Free FLAME ACROSS THE HIGHLANDS by Katherine Vickery Page B

he t ook a step back from her.  "Though to even contemplate loving you is madness.  I've let my dreams lead me on to treacherous ground."
    "Nae, ye haven't."  She hurried to reassure him.  "I've only been too shy to tell ye verbally that I feel the same about you."  Glenna's heart hammered so loudly in her breast that she could barely hear her own words.  Reaching out she clasped his h and, but Alastair pulled away.
    "It is a thing that canna be. The bard and the MacQuarie's daughter?  If I would but kiss ye the MacQuarie would hae my head. He would never approve of me."  Slumping his shoulders he started to turn away, but Glenna pulled at his cloak to stop him.
    "Being the seanachaidh is a noble calling, passed down from father to son as surely as my father's own honor.  How can ye then walk away?"  Tears of frustrated longing stung her eyes and she blinked them away.
    "Had yer father many sons he might grant a joining between us, but think, Glenna.  He has no heir.  He'll be wanting warriors, fighting men to wed his daughters.  He'll be wantin' his grandsons to be wielding clay'mors, no' plucking harp strings.  The MacQuaries are a noble lineage. Lachlan will no' be wantin' them to die out.  He'll be tyin' ye up wi' a MacDonald, MacKinnon, or MacGregor, distant members o' his own clan wi' the blood of kings in their veins.  No' a minstrel."
    "But ye are a MacKinnon. Ye've blood ties to ours. "
    "Aye, but my father was born on the wrong side o' the blanket.  The stain of bastard's blood taints my sire. Another reason yer father will no' gi' his permission for anything to pass between us."  He shrugged his shoulders, passing his hand through his hair to tame it's unruliness in the wind.
    "And so ye'll just gi' me up just like that?  Drench the fire before it's kindled?"  Glenna clucked he tongue in a rar e gesture of aggravation.  "Do I mean so little to ye then as that?  Perhaps then I should tell Brianna that I will go to the Campbell.  I had thought... I had hoped...."  She tried to blink back her tears, but this time they overwhelmed her, washing away her anger as the rolled down her cheeks in a torrent.  Sobbing, she covered her face with her hands.  He didn't care.  Not really.  He couldn't and act so resolved to their fate.  A caring man would fight to win her, not give up so easily.
    "Glenna, sweetling, dunna cry...! Please.  I canna stand to hear it.  I didna want to hurt ye, just to talk common sense.  Hinny...!"  Grasping her shoulders he pulled her towards him, drying her tears with his fingers.  "Come, cry no more."  With a mumbled imprecation he cupped her chin in his hand, bent his head, claiming her mouth in an ardent kiss. 
    What a strange sensation it was to feel his lips on hers, Glenna thought, but found it pleasingly stirring. She was giddy, conscious only of the warmth emanating from his male body.  Closing her eyes, she gave herself up to the titillating sensations that swept through her.  So this was what love was all about.  Reaching up, she wound her arms around his neck, holding him closer, never wanting to let go.  At last, however, Alastair pulled away.
    "O ch, it was heaven..."  The look in his eyes made her feel the depth of his desire, a desire that made her flush a brilliant shade of pink that clashed with her hair.  "Ye hae made me the envy of every man in the hall," he whispered in her ear.
    "And I the envy of every woman."  Jeanne's words came back to taunt her , but even so she smiled.  That bold miss would get little enough chance to claim the golden bard if she had her way.  "Come wi' me, Alastair.  We'll speak to my father now.” She tried to hide her own fear of her father, hoping he would not be as fiercesome as she supposed. “He has  other daughters to wed wi' his warriors.  Orianna is nearly of age and  Morgana holds promise of being lovely when she is grown.  And we'll hae Brianna on our side."  Shyness came back to claim her and