“I can help you.” The confusion was gone, her eyes clear and determined.
“There’s naught you can do, lass. Now away with you. I’ve hours in the saddle and I’m tired and hungry.” Tired, hungry and at a complete loss as to how he’d save their animals. The new sheep was diseased. Within the next few weeks, more would fall prey to the crippling affliction. If they lost the flocks, it would mean hard, desperate times for Dun Ard and their people.
He had enough to worry about without adding on Ellie’s look of disappointment when he’d declined her help. He refused to accept responsibility for failing to meet the expectations of yet another woman and he turned his back, heading for the stairway to the keep. At this moment he only wanted to escape her and her reproachful gaze.
“You hold it right there, cowboy.” Ellie caught up with him and grabbed a handful of his sleeve, jerking his arm back. “Don’t you walk away from what I’m offering you without even thinking about it.”
Cowboy? Again with the names he didn’t understand.
“I can help you.” She repeated the words, slowly, distinctly, as if she thought he hadn’t understood. She leaned in closer to him and lowered her voice. “This is something I have some experience with, Caden. I worked with a vet back home.”
A vet? He didn’t have the time or the energy for trying to figure out what she was talking about this time.
He glanced pointedly at her hand before untangling her fingers and pulling his sleeve from her grasp. “Verra well, Elliedenton. I’ve thought about yer offer, and now I’m declining it. Go find someone else to harass.”
Again he turned from her, and made it all the way to the first stair before she called out after him.
“Don’t you make me go tell your mama how stupid you’re being.”
Caden’s back stiffened, his foot on the second stair before he turned, his face a dark scowl. “Are you threatening me?”
Uh-oh.
If that look meant anything, the man was angry. One big, strong, gorgeous highlander, pissed as hell, and headed right for her.
Ellie swallowed hard but held her ground. She wasn’t backing down on this one. He needed her help and he was going to get it whether he wanted it or not.
“Not threatening. Promising.” She smiled up at him, but had to work at keeping the smile in place as he stalked toward her.
He moved in close, invading her personal space, towering over her, and she fought the urge to lift a hand to his chest to push him away. Or to wrap her fingers in the cloth of his shirt and pull him the extra couple of inches it would take to bring those full lips down to where she could…
Stop it! The reedy voice floated into her thoughts, jerking her back to reality. No time for dream pictures. Big One angry.
At her feet, Missy growled menacingly.
The dog was right. She needed to stay focused.
“I’ll no have you bothering Lady Rosalyn, do you ken? She’s enough worries on her as it is.” His eyes narrowed as he spoke, his dark lashes sweeping down over them.
“Then don’t you go giving her more to worry about. I know sheep, Caden. I’ve lived my whole life on a sheep ranch. Please. Trust me on this. If your sheep are sick, there’s a good chance I can help you figure out how to get them better.”
She clenched her muscles to resist the need to fidget under the strength of his glare until finally he sighed and looked up to the sky.
“I canna believe I’m going to say this. Give me time to gather something to eat on the trail and then I’ll take you up to see the sheep. But yer beasties stay here. I’m no dragging that menace along to badger my poor animals.” He pointed down at Missy and shook his head. “I’m sure I’m going to regret this.”
“No. You won’t, Caden. I promise.” She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a quick hug, letting go instantly when she felt him stiffen. “You go get our horses ready and I’ll go grab some lunch for you.”
Running toward the keep with Missy at her heels, she glanced back to find Caden still staring after her. “Go on!” she yelled.
As she entered the keep it occurred to her that maybe Rosalyn had been wrong. Maybe she hadn’t been sent here to find her true love at all. Maybe the reason she was here was to do this exact thing—help these people save their livelihood. And once she completed the task, she could get home and deal with the mess waiting for her there.
That had to be it.
Regardless, she fully intended to see to it that not only would Caden not regret what he was about to do, but one day he would count taking her out to see his sheep among the smartest things he’d ever done.
“It’s bad, is it no?” Caden stared at her over the wiggling body of the ewe lying on the damp ground between them, his dark eyes serious.
She nodded her agreement, her mind racing for what she could do to prevent the catastrophe he feared. The animal under her hands had made its pain clear to her in no uncertain terms the moment they had arrived. She had known immediately to check the ewe’s front hooves.
Other sheep milled about them, one particularly friendly old ewe pressing her runny nose to Ellie’s shoulder. But she wasn’t getting anything from their minds, no thoughts, no pictures, nothing that would indicate they suffered any pain, so perhaps all wasn’t lost.
Still, this wasn’t good. If she were at home, she could run into town and pick up what she needed to treat them. But here? There would be no vaccines, no pre-packaged bags of zinc sulfate for sterilizing footbaths. If she could just remember what old Doc Lambert had said when he’d rambled on about the ancient history of treatment for sheep.
Caden released his hold on the animal and the ewe scrambled to her feet, limping away.
“Have you seen the like of this before?” He remained on his knees beside Ellie, his hands stroking another of the sheep that had wandered to his side.
“Yeah, I have. I won’t lie to you, Caden. It’s a serious problem. We call it foot rot in my time, and if we were there I’d call the vet to come out and treat these animals.”
“Vet?” His eyes crinkled at the corners in the most adorable look of confusion.
She struggled to focus on the task at hand. Not on him.
“Veterinarian. A person who treats animal diseases. I was studying to be one myself.” Ellie felt her heart skip a beat at the look of approval Caden cast her way.
“Well, we’ve no vets here.” He rolled the word on his tongue as if tasting it. “Any ideas?”
“As a matter of fact, I do have a couple. It’s a real good thing you keep the animals all broken into smaller flocks. It’ll make it easier to contain this outbreak. First off, we have to keep all the others away from this place and these sheep. Once we figure out a way to treat them, we’ll want to wait a good two weeks or so before we allow other animals near this pasture.”
Caden nodded, giving her his full attention. “Two weeks?”
“Yep. At least fourteen days. Maybe a bit longer for safety’s sake. You’re sure this particular ewe is new to the flock?” Perhaps it wasn’t too late.
Again he nodded his response. “Steafan and Gilberd were in Inverness for supplies. Gilberd got himself into a game of chance and came away winner. And there stands his winnings.” Caden pointed at the infected animal.
“We need to check every hoof in this whole group, one at a time.” Ellie rose to her knees to attempt a head count.
“Twelve. We’ve twelve more here but it’s growing late. We’re likely to lose the sunlight before we finish.”
Ellie pushed up to her feet and reached a hand down to Caden. “Okay, then, we better get up and get a move on if you’re going to wrestle us twelve sheep before sundown.”
It felt like they’d been at this for hours, especially now that the wind had picked up.
“I sure hope your mama doesn’t mind that I’ve ruined this dress.” Ellie tore one last strip of cloth from her skirt and handed it to Caden as he held another sheep to the ground.
“D
inna fash yerself over the damage to yer shift, lass. It was a good idea you had to mark the animals so we could tell which one’s we’d already checked.” She had amazed him all afternoon, pitching in and helping, proving she actually knew of what she spoke.
Working together, they tied the strip of cloth around the animal’s front right leg and then checked her hooves. By the time they finished, a splattering rain had begun to fall.
“Well, crap. Isn’t this just what we needed?” Ellie rose, her hand above her eyes to deflect the fat raindrops.
The first jagged bolt of lightning split through the evening sky followed by a small rumble in the clouds.
They couldn’t stay out in this.
Caden grabbed Ellie’s arm, pulling her along with him to the cramped shelter of a rocky overhang. “We’ll wait out the storm here. I’ve no a problem riding home in the rain, even in the dark, but I’ve no fancy to be caught by the lightning.”
A most unladylike snort escaped from Ellie as she edged next to him. “Yeah. You especially want to watch out for the green kind.”
A shiver ran through her body and he pulled her closer, lifting the plaid from his shoulder and wrapping it around her as he did so.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“Are you warm enough? Yer legs are shaking a bit.”
“No, I mean, yes,” she stammered. “I’m warm enough. I’m just tired.”
He should have thought of that. She’d worked hard for the last several hours, chasing down the sheep, helping to wrestle them to the ground and inspecting their hooves for any signs of the infection, as she’d called it.
“It doesn’t look to be letting up anytime soon, so why don’t we sit to wait. There’s room if we press back against the rock.”
They rearranged themselves and he once again wrapped the end of his plaid, and his arm, around her shoulders. The heat from her seeped into his body where her face lay cushioned against his chest, and he involuntarily tightened his embrace until the full warmth of her body pressed up against the side of his own. Only to protect her from the cold, nothing more.
He wondered how she kept from covering her ears to block the infernal thumping outside their shelter until he realized the pounding that assaulted his hearing didn’t come from outside. Instead it was the sound of his own blood drumming against his ears, keeping time with his racing heart.
Could she hear it? He cleared his throat, anything to make noise, just in case. At the sound she jumped, lifting her head and jerking her hand from his chest where it had rested.
“I…I hope somebody lets the dogs inside. Missy doesn’t like storms. They frighten her.”
Dogs? Inside? His mind scrambled to catch up.
“And how would you be knowing that?”
She fidgeted next to him and he tightened his arm around her, again drawing her close against him.
“I just do,” she murmured at last.
“When we visited the old castle, you told me the wee beastie spoke to you. Was that the truth?” He paused for her response, but when none came he asked the question he’d wondered about earlier today. “Was it that which led you straight to the afflicted animal when we arrived here? I’d told you nothing to help you pick her out and yet you found her out of all the others. Straight to her and her one damaged hoof at that.”
Ellie sighed and nodded, a small, jerky movement, barely perceptible, but she wouldn’t look at him. “Animals are sensitive to our thoughts and emotions. I know it sounds crazy, but somehow I pick up on theirs, too. I see pictures and hear words so that it’s like they’re talking to me inside my head.”
He placed a finger under her chin and turned her face so he could look into her eyes. In what was left of the fading light they looked like large, frightened gems of green floating in the pale sea of her soft white face.
“You’ve no reason to deny the gifts of yer Fae heritage. No here. No with me.”
She smiled then—only a tiny uplifting of the corners of her mouth, but a smile nonetheless.
“Thank you, Caden. You can’t imagine what it means to me to have someone know about this and…and just accept it. Like it’s normal or something.” She lifted her hand to his face, the chill of her fingers cooling against the heat of his skin. “And I want you to know, I will think of something we can do to keep you from losing all these animals. I swear it.”
As if possessed by a force he couldn’t deny, he lowered his head until his lips touched hers. A soft gentle touch that, he told himself, was only meant to comfort, to reassure. But when her eyes fluttered shut and the hand on his cheek slid around the back of his neck, her fingers twining in his hair, the kiss deepened, as if the moment had taken on a life of its own.
The soft lips meeting his parted and his tongue, against his will, darted inside, tasting the sweetness that was the woman in his arms.
She moaned and pressed against him, her tongue swirling around his own, and he felt himself drowning in visions of taking her. Here. Now. Visions of her under him, wanting him as much as he wanted…
Caden grabbed her hand and pulled it from his neck, lifting his head and breaking the kiss.
Outside their shelter the rain had died off, the storm passed over.
Inside, he felt the storm rage on, the only sound that of their heavy breathing.
“We should go.”
“Right. Right,” she answered, scrambling away from him and out into the night.
By the Fates, what she must think of him! The woman was to be family, as soon as one of his brain-dead brothers claimed her, and here he’d been sprawled upon her, thinking thoughts he never should about another man’s betrothed. Especially the betrothed of his own kin.
What was wrong with him? Hadn’t he taken enough from his brothers already? And if that didn’t stop him, the memory of what had happened with Alycie should. His blind acceptance of her had very nearly cost the lives of those dear to him.
All because he was so centered on himself, on what he expected, what he had taken for granted, that he’d failed to recognize what was actually in the hearts of those around him.
There were good reasons he’d chosen to devote his life to Dun Ard, forsaking all emotional entanglements. Unfortunately, around this particular woman, he seemed to have difficulty remembering what they were.
Bringing Ellie out here alone had to be the stupidest thing he’d ever done.
Thirteen
So much for those earlier altruistic thoughts of being sent here to save some stupid sheep. So much for denying her desires for any man.
Ellie tightened her grip on the reins, grateful for the dark of the cloudy night they rode through on their way back to Dun Ard. Thank goodness Caden couldn’t see her flaming face.
Wasn’t she just a fool from here to Sunday, kissing him like that? If he hadn’t stopped things when he did, who knows what might have happened next?
Ellie had a pretty good idea.
She shook her head, trying to push away the memories of that kiss and the raw desire still rumbling around inside her body.
You don’t suppose he could be the one?
No, no, no. She wouldn’t let herself even consider the possibility. If she actually were here to find her one true love, he certainly would not end up being some overbearing, medieval macho sheepherder. She’d had her fill of those back home.
“Damn straight,” she muttered out loud, needing to reassure herself.
“Pardon?” Caden reined his horse closer to hers. “Did you say something?”
Crap.
“Just…um…thinking. About the sheep. Yeah. About the sheep and what we can do for them.” That’s what she needed to do. Focus on something important. Something not Caden MacAlister.
“And?”
He expected an answer now? A response when he rode so close his leg actually brushed against hers?
Think, think, think.
“Well, we need something to kill the infection. To sterilize their feet. I know there’s some
thing. I remember Doc Lambert, the vet I worked with, talking about it. Just give me some time. It’ll come to me.”
If she could concentrate on the problem and not on him, that is. She pulled on her reins, giving herself a little distance from him.
She so had to get home.
“Riders at the gate!”
The cry echoed faintly ahead of them, their journey almost at an end as they drew near the gaping black opening in the wall of Dun Ard.
A head appeared over the side of the great wall above them. “Open the gates!” The words rang out as they waited while the massive grates were drawn up, allowing them access to the courtyard.
They came to a halt when they reached the stairs and Caden dismounted. Within the blink of an eye, he was at her side, his large hands fastened around her waist, lifting her down to the ground.
At his touch, Ellie’s breath caught and the feelings she had pushed away came rushing back. She had to force herself to step away from him.
This wasn’t good. Perhaps she was simply tired.
A young boy, looking as though he’d just tumbled out of a sound sleep, appeared out of the dark and led their horses away while she and Caden trudged up the stairs.
Caden pushed open the massive door and she edged past him, careful to avoid allowing her body to touch his, not sure she could endure that touch without embarrassing herself. Again.
Across the torch-lit entry toward the stairs she hurried, her only thought to escape to her room.
But escape wasn’t in the cards for the moment.
A sleep-rumpled Andrew stepped down onto the bottom stair, blocking her path. Wearing only his hastily wrapped plaid, his bare chest glinted in the flickering of the torches.
Ellie gasped and stepped back into Caden, unsure if she was more unsettled by the look of anger on the man’s face or the silvery scar, jaggedly cutting a path that began at Andrew’s shoulder and disappeared beneath the waist of his plaid.
“And where the hell have you two been?”
A Highlander of Her Own Page 10