Free Onyx by Elizabeth Rose

grew up together.”
    “So, you don’t have the same parents or anything?”
    “Nay,” laughed Ian. “Why would ye say thet?”
    “Because you said you were all MacKeefes.”
    “We’re o’ the same ilk, so we all take the chieftain’s name as well as wear his tartan,” said Ian.
    “The chieftain – you mean that big blond man in the pub with the braid on the side of his head?”
    “Aye. The t’s our chieftain, Storm MacKeefe,” said Aidan. “Ye really dinna know anythin’ about the Scots do ye?”
    “I’m sorry, but I was . . . I never traveled much . . . before now.”
    They didn’t say anything, and she wasn’t going to give them any more information. She found herself wishing Onyx would return, and that thought disturbed her as well. Onyx was actually scarier than the two of these put together, yet for some reason she felt safer around him.
    His cat crawled up on to her lap and curled up in a ball and closed its eyes.
    “Oh!” she said, surprised, pulling back a bit. She didn’t like animals, and cats were on the top of her list. Especially the kind that were wild, and predators of nature and not meant to be pets, like the one that just claimed her lap.
    “The cat likes ye,” Ian pointed out.
    “Aye, and Dagger’s cat hates e’eryone but him,” added Aidan.
    “Really?” she asked, wanting the thing off her lap but not wanting to touch it. Then, Onyx appeared, coming out of the darkness with two rabbits in his hand. He held them by their hind legs, and his bloody dagger dangled from his fingers.
    “Make yerself useful and skin and gut these,” he said, throwing them down in front of her in the dirt. The cat jumped off her lap and bit one around the neck and started carrying it away, though the rabbit was twice its size.
    “ Put it down, Tawpie, I dinna mean ye,” said Onyx, “I meant her.” He pointed at her, and to her horror, she realized he wanted her to do it. The cat dropped the rabbit and slinked away with its shoulders hunched and its head down as if it was looking for prey.
    Lovell e had often helped in the castle’s kitchen, but she’d always let the servants do the gutting and skinning, or plucking the feathers off a goose.
    “What’s the matter?” he asked, obviously testing her. “Ye want te eat, but yet ye won’t hunt, gut, or cook the meal?”
    “I’ll do it,” said Aidan, reaching over for the rabbits.
    “Nay!” he said, walking forward and pushing the dead animals closer to her with his foot. “She’ll do it if she wants te eat.”
    Lovell e closed her eyes and released a deep breath. She was starving, but she couldn’t do what this man was asking.
    “What’s the matter? ” asked Onyx. “Too good for a chore like this?”
    “Dagger, let me,” said Ian, but Onyx just shook his head. He leaned forward and stabbed his dagger into the ground just next to her foot, making her flinch.
    “Jumpy tonight, arena ye?” he asked. “Do tell me ye’ve gutted a rabbit afore, me lady?”
    “Of course,” she lied, reaching out for one of the rabbits, then bringing her hand back quickly , noticing the horrid look on its face and wide, gaping mouth . . . and the blood.
    He hunkered down next to her, his mouth close to her ear. “Like I said, ye are a bad liar. Now, mayhap ye jest need a little help.”
     
    Onyx only meant to scare the girl so she wouldn’t give him trouble or try to escape during the night, but when he pressed up behind her and took her hands in his, and guided one to the rabbit and the other to his dagger , he felt as if she were scaring him instead. What was it with this Sassenach that had him excited every time he got near her? Probably the fact that most lassies were repelled by him, but this one showed no fear.
    “All y e need te do is start by cuttin’ off the rabbit’s feet.” He guided the dagger toward the dead rabbit’s feet, and noticed her eyes closing, and that she was holding her breath. The scent of rosewater and soap