Page 43 of A Dangerous Highland Affair

Before he knew what was happening, she was patting the front of the mare and leaping up onto her back.

“Ready then?” said Teasag, teasingly, indicating the space in front of her on the horse. Her smile beamed at him, but she didn’t mention the kiss.

Still half in a dream, Neacal meandered over to her, through the windswept landscape. Just at that moment, the wind saw fit to launch a crazy gust across the opened glen, and taking the parchment out of Teasag’s travel sack, thrust it violently across the field.

“Nae!” cried Neacal as the drawing sailed halfway across the lea.

“Noo!” yelped Teasag, her arms flapping. But she made no attempt to go after it. “Well, maybe it’s best the wind takes it…”

“Nae!” yelled Neacal madly. He leaped up into the air and took off after it. Behind him, on horseback, Teasag hid a smile as Neacal jumped across the field in his pursuit of the paper.

“Noo way, come on, Neacal, ye’ll nae get it,” said Teasag, at the sight of him running like crazy after the picture. But Neacal refused to give up. And even when it seemed as if all was lost, he suddenly chanced near to it.

“Hang tight,” said Neacal, jumping into the air. He swiped madly at the bough branches, which had ensnared the paper and succeeded in grasping the sheet, before returning it to Teasag.

“Thank ye,” she said simply, taking the scroll and rolling it back down into the knapsack. This time, making sure to fasten it properly. “But ye didnae have to…”

Neacal didn’t say anything more. He was out of breath but also embarrassed about everything that had happened. He didn’t know why, but something deep inside him stirred. Something he had never felt before.

His conscience. Something was telling him that he should leave this girl well alone. That it wasn’t fair to bring her into the madness that was his world.

And even if it was just a kiss, for any other lass, that might have been where it would stop.

But as Neacal looked into Teasag’s smiling eyes, he knew that he would never be able to stop at just one kiss.

He was in too deep already.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“O nly five more miles noo,” said Neacal, reading from the milestone as they rounded the winding road to Blackness. “We can stop for a while if ye like, to stretch yer legs or have a wee rest?”

Neacal turned his face to look at Teasag. They had been on the road for some time, and since leaving their makeshift camp, the conversation had waned.

For the last few miles, the silence between them had deepened, and Neacal feared that Teasag regretted their impromptu kiss.

The scent of her touch exploding on his lips had left its trace in Neacal’s system, and now he wanted so much more. But since then, not even the dry bones of a conversation had kept him going.

Having the girl so close, her pliant arms around his waist as she clung onto him tightly, yet he still didn’t know what was in her head. It was beginning to get to him.

Neacal looked unsurely to Teasag, again. She had not answered his question.

“Soo, then, stop here?” asked Neacal once more.

“What, no,” answered Teasag, finally looking distracted.

Neacal had noticed her staring on ahead, at the turn of the road, to where Blackness lay somewhere in the distance, swamped by mist.

Teasag turned her blonde head swiftly around, almost whipping Neacal’s face with her tangled locks.

“Och,” said Teasag, in mild annoyance, as she struggled to stop her hair blowing. “Keeping a caul or covering on a when it’s blowing a gale is impossible!”

“Nae fash,” said Neacal, genially. He didn’t mind being bashed about by Teasag’s hair, as softly he disentangled her golden locks from his face.

Despite her saying that she did not want to stop, Neacal had brought the mare to a slow trot to better speak to Teasag.

“Nae, I think we should hurry along,” added Teasag, a slight frown forming on her perfect brow. All Neacal could think about was kissing it away.

“I want to get there afore nightfall,” she said, chewing her lip thoughtfully.