It was ridiculous. They barely knew each other and were from worlds so different they may as well come from different planets. So why did his presence light an ache beneath her ribs the like of which she’d never felt before? Not even Dennis had made her feel like this.Nobodyhad ever made her feel like this.
And it was terrifying.
“I… um… I think that’s enough strategy for one night.”
A faint smile curled his lips. “Aye. Cheating is hard work.”
She gave him a flat look. “I’ll ignore that.”
“Let me walk ye up.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. I want to.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
The keep was quiet as they made their way up the stairs to the guest wing although the sound of hammering rain could now be heard on the roof. Outside, the dog barked again and this time she heard the annoyed voice of one of the wall’s guards telling it to be quiet. A few candles burned in sconces, creating pools of candlelight amid the shadow.
She paused at the door to her room, one hand on the handle.
“Rose,” Cailean said softly behind her.
She turned and found him standing closer than she expected, so close that she could feel the warmth of him. So close that all she needed to do was go up on tiptoes and her lips would touch his.
He reached out and his fingers brushed hers where they rested on the door handle. It was a light touch, no more than the brush of a butterfly’s wing, but it was enough to intensify that ache beneath her ribs.
“Good night,” he said, his voice thick.
She swallowed. Nodded. “Good night, Cailean.”
He stepped back, his eyes lingering on her face, then turned and walked away. Only when he had disappeared from view did Rose turn the door handle and let herself into her room. She leaned back against the door, heart hammering. Against the back of her eyelids all she saw was Cailean’s face and the way he’d looked at her just now. Looked at her like he wanted to…
With an effort, she pushed the thoughts aside, crossed to the pitcher, and splashed cold water on her face. This trip into the past was not working out how she thought it would. Instead of a quick, easy healing, it was getting more complicated by the moment, and she could feel the knot tightening around her.
The sooner she went home the better. For all their sakes.
Chapter Eleven
“Everyone ready?” Caileanshouted, scanning the line of men spread out along the half collapsed wall of the barn. “We move it on three. One. Two. Three.”
He got his shoulder under a beam, and he and his men heaved upwards with all their strength. He felt his muscles straining, felt the veins standing out in his neck as it inched upwards until, finally, he and his men heaved the beam over and sent it crashing to the ground on the other side of the wall.
With a grunt, Cailean straightened, putting his hands on his hips and leaning back to stretch his aching muscles. It was still raining, cold, hard droplets that seemed determined to find their way down the back of his neck no matter what he did. He was soaked to the bone, his clothes clinging uncomfortably to his skin, and he kept having to shake his head to clear water from eyes.
Fine Barra weather, he thought wryly.
The storm that had threatened yesterday had finally broken in the early hours of the morning, thunder cracking so loudly that it woke him from sleep and lightning flashing so brightly that it lit the inside of the keep from end to end. He’d got up, checked on Catriona—who was busy trying to calm a terrified Patch—and then gone out into the lashing tempest to ensure there was no damage to the keep.
As it turned out, Dun Mallach escaped lightly, with only thethatched roof from a log store being ripped off, but the village had not been so lucky. At first light, several villagers had come to fetch him, and he and his men had hurried down the hill, taking in the damage as they went.
There was a lot. Roofs had been torn away. Fences had been toppled. Stores and belongings had been scattered everywhere. At first, as he surveyed the damage, Cailean had felt the cold hands of despair reaching into his soul. First the sickness, now this. Why were his people being punished so?
“All right,” he shouted, snapping back to the present. “Abe, Colin, Malcolm, see if ye can get some more of this debris shifted. Dougall, Cam, Sean, with me. We need to get that tree shifted from Old Seamus’s house.”
His men fell into step around him as he turned and walked uphill to where a fallen tree had crashed right through the middle of a house. Old Seamus, the house’s occupant, was sitting on an upturned barrel, looking slightly dazed. He was lucky to be alive. He’d stepped out of the house to take a piss right before the tree had toppled, otherwise, he’d have been crushed when it fell. Perhaps the old gods or the new had a soft spot for the querulous old man.
Cailean walked over and laid a hand on the man’s shoulder. “How are ye holding up?”
