Free Highland Song by Tanya Anne Crosby

Though just to be certain, you shall remain here... safe in our chamber... and you, the babe and my son will keep a guard at all times.”
     
     
     
    As planned, Gavin broke the news of his eminent departure to his brothers. No one seemed the least bit surprised, and neither were they disappointed.
    Clearly, the current arrangement was equally disconcerting to them all, though they did put up a token of a protest, reassuring him that the manor would always be his home—particularly during the long winters, when the chill winds seeped into every fiber of a mon’s bones.
    He’d been just about to tell them about Cat, but, for some reason, he kept that bit of information to himself—maybe so they wouldn’t feel like he was letting them off the hook so easily. Cat’s presence at the house was temporary anyway, and the winters indeed would grow long and cold. By then, surely Seana’s haggis would have improved by much and it comforted him to know he had a place to go.
    Although he wasn’t yet prepared to haul everything he owned out to the little house, he carted out a few supplies, and found himself surprised yet again.
    He wandered into the new house to find that Cat had built a small pit in the center of the room using stones. Peering up, he saw that she had allowed for the smoke’s escape through a small aperture in the ceiling. It was so skillfully done that he hadn’t noticed it before now.
    There were a number of half-burned unlit tapers in the room and the house smelled like beeswax candles and had the look of a cozy little hovel, even devoid of furniture as it was still. Once he brought his bed and built a few small conveniences, he would nearly be set.
    “ In the winter, you can place your kindling against the walls,” she said. “It’ll help keep the chill at bay.” He could see that she had constructed something like braces to keep piles of kindling secure against the walls.
    It was genius, of course, to have a double wall for insulation, though Gavin wasn’t particularly pleased to see that she was working her fingers to the bone—she must be; all this work didn’t magically happen.
    Not to mention the fact that he had never met a woman who did men’s work better than men did—far better than he did. He scratched his head, “Och, lass... I have no way to repay you for all this.”
    She smiled benevolently. “As you have said so eloquently... the gift of your company is quite enough, Gavin.”
    And so he had. For his part, he was just pleased to see that she had decided to remain for a few days.
    As for the matter of locating water, Cat fashioned a divining rod, and then set out to pace the area while Gavin following behind her, wondering how the devil she was going to discover well water without actually digging. In truth, he had heard of such a thing from his Grandminny Fia, but had never seen anyone actually do it.
    By early afternoon, she had divined a spot, bidding him to trust her, and Gavin did. Setting aside his doubts, he began to dig. He dug all day, and well into the next, and the next, not allowing Cat to help at all with this task—well, because, damn it, he was a man, and a man must do his part.
    He made her watch—and eat, since she seemed to like to do that—until his hole was deep enough for a body to stand in. All the while, she sat there above him, her legs dangling into the pit, chatting endlessly—an easy banter that he suspected hid more than it revealed.
    On the other hand, there were other things she seemed to have no qualms over revealing to him.
    God help him, if he were any other man, he might have reached up at any given moment and slid his thumb easily across her lovely bits.
    Even more appealing—damn his lusty soul—he could have buried his face between her thighs and drank from the well of her body.
    Instead, he shoveled furiously, saying nothing, trying to look beyond the lovely legs she tempted him with and those dark red curls. The longer he shoveled, and