Duncan was watching with growing amusement as she attempted again. The branch swayed gently above her hand, utterly indifferent to her efforts.
“Dae ye need help?” he asked.
Without turning, she answered at once. “Nay, thank ye.”
She shifted her position beneath the tree, eyeing the branches for another cluster that might hang lower. Duncan raised an eyebrow.
“Are ye certain?”
Elaina nodded absently, still studying the blossoms.
“I’ll manage.”
She reached again. The flowers remained stubbornly out of reach.
“We must gather them early,” she added, still not looking at him. “Before the sun grows too strong.”
Duncan bit back a smile. The branch wobbled slightly as she made another attempt. He pushed himself away from the horse.
“Well,” he said lightly, “if we wait fer ye tae reach them, we may be here until nightfall.”
She turned then, fixing him with a narrow look.
“I had nearly reached them.”
“Nearly is nae the same as actually,” he pointed out with a smirk.
Elaina made another determined attempt, stretching toward the blossoms with stubborn persistence. Her fingers brushed the lowest cluster for a brief moment, but then the branch swayed back again, just out of reach. Duncan folded his arms, watching her struggle with growing amusement. She shifted her footing, rose onto her toes again, and reached higher. Still nothing.
For a moment he let it continue. Not out of cruelty, though he suspected she might accuse him of that, but because the sight of her determination was strangely captivating. Then, he approached her.
“Stand still,” he said.
Elaina did not turn. “I am perfectly capable?—”
Duncan stepped behind her. Then, without further warning, he placed his hands firmly around her waist. Her reaction was immediate. Her entire body went rigid.
“What on earth?—”
The protest cut off in a startled gasp, because Duncan had already lifted her, quite effortlessly so. One moment she had been standing on the forest floor, the next she was suddenly several feet higher, the world shifting beneath her as he swung her up toward the low branch of the hawthorn.
“Reach,” he said calmly.
For a heartbeat Elaina simply stared in stunned silence. Then instinct took over.
“Och…”
She grabbed the nearest cluster of blossoms at once, plucking them quickly before the branch could sway again. A second cluster followed, then a third, her fingers moving hastily now, as though she feared he might lower her at any moment.
“That should be enough,” she said breathlessly.
“Good.”
Duncan lowered her carefully back to the ground. Her boots touched the forest floor again with a soft thud. For a breathless moment, she did not move. Then she turned to face him. Her eyes were wide. Her cheeks had flushed a deep, unmistakable shade of pink, and her nostrils flared slightly as she drew in a sharp breath. She looked thoroughly flustered.
And Duncan found, rather inconveniently, that she had never looked lovelier.
She stared up at him.
