with the evening meal, before they sent someone looking for her. Lifting her skirts, she ran quickly back to the keep. For the first time since her arrival at Tulloch, she was not thinking of how she might rummage through the buttery unseen. She laughed as she ran, overcome with mirth and hope and thrilled tonight just to be alive. How long until she would know his kiss?
Ceann looked up from where he sat talking to Ethan as the door burst open.Ella came in, breathless and windblown, her cheeks pink and her eyes sparkling. The light from the candles above contoured her high cheekbones and finely sculpted nose. His own breath caught in his throat. She was beautiful,and God, how he wanted her.She lifted her skirts and ran across the hall, calling to one of the other women as she went.
“Elizabeth!I’m so sorry I’m late, I forgot the time.” Laughing and murmuring to one another, the two women disappeared into the kitchen together.
“Ceann?”
Too late, Ceann realized he had been staring after her like a fool.Damn.He turned back to Ethan. “Aye?”
Ethan grinned at him. “I was just saying how lovely Ella looks this evening… I wonder where she was, that made her late to help the otherwomen. It’s not like her, to be late to lend a hand. Come to think of it, where is Colin?I don’t think I’ve seen him all day.”
Even though he had a feeling, no, heknewEthan was only baiting him, the bloody bastard, Ceann couldn’t stop the rush of anger that flowed through him like a great river. The thought of Ella in a man’s arms, her cheeks rosy not from the night air, but from a stolen moment of passion… He couldn’t think. Rising too quickly from his chair so that it toppled over behind him, he turned toward the door and went out into the night.
Gregor raised an eyebrow at Ethan from his seat across the table, pointing a drumstick he was chewing on.“You keep at him like that, one of these times he’s going to break your face.”
Ethan gave him a sly smile.“I know it well, but someone has to harass the man. He can’t see what is right before him.” He tore a piece from a loaf of bread and reached for the dish of butter.“Oh no, he insists instead on needlessly torturing himself, like a bloody monk! The love of a good woman will make him a new man. Aye, he may even smile again one day, wait and see.”
Gregor snorted at that. “If you say so… I’ll believe that when I see it with my own two eyes.The laird can be as stubborn and hard-headed as any rock I’ve known. ”
Ella finished clearing food from the now abandoned tables, nearly running into Elizabeth on her way back into the kitchen. Elizabeth took the platter from her, her round cheeks curving up with a smile.
“Go! Off with you. Find that man that stalked out in a fit of jealous rage over you and do something about his foul temper, it would please all of us!”
Ella felt her mouth fall open at the other woman’s words.
Elizabeth smiled slyly.“Oh, come now!You think I can’t see the way you look at him, and the way he watches you?Ever since you arrived, he hasn’t been himself at all. Our laird hasn’t looked at any other woman that way, and believe me there are plenty here who have tried for his attention. But you, it’s like he wants nothing more than to throw you down on the floor and…”
“Elizabeth!”Ella chastened, but her hand flew to her mouth to cover her smile.Whateverhad gotten into the women around here lately? She hoped it was perhaps catching.
She found Ceann at last, sitting alone on the battlement wall overlooking the loch. The moon was full again, and she was surprised to think she had already been here a month. So much could change in one month’s time. Softly, she moved to stand behind him, her heart beating far too fast in her chest, trying hard to remember to breathe.Now she knew her task, or at least that it had to do with the beautiful man before her. He knew she was there, she could see his muscles tense ever so slightly, but he did not turn to look at her.
She folded her arms across her chest, shivering a little. “It’s chilly, with the breeze. What are you doing up here so late?”
His lips quirked in the shadow of a rueful smile. “The full moon always makes me restless”, he said.
She smiled. Those had been her words.His hair was loose, and the gentle wind blew it back from his face, so that the moonlight limned the strong angles of his jaw. His eyes held a far-away look. She sat down beside him, looking up at the heavens. “Have you ever tried wishing on a star? They say the wish comes true, sometimes.”
He scoffed, “Wishes on stars do not come true, and Lord knows I’ve tried.”
