Page 39 of Seduction in a Kilt

“I certainly dinnae feel guilty. I feel very good about it. They’ll get over it. In fact, that was one of the best things I’ve ever done in me life. I’m proud of us.”

“Aye, so am I,” Ivy replied, laughing softly. “I’m so glad ye feel the same way. Och, whatever happens tae me now, Liam, I’ll always remember this day as somethin’ special.”

“Aye, me too, Ivy.” She was surprised when she suddenly felt his fingers brush her hand. Reflexively, she grasped them and squeezed them in hers. The moment of closeness lingered for a few more moments.

“This is our secret tae keep forever, eh?” he finally said, letting go her hand and getting up to brush down his wet clothes.

The thought of them sharing a secret thrilled her. It implied trust. She got up too. “Aye, ours tae keep,” she answered, smiling back at him.

“We’d best make our way back downstream and find the others,” he said.

“All right,” she agreed. They clambered back down the steep incline, putting out a hand to help each other now and then, and set off back the way they had come. This time they kept to the banks of the burn as much as they could.

“Phew!” Ivy puffed after they had walked for what felt like an age. “I’m just grateful that this exercise is keepin’ me from freezin’ tae death.”

Liam laughed. “Well, dinnae get yer hopes up, but I think we’re gettin’ closer tae where we first saw the stag,” he said. They came to a halt, and when she looked around, she saw they had come to a slight curve where the burn turned eastward. “I recognize that burned tree over there,” he added and pointed across the water to the blackened skeleton leaning out from the opposite bank.

“So, we should have come out somewhere this way on our right?” she asked, scanning ahead in that direction for anything she remembered passing as they emerged from the trees to confront the stag. Nothing caught her eye, so she walked up the incline a little and turned back to look again, hoping for a better view.

It was as she happened to take a step to her left that she felt the ground open up beneath her feet, and she plummeted downwards, shrieking in terror, until her backside collided with something so hard it knocked the breath from her body and set her bones rattling.

Severely shaken, she screamed and then spluttered, finding her mouth was full of bits of grass and leaves. She spat them out and coughed. When she sat back and looked around her, she realized she was at the bottom of a pit, with smooth, steep walls of earth rising above her.

“Help!” she screamed. “Liam, help!”

“There’s nae need tae shout,” she heard him say, seconds before his face appeared over the edge of the pit. “I’m right here. I heard ye the first time.”

Relief flooded through her at the sight of him. “I fell down a hole or somethin’” she called up to him, struggling to her feet, still brushing off the debris of her fall.

“Ye dinnae say?”

“Well, are ye just gonnae look at me or are ye gonnae get me out?” She put her hands on her hips and looked up at him expectantly.

He sniffed and grinned at her. “I’m thinkin’ about it. Are ye hurt?”

“Just had the wind knocked out of me but that is all.” She rubbed her backside and added ruefully, “I think I’m gonnae have a hell of a bruise though.”

“I reckon ye will too. Ye’ll have tae sit on a cushion for the next few days,” he told her, chuckling.

“Liam!”

“Ach, come on then, gimme yer hand.” He reached his arm down, and they clasped each other’s hand around the wrist. “Ready?”

“Can ye hurry up?!”

“I’ll take that as an aye.” He slowly pulled her up, and when she got to the top, he put his hands on her waist, lifted her the rest of the way, then set her on her feet.

She looked up to thank him, and their eyes met. Suddenly, Ivy was all too aware of how close they were standing, the way their breaths were mingling. For all she knew there could be nothing between them, it did not stop the tingling sensations that rippled through her body at the feel of his large, warm hands upon her.

He released her and stepped away. “Are ye sure ye’re nae hurt? That was quite a fall,” he said solicitously, breaking the spell of the moment.

Ivy immediately felt the lack of his nearness, but she told herself it was for the best. However, one thing she had learned for certain from the incident was that she really could trust him with her life. She knew it was silly to care, but somehow, that meant an awful lot to her.