Page 49 of Seduction in a Kilt

As soon as she awoke the next morning, Ivy slipped out of the bed and crept over to the connecting door. She opened it quietly and peeked inside Liam’s room. It was empty, and the bed was neatly made. She could not tell if he had even come back and slept there or not.

Her fingers went to her lips and traced the shape of them, the place where his mouth had covered hers and showed her what it was to know passion, lighting a flame inside her with his kiss. Even now, it seemed like a dream.

One which started off beautifully and then turned sour, she thought, recalling how the tender moment had been followed by his slighting words. It disturbed her to acknowledge that even now, they stung. It was a mistake.

With a sigh of despondency, she decided she had better put the whole incident out of her mind. As she washed and dressed and combed her hair, she wondered if this would be the day when her future would finally be decided by the men who controlled her life. How soon before I havetae say goodbye tae Castle Stewart and Liam fer good?

Despite her growing feelings for Liam and the harsh way he had dismissed their encounter, her heart clenched painfully to think of leaving him. She wished she could make him and Laird Stewart understand what they would be sending her back to, knowing she would have to endure her brother’s brutality once again. He would undoubtedly punish her harshly for spoiling his plans. However hard she tried not to think of it, the fear was always with her, ready to seize her at any moment and reduce her to a quivering wreck.

She could not decide which was worse, the prospect of Carson’s cruelty and violence or suffering Gael’s hideous attentions once she was forced to wed him. She pushed down her fears, along with the memory of the kiss, and tried to absorb herself in the task of preparing for the day instead. The best way she knew of distracting herself from her worries was keeping busy. That was why she had arranged to go and assist Effie with her patients in the infirmary that day.

As she prepared to leave the chamber, her mind drifted to her extraordinary meeting with the stranger in the grounds the night before. Even though just thinking about the man made her feel deeply uneasy, she knew she was going to go to the ruins of the chapel in the woods to meet him in two nights.

She resolved to do as he had instructed and tell no one. Especially not Liam. He had hurt her too much for her to confide in him about anything. If he knew, he would just interfere and likely ruin her chances of finding out what more the stranger had to tell her about her parents’ murders.

Shockingly, he had implied their deaths had been part of a larger plan, one that had been formulated close to home and not in some enemy clan’s stronghold, as she had always been led to believe. But what can it all mean? The only way to find out for sure was to follow his instructions to meet him.

In the infirmary, she toiled alongside Effie for hours, immersed in helping to clean and dress wounds, brew tea, treat fevers, and suchlike. But when late afternoon arrived without a sight of Liam, she started to wonder where he was and what was keeping him away. She knew he was very busy with training Knox’s men, but it was still very unusual for him not appear at some point during the day to check up on her.

Eventually, she began to suspect he was avoiding her, and she thought she knew the reason—the kiss. It annoyed her to think so. After all, he had been the one to initiate it, it had been him who had turned her world upside down by sweeping her off her feet with her first ever kiss. She decided that the only thing to do was to go and find him and force him to have it out with him.