Gifts of Desire (11 page)

             
She couldn’t resist teasing him a bit,
as
was her nature. 
And
she wondered if he
even
knew how to smile. 
“
Because
you
don’t
trust me, or because
you
will punish me?”

             
“Aye, both”.
 

             
“Then I am truly a prisoner here?  Is my will no longer my own?  Will you never let me leave?”

             
Ceann regarded her for a moment.  “You are not a prisoner, exactly, but you are not free to leave either, unless you would care to enlighten me further.  Give me the name of someone who will vouch for you
r identity
.” 

             
She shook her head, and h
is lips pressed together in a thin line. 

             
“So be it.” 
He
turned and left the room, closing the door with just a little too much force.

             
Ella
sighed
.
  Enough with nettling the laird, for as
strangely compelling
as that might be, s
he had a task to accom
plish, and in truth she did not know how much time she had
to do so
.
 
Ceann
obviously didn’t relish the idea of having her around, though she couldn’t quite decide if it would be more to her advantage to
try to
beguile
him
into keeping her here
, or
to
be so unobtrusive he would forget she was
around
. 
The answer would no doubt come to her as she learned more ab
out
the man
.

             
She
bathed herself with the water and cloth left on the table, and quickly dressed, choosing what she deemed the most practical gown in the
small
assortment left to her. 
Apparently Tulloch had so much wealth, they kept a supply of spare clothing, since no one seemed to know where the blue gown she wore had come from, let alone these others.  Anyway, t
oday she would be attempting to search
a castle
for she knew not what
, and that n
o doubt called for practicality.
  She
had
already begun
with her own sparsely furnished chamber,
though she doubted very much
it held anything of importance
.  No
, she would most likely have to gain access to the laird’s study, or even his own chamber. 
And to gain access to his chamber… 
God, no Ella!  They would not have meant for you to use your body to find the treasure
…
  Would they?
  What if that was the only way? 
How she wished she knew exactly what she was looking for
!  She had only her Aunt
Esme
’s vague reassurances that she would be able to find it, and the other
women’s
hazy
ramblings about what they had foreseen and how everything hinged on the “great treasure” at Castle
Tulloch
.  Even they did not seem
to know
exactly
what the treasure was, or at least they weren’
t telling her if they did.
  One never knew.
One moment s
he had been out racing her stallion across the moor
, lost in her
many
daydreams, and the next she was being sent off on a
mysterious quest
. 
It was
odd, now that she looked back, how suddenly everything had come about.  And even Esme was acting a bit strange; there had been a sparkle of excitement in her eyes
as she helped Ella pack a few belongings.
I
f she had been yearning lately for a bit of adventure
in her life
, she certainly had gotten her wish.
  Though s
he did miss her home already.  The rambling old manor house where she had spent most of her childhood was all she had ever known, really.  A minor and ancient seat of the Clan McCrae, Mandaine was little known and little visited, isolated in a small valley, and surrounded by steep and mountainous terrain.  There was just enough flat land to race across… she hoped
again that
Malcolm was taking good care of her horse, Sindal. 
The
beautiful
white
stallion was a gift for her birthday last year, and one of her most valued possessions.
  
 

             
She finished riffling through the only trunk in the room
one more time
. 
As she could have guessed, i
t
still
held nothing but extra candles and linens. 
Of course there would be nothing of value in a guest chamber, but best to be thorough. 
With all the rooms and nooks and crannies
to be found in a
castle
of this size
, not to mention the grounds within the walls
, it could take weeks or even months to search everywhere. 
How did one go about searching an entire castle
,
and do so while being under
suspicion of
spying
?
As she pondered this dilemma yet again,
s
he
went to
the chamber
door
and found that
at least
she had not been locked in
after slipping out last night
; the door opened easily.   S
he was
mildly
surprised
that
there was no guard posted
outside her chamber
either
, but she did not doubt that she was being
watched
.

             
She
heaved a
si
gh
and started
quietly
down the hallway.  She had just begun, and already
she felt
entirely
deceitful
.  Why on earth had they chosen her to do this?  Surely someone with less of a conscious would have been the better choic
e.  Several people came
easily
to mind, s
uch as her
childhood
friend Flora.  There was
certainly
no one less
principled
than Flora
in all of the highlands
, she thought with a fond smile.

             
She could see by the light streaming into the hall that one of the doors near the end
of the corridor
stood open.  When she
reached it and
looked in,
she
caught her breath
at the sight of books, perhaps a hundred
of them, lining
a shelf
which soar
ed from floor to ceiling.
The shelf
flanked a grand window i
n the center of the far
wall
, which overlooked the loch and the mountain
s beyond.  Drawing in a reverent breath,
Ella
stepped into the room, and t
earing her eyes away from the spectacular view, she turn
ed her attention to the
small
library.
T
he room
itself was
extravagant
.  Rich carpets lined the floor, and the wood of the walls and trim was polished to a gleam.  But the books…
she had always loved books, had quite a few of her own at home. 
Well, five, but that was still
far
more than most people had. 
She brushed
her fingers
softly
across the volumes, eagerly reading their titles.  Could what she sought be a book?
  A volume of forgotten lore or
long lost magic? 
An enchanted
text, perhaps
? 
It certainly made sense, but
even
so,
it
would
take a while
to
find
among so many
, and how would she know which it was?
 
She began scanning the titles, occasionally pulling out a volume that caught her eye, before carefully replacing it. 
She was so
absorbed in her
investigation
that she didn’t
even
hear
Ceann
come up behind
her.  S
uddenly feeling that she was no longer alone,
Ella
turned around
and
gave a startled shriek
.
  Without thought, she struck
Ceann
’s
s
teely chest w
ith one small fist
.

             
“
Ow!”  She shook her now throbbing hand.  “
God,
you
scared me!
 
Don’t
do that!
”

             
Ceann
fought back a look of astonishment.  H
ad she really just hit him? 
No woman had ever hit him before, even thought he knew he had deserved it on more than one occasion
. 
Well, apart from Maggie
, but she had known him since he was a boy
, and he had deserved
it then,
too.
 
Ella
did not cower when he raged at
her;
she did not lower her eyes
when he met her gaze,
and
now she was beating him.
  It was….
fascinating
. 
Her spirit was like a wild thing he wanted to possess. 
He caught her fist as she raised it to pummel him a second time.  He thought for a moment
s
he
might have
tremble
d
at his touch, and he looked into her eyes
.
  No, there was no fear there.
 
Still holding her fist, he raised an eyebrow at her. 
“
Don’t
do what, lass? 
I’m laird
of Tulloch
;
I can do what
ever
I please.”

             
She exhaled, and gave him
a look of exasperation.  “
Don’t
sneak up behind me and scare me half to death.”
 
She pulled at her fist, and he released it, wary lest she try to use it on him again.

             
“Tell me then, what
you
are doing in
here
”.

             
She narrowed her eyes at him defiantly. 
She was so full of fire, and
Ceann
imagine
d
for just a
fleeting
moment that he could
have such a woman for his own,
be the one to tame her, to bend her t
o his will.
..
to…

             
“I
’m
looking at
you
r
books
.
  Where ever did you get so many?
”  She
tried but could not completely keep the awe out of her voice
.
  To have this many volumes in one place…
 

             
He shrugged.  “Most were my father’s.  He collected them. 
Some were his father’s before. 
Some are mine.”

             
“I love books.  Would
you
mind if I borrowed one?
  I mean, since I am not free to leave…
”

             
“
You
can read?
”
he asked, in what he hoped was a tone of indifference
.

             
She looked offended.  “Of course
I can read
.”

             
He had not really needed any proof, but here it was
;
she had unwittingly given him a clue
.  She was well-born, for
certain
. 
There were almost no commoners
in the highlands
who could read, and even
fewer
of them women. 
That fact made it all the less likely that he had found her on her own
for innocent reasons. 
If she could read, she could perhaps try to intercept his personal correspondence. 
Something was definitely afoot here, and he would find out what if he had to follow her
around every minute of the day, until she gave herself away with some misstep.  He leaned closer to
see
the title of the book she still held in her hand, but then
his nostrils flared as
he caught her scent, soft and sweet and womanly.
 
Heaven
. 
The world seemed to
swirl and
close in around him until
her nearness
was the only thing he was aware of. 
He could feel his heart pounding against the wall of his chest, and
in
that moment he
suddenly
could not think of one reason why he shouldn’t kiss her. 
He stared down at her up-turned face
, captivated
.  She returned his gaze, her blue eyes rimmed in dark lashes, her pink mouth looking
so
ft
and lush. 
His lips drifted inexorably towards hers.  He saw her eyes widen in surprise, then drift shut as her bre
ath hitched and her lips parted a little more.  Just one taste of her..
.
s
urely it was his right
as her captor
…
as
laird
. 
Lower, lower; he could not stop himself. 
His lips brushed lightly over hers, and the
jolt
of
heat and fire
that flared though his body
at the
soft
touch took his breath.
He knew his mistake in an
instant; he would never be the same.
  It would never be enough
…
the wanting of her would
surely
kill him.