Page 17 of A Highlander's Vow

Chapter Eight

Megan jumped up,tugging on the plaid, pulling it completely off Gregory, and then, shocked at seeing his naked body, threw it at him, leaving herself naked. Then, looking down at her own body she attempted to cover everything with her hands.

Gregory couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. “What the devil’re ye doing lass?”

“We’re naked!”

“Aye. We took our clothes off last night. Doona ye remember?”

She hurried over to the clothes laying in front of the fire and quicky found her pieces and dressed herself. She headed to the opening at the front of the bothy.

Gregory struggled into his clothes. “Wait, Megan. Where are ye going?”

“Outside. To the bushes.” As she turned to him, her face was once again bright red.

“Nay. Wait for me. I canno’ let ye go outside alone. Did ye forget we’re being tracked?”

She took a deep breath, and now with them both dressed, seemed a bit more relaxed. “Nay I dinna forget, I just didn’t think.”

“’Ye have to think, lass. We are still in danger, even though we split up from the others. Once our pursuers catch up to them, they will immediately ken what we did and try to find the path we took.”

“Will they find out from yer men?”

He grinned. “Nay. If they try to engage my well-trained warriors with the idea of getting information from them they will ne’er find us because they will all be dead.”

Gregory took her arm to help her over the wet ground and roots.

As much as he believed that she would have liked to do without his help, she gripped his arm as her foot started to slip out from under her.

“Ye are pretty confident of yer men’s abilities.”

“Aye.”

He stood alongside the bushes, his back to her while she did what she needed to do. He decided to return her to the bothy where she was relatively safe before he took care of his own needs.

“Do we have food?” she asked as they walked back.

“Nay. But there is a small village no’ far from here where we can get a meal.”

“Is that safe?”

He shrugged “If we are careful.”

Once she was settled back in the bothy he told her that when he was finished, they would leave.

*

While Megan waitedfor Gregory to return, she made sure the fire was out, grateful that there had been enough wood to last the night. She spent time outside, but not too far from the bothy, gathering more wood that she could carry to replace what they had used. Then she fumbled through her satchel and tried her best to clean her teeth and brush her hair into some semblance of order.

She would ask Gregory to make one more walk with her to the creek so she could wash her hands and face.

While she waited, anxious to get away from where they were andto a real village, she thought of the man and how ’twas possible he would end up her husband. The quick glance she’d gotten of his muscular body was enough to have her both nervous and excited to see if the marriage bed with him was different from Robert’s.

Then she felt guilty. Robert had not been a bad husband. He was just more interested in his warrior training and visiting the ale house in town than he was with her. That could very well have been her fault, since as a barren woman she probably held little appeal.

If he hadn’t been killed they would probably have had a long, boring marriage. Was there any reason for her to believe life with Gregory Mackenzie would be any different?

He was second-in-command to Laird Mackenzie so he obviously had a great deal of training to do. As she’d told Gregory earlier, she would be content to do whatever job Lady Mckenzie assigned to her, but would love to continue to learn more about healing.