Page 65 of Promised to the Forbidden Laird

Roy smiled. He felt it before he could stop it, broad and unfamiliar upon his face. The children laughed again as Bran stole the remaining carrot from the boy’s pocket and chewed it with shameless satisfaction.

Roy was still laughing when he sensed someone at the gate. Donaldina stood beyond the fence. She wore her dark green cloak, one hand resting on the open latch. Wind loosened strands of hair around her face. She had plainly come to seek him, yet she did not enter. She only watched.

His laughter faded. The smile left his mouth almost at once, his expression settling back into the calm reserve he knew how to wear.

Donaldina noticed the change. Something in her face softened and saddened together.

“There ye are,” she spoke.

Roy placed one hand upon Bran’s neck. “Was I required?”

“Hamish said I would find ye here.”

“That doesnae answer the question.”

“No,” she agreed. “It doesnae.”

The children continued feeding Bran, though more quietly now, sensing the alteration without understanding it. Donaldina’s gaze remained upon Roy. He felt strangely exposed beneath it.

She had seen his scars. She had held his hand beside Lachlan’s cairn. Yet being found laughing seemed somehow more intimate, as though she had discovered a portion of him he had not knowingly offered.

The little girl tugged at his sleeve. “Make him bow again.”

Roy looked down at her. Before he could answer, Donaldina entered the yard.

“I should like tae see that,” she said.

The children brightened. Roy regarded Bran. The stallion’s ears flattened, making his opinion of further performance plain.

Donaldina’s mouth curved. “Does he obey every command except when he possesses an audience?”

“He has spent too much time among lairds.”

Her smile deepened. Roy carefully set down the last piece of carrot. Bran bowed. The children cheered again, and Donaldina chuckled softly beside him. Roy no longer smiled, yet warmth lingered in his chest long after his expression faded. When he looked at her, he noticed she was still watching him, as if she had seen something worth remembering.

The children resumed their game as though Roy’s brief withdrawal into silence had never occurred. They crowded around Bran with handfuls of carrot and solemn instructions the stallion continued to ignore. The little girl bowed repeatedly before him, convinced courtesy might succeed where command had failed. Two boys argued over whose turn it was to hold the reins, though neither possessed the courage to take them from Roy’s hand.

Donaldina remained near the gate. She told herself she stayed because the children required watching. It had nothing to do with the smile she had seen upon Roy’s face.

That expression seemed impossible now. His features settled once more into their accustomed stillness, the scar along his jaw lending severity to a countenance already too practiced at concealing itself.

Yet, Donaldina had seen him laugh. The memory remained warm within her.

One of the younger boys, a narrow little lad called Iain, slipped away from the others while no one was watching. A chestnut mare had been tethered near the stable doors, still damp from exercise and restless beneath the unfamiliar noise. Iain approached her from behind, holding out a piece of carrot in one hand.

Donaldina saw him too late.

“Iain!”

The boy touched the mare’s hindquarter and the animal shied violently. Her rope snapped taut against the post. She screamed, a high, piercing sound that cut through the laughter. One foreleg struck the wooden rail as she twisted, and then she reared, with her hooves beating at the air.

Iain fell backward. His head struck the packed earth with a dull sound.

Everything seemed to happen at once. The children screamed. Bran tossed his head. A stable hand dropped the bucket he carried, water spreading dark across the straw.

Roy moved before any of them. He thrust Bran’s reins toward Donaldina without looking and crossed the yard in three strides.

The chestnut came down hard, her front hooves striking close enough to the fallen child that her heart stopped. She reared again as Roy stepped between them.