“I am yer Laird, as ye have reminded me. I could simply order ye to allow it.”
“Why?” Hannah demanded on a sharp exhale, turning to stare up at him with the heavy wool garment in her hands.
“Because…” The challenge in his voice was obvious, and she felt the heat in her belly grow as his intense gaze met hers. “… if I daenae take ye to yer home, I’ll be takin’ ye to mine.”
7
When she bit down on the lip he had very nearly claimed moments ago, Aiden cleared his throat and grabbed the whiskey bottle from the side table, holding it out to her.
Her little white teeth still sunk into her lower lip. When she released it, there was a sheen of moisture left behind. He imagined tracing it with his tongue, and heat tightened in his gut.
“I’ll entrust this to yer capable hands as I see ye home.”
Nobody had ever accused him of being a gentleman, but he also wasn’t a common rake and wasn’t going to snatch up a lass in some back room just because she had a flush in her cheeks that suggested she wasn’t quite as indifferent to him as she’d been pretending.
“Aye.” She took the bottle from his hand and looked around, making him realize he hadn’t returned her satchel.
He turned and scooped it up from beside the door where he’d tossed it earlier, then offered it to her. Hannah took it from him and secured it across her body, before sliding the whiskey bottle carefully back within.
“I’ll see to it that it survives a ride on that beast ye call a horse.”
Aiden gasped in mock horror. “Ye hold yer tongue. Me Liath is naught but pure majesty.”
Hannah snorted as she pinned her cloak into place and looked up at him. “It’s twice the size of me horse.”
“Yerpony,” Aiden corrected, unable to help returning her smile with his own. “Ye’ll note I’m twice yer size.”
He received a full once over, feeling it in his bones in a way he hadn’t when they’d first met, as if it was the first time she’d really taken in his size.
He knew that was impossible. The lass was over a head shorter than him. There was no way she hadn’t noticed it. Still, he indulged her playacting and held his arms out to the side for her examination.
After a moment, she waved a hand at him. “I suppose.”
He chuckled despite himself and turned, straightening his plaid. “Aye, well, ye’ll see when ye’re astride her with yer eyes open this time.”
He heard her soft answering chuckle behind him as he strode to the door and opened it, then stepped to the side and gestured. Again, nobody could accuse him of being a gentleman, but his mother hadn’t forgotten to teach him basic manners.
Hannah glanced up at him as she passed by, and he saw a mix of caution and amusement on her face. It was a nice change from the terror he’d seen there earlier that evening.
Aiden followed her down the hall and back to the front room, where the innkeeper’s wife sat beside the fire with a bundle of wool at her feet and a wooden dealgan in her hand. As soon as she heard their footsteps, she looked up from where she was spinning the wool into yarn and scrambled to her feet with a curtsey, the wooden drop spindle clattering to the floor.
“Me Laird, do ye need somethin’?” she asked immediately, blue eyes wide in a pale face and wisps of blonde curls peeking out from beneath her cap.
“Nay, mistress. Please, be careful of yer work,” Aiden reassured her. “Me companion feels much improved by yer soup, and I’ll be settling up with ye for the use of the room.”
He reached into his sporran, withdrew a silver coin, and offered it to the woman, who studiously kept her gaze diverted. He noticed she hadn’t grabbed the spindle from where it had fallenand chose not to bring attention to it twice. He knew he was intimidating, so there was no need to spook the old woman any more than she had already done for herself.
“Oh!” She looked up and down again, and held her hands out in front of her. “Nay, me Laird, ye were here so briefly, I willnae take yer coin.”
“I’ll hear none of that,” Aiden replied firmly, a flare of heat in his chest pushing him forward. He grasped the woman’s right hand and pressed the coin into her palm. “I took up the space, I pay for it and yer food like anyone else.”
The woman looked at the coin in her palm, which was surely more than she’d have charged for the room and the dinner in the first place.
Aiden didn’t find himself concerned by such a thing. He saw no benefit to himself or anyone else in being stingy when he had enough, and the extra money could inspire the innkeepers to keep their silence regarding his presence with an unknown young woman, unchaperoned, in a room under their roof.
Before she could start trying to puzzle out how to provide change, he closed her fingers around the small coin. “For yer trouble, mistress.”
She met his gaze for a split second and then nodded her head, and he let her retreat from his hold. “I’ll see to yer horse, Laird MacBain,” she said breathlessly.
