Free The Highlander's Touch by Karen Marie Moning Page A

uncertainly. “And then what?”
    “Why, then ye dump it out a window,” he said, as if she were daft.
    Lisa winced. “There is no window in this tower.”
    “I’ll dump it for ye,” he said simply, and she realized that this was the way of things. He’d probably dumped hundreds of them in his short life. “Och, but I’ll be giving ye some privacy for the now,” he added, and dashed off again up the stairs.
    True to his word, he returned in a few moments and dashed off a third time with the basin.
    Lisa sat on the stairs, waiting for the lad to return. Her options were limited: She could foolishly escape the castle and likely die out there, or go back to her room and get as close to her enemy as possible in hopes of finding that flask—which she
had
to believe was a two-way ticket. It was either that or accept that she was condemned to the fourteenth century forever, and with her mother dying back home, she would sooner die herself than accept that fate.
    “Tell me about Circenn Brodie,” she said when the boy returned. He hunkered down on the step beside her.
    “What do ye wish to ken?”
    Does he kiss all the lassies?
“Is he a fair man?”
    “None fairer,” the lad assured her.
    “As in honorable, not attractive,” Lisa clarified.
    He grinned. “I ken what ye meant. The laird is a fair man, he doesna make hasty judgments.”
    “Then why were you trying to help me escape?”
    Another shrug. “I heard his men speaking last night of killin’ ye. I figured if ye was still breathing this morningI’d be helping ye go free.” His thin face stilled and his eyes grew distant. “Me mam was killed when I was five. I doona like to see a lassie suffer. Ye could be someone’s mam.” Guileless brown eyes sought hers.
    Lisa’s heart went out to the motherless boy. She understood all too well the pain of losing a mother. She hoped his “mam” had not suffered long, but had met with a swift and merciful death. She gently brushed his tangled hair back from his forehead. He leaned in to her caress as if he’d been starved for such a touch. “What’s your name, boy?”
    “Ye may call me Eirren, but in truth I’d answer to anything from ye,” he said with a flirtatious grin.
    She shook her head in mock reproach. “How old are you?”
    He cocked an eyebrow and grinned. “Old enough to know yer a bonny lassie. I may not be a man yet, but one day I will, so I better be getting all the practice I can.”
    “Incorrigible,” she murmured.
    “Nay, just thirteen,” he said easily. “The way I see it, a boy can get away with a lot a man can’t, so I’d best do it all now. What else did ye wish to ken, lassie?”
    “Is he married?”
What kind of wife could handle a man like him?
She could have kicked herself the moment she said it, but then she decided Eirren surely wouldn’t understand her interest.
    “Ye wish to tup him?” he asked curiously.
    Tup him?
Lisa puzzled over that for a moment. “Oh!” she said, as she realized what he meant. “Stop that!” she exclaimed. “You can’t think like that! You’re
too
young. Tup, indeed.”
    He grinned. “I grew up hearing it from the men, how could I not? I haven’t had me a mam in a long time.”
    “Well, you need one,” Lisa said softly. “No one should be without a mother.”
    “Did he kiss ye?”
    “No!” she lied hastily. She ducked her head, bringing a fall of hair forward to hide her blush from the too-perceptive boy.
    “Fool he is, then,” Eirren said with his gamin grin. “Well, lassie, ye better be deciding what ye wish to do. If yer not going, yer staying, and if yer staying ye best go back to yer room afore he discovers ye missing. He doesna like rules bein’ broken, and ye escaping yer room would fair give him a fit.” He rose to his feet and dusted off his scabbed knees.
    “You need a bath,” she informed him, deciding that if she had anything to say about it while she was there, he’d have a mother of sorts.
    “Aye, and