Free Highland Troth (Highland Talents Book 3) by Willa Blair

resist. Had her adventurous spirit from childhood become recklessness? Was all this a misguided attempt to have some say over her fate? She could not know what awaited her, when she had yet to meet her intended betrothed. Nay, her father had prepared her, he supposed. She would know his mind on this matter as well as her own.
    She dropped her hand back to her lap, and then met his gaze, pulling him out of his musings and back to the memory of the cat’s attack. “But she didna, thanks to ye.”
    “Twas fortunate I happened to be nearby.”
    The lift Catrin gave to her lips made less a smile and more a sheepish acknowledgment she had been searching for him. “Aye.”
    “Ye wished to speak to me.”
    “Aye.” Her voice dropped to a whisper as she gestured toward the opposite side of the fire, where Will slept. “Away from others’ ears.”
    “Ask me now.”
    She sat still for a moment, staring into the embers as if deciding whether to risk the question she really wanted an answer to. “I never heard what happened. After I left Lathan.”
    Jamie’s belly clenched. “What do ye mean?”
    She stayed silent a moment longer then shook her head. “Remember the day Toran and ye found the carvings?”
    His breath froze in his chest at the word. Then he realized she’d changed her mind—and the subject. Jamie let out a slow sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted to relive was the time when Caitrin left. The less she knew, the better. Instead, he chuckled. “Searching for the troll under the stone bridge, aye?”
    “Ye told me they were ancient druidic markings. Secret signs marking a place of ceremony and sacrifice. That wasna true, was it?”
    Jamie thought back to that day. Caitrin had tagged along with him and Toran, as usual. Toran had done his best to ignore her, but Jamie had started telling stories and by the time they reached the old bridge, he had primed Caitrin for the biggest story of all. “Toran and I had spent weeks chipping away at the stone along the banks of the burn, scratching in signs and symbols.” Rumor had it Caitrin was good, perhaps too good, at telling when someone lied to her. So Toran had concocted a test—elaborate, to be sure, but preparing it had entertained them for weeks. Finally, they were ready. Jamie spun his tale, full of history and superstition, druidic sacrifice and magic.
    “Ye thought I believed it all, to the point of refusing to cross that bridge ever again.”
    “Aye, from that point on, Toran greatly enjoyed leading ye in that direction, only to watch ye splash through the burn rather than cross the bridge to reach the meadow beyond.” As Toran and he laughed. It was not Jamie’s proudest memory of their time together. In fact, he was still irritated with Toran for putting him up to it. Especially after the way the summer ended.
    “I kent ye lied.”
    “Ye didna.” Jamie snorted. “Why drench yerself in the burn if ye thought the bridge was nothing special?”
    She remained silent for a long time, to the point Jamie thought she’d refuse to answer. Then she opened her mouth to speak, and Jamie noticed her eyes were sheened with tears. “’Twas the only way Toran would let me come with ye.”
    “So ye were sweet on him.”
    “What? Nay, never. He only let me come along when he could get a good laugh out of me, whether that meant slogging through the burn or something else. I didna want to be left out. Left behind.”
    Jamie’s heart plummeted at the same time shame raised heat in his face. “Nay.”
    “’Tis true. I kent Toran had put ye up to it. Ye tried to set me straight a time or two—do ye remember that?”
    Jamie shook his head. Honestly, he didn’t. But if she hadn’t been interested in Toran’s attention, did that mean she’d tagged along because she cared for him?
    “But if I admitted it, that would have been the end of my time with the two of ye. So I played the fool instead.”
    “I am sorry.”
    “Ye should be, aye. But yer laird has