I twisted and fought my way out of my cocoon, then flew off the bed and sort of landed at the guy’s feet.
“Don’t freak out, but I’m going to kiss your boots.”
He dragged his feet away, then took two steps back. “Ye’ll do no such thing!” Then he said something I couldn’t understand at all, but growling and spitting were involved.
I shook my head, laughing, then looked up at his face. “You don’t understand. I really thought I had slipped, somehow, into another century! Either that, or I’d lost my mind.” I gestured around the room. “I combed through every little scrap of paper, every piece of dust, trying to prove—uh oh.” I swallowed hard. “You…you cleaned up.”
“Auch, aye. Ye left nothin’ unturned, did ye?”
“I’m sorry. I was going to put everything back where I got it, but…I got cold. And then I got tired. I planned to do it in the morning before whatshisname came back?—”
“What’s his?”
“Yeti-man. He said this house is his. Your brother, maybe?”
He straightened and cocked his jaw, then smiled. “I see. Come, now.” He went to the chair and pulled it away from the table. “Just sit here and I’ll serve ye some breakfast. And ye can tell me all about m’ brother, aye?”
I got off the floor and sat at the table. “Your coffee smells like heaven.”
“Grand, grand.”
I turned and looked at the shelves that I’d emptied. The books were all back in place, but the little wooden boxes, with their little trinkets safely inside them again, had been placed on top of the shelves, up against the ceiling, where I might not be able to reach them again.
I chuckled. “I see you’ve child-proofed the place.” I pointed to the pretty boxes and turned to see if he got the joke…just as a rope dropped over me and tightened around my shoulders. He pinned me to the chair, and when I lifted my hands to push the rope off, he grabbed both my hands, pulled them behind me, and had my wrists tied together so fast, I wondered if Scotland might hold professional rodeos.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Easy lass. Try to remember that it will be nigh impossible to eat or drink if I am driven to gag yer mooth.”
“A gag? Are you crazy—” I gasped when a cloth dangled in front of my face and slid along my cheek. I understood and shut up for as long as I could. After he returned to the stovetop and resumed his stirring, I had to ask. “Do I want to know why I’m tied up?”
“I shall allow ye to decide.”
“I…I do. I want to know.”
“Weel, I have questions. And I’ll not allow ye to run off until I have m’ answers. If ye intend to keep secrets from me, ye’ll wish ye hadnae.”
“Secrets? Buddy, I don’t know you. And if you knew me, you’d know that I have no secrets other than recipes, and if you’re after those, you can have them.”
“Recipes? Spells, ye mean?”
“Spells?” I laughed and choked at the same time, and the combination sounded like I was going to puke.
He shot a worried look in my direction, then went back to cooking and pulled long strips of ham out of the pan and onto two plates. When he opened the small cabinet, I froze. He’d see that someone had been eating his bread.
Sure enough, he turned with the small, quarter loaf in his hand, then scowled at me.
“Fine. Don’t blame your brother. It was me. I was starving. So sue me.”
His scowl eased into a simple frown. “Interesting. With the chance to fault another, ye accept the blame. Ye may yet live to see yer friends again, after all.”
He couldn’t know what a punch in the gut that was. I couldn’t think of a single friend I wanted to see again.
“I’d rather not, thanks,” I said under my breath. “I’d rather stay with the Yeti Brothers.”
CHAPTER TEN
Cian ignored her mutterings and poured two cups of the coffee before taking both, along with the plates, to the table. He stood over her, offered her a modest piece of a rasher, then strode out into the wind and snow to fetch a fat log he could use as a seat. When he returned, she hadn’t moved, but she was eyeing the mugs and biting her bottom lip.
