“Meet me tomorrow and we’ll talk about it.” Colla’s breathing grew harsh as he rubbed his thumb over her nipple. This was taking longer than she’danticipated.
“The only place we’ll be safe is at my brother’s castle on Skye,” she said and removed his hand from her breast. “My brother is chieftain of my clan and would welcome us.”
Connor damned well better welcome her, after all she’d been through.
“Ye would take me as your new husband?” Colla asked. “My heart has been yours for years, but I didn’t dare hope ye would consider marrying me.”
Colla may have convinced himself that his heart was engaged, but Moira knew precisely what part of him he hoped to engage with her. And, typical man, he did not even notice that she had failed to answer his question.
“I won’t be parted from my son.” She folded her arms beneath her breasts to draw his attention to them.
“Ach, I don’t know about taking a man’s child from him…”
“I will not go without Ragnall,” she said.
Colla dragged his gaze from her breasts to her face. “Whatever ye want, Moira.”
She let her breath out slowly. This time, when Colla pulled her into his arms, she gritted her teeth and let him for a moment.
“I must wait for an opportunity,” she said, leaning back from him. “Ye cannot tell a soul. Sean is a dangerous man.”
“Ach, I’m no afraid of Sean,” Colla said, puffing out his chest. “I’m willing to fight him for ye.”
Men.She had told him that to make him cautious, not to prick his pride. She cupped his jaw with her hand and smiled up at him. “Please. I don’t want a fight.”
“All right,” he said.
Panic rose in her throat when Colla crushed her against him. She felt cold and clammy as he began running his hands over her.
“I must go before Sean sends someone looking for me.” Feigning reluctance, she eased him away. “We’ll have all the time we want once we are away from here.”
“How will I know when and where to meet you?” Colla asked.
“When I wear my dark red gown, that means I will try to get away that night,” she said. “Ye know where the old wooden fort is?”
“Aye.”
“I’ll meet ye there at midnight.”
Chapter 5
I’ll leave for Ireland in the morning,” Duncan said.
He and Connor were sitting alone having a last drink. Alex had taken Teàrlag home to her cow, and Ian had gone home to Sìleas and their babies. After all the commotion earlier, the hall had settled down to a quiet hum of voices.
“The winter storms are still upon us,” Connor said. “Wait another month or two.”
“After what Teàrlag said, ye know I can’t,” Duncan said.
“The meaning of Teàrlag’s vision wasn’t clear, and she’s getting old and confused,” Connor said. “I expect you’ll find that all is well with Moira.”
For all Duncan’s years of misery, his one consolation had been that he had done the right thing in leaving. He had believed that Moira would wed a chieftain and have the kind of life that would make her happy—the kind that he could never give her. A thousand times he had imagined her as mistress of a fine castle, with servants, jewels, and pretty gowns. And in his mind’s eye, she had always been smiling and laughing.
If he had been wrong and he had made the sacrifice for nothing, he could not bear it.
“All the same, I’ll be going in the morning,” Duncan said, looking into his cup.
Duncan’s affair with Moira was the only secret he had ever kept from Connor. Ian had been at court in Stirling that summer, so he had not known of it, either. But Alex had been around Dunscaith and, being Alex, had guessed what was going on between Duncan and Moira long before Connor’s father did.
