Tess and the Highlander Read Free

the
ladder and looked out the narrow slit of a window at the sea. The
storm was still blowing hard, and he could barely see past the
shoreline. He could only imagine how upset Alexander would be right
now. But there was no coming after him this night or in this
weather.
    Resigned to spend the night outside, Colin
reached for a thick woolen blanket that sat on a shelf beside the
hearth. As he picked it up, something that had been folded within
the blanket fell onto the floor. He crouched and stared at a small
bundle of mending at his feet. The intricate lace edging on a
child’s white cap caught his attention first. He touched the soft
wool cloth of a dress. Perplexed, he frowned at a child’s linen
apron and again at the cap he’d seen first. He picked up the items
one by one and looked at them intently, wondering why two old
people would keep such things.
    He looked about the room again. There was
one wooden bowl near the hearth—one spoon. On the floor in one
corner, there was a small bed of straw and blankets suitable for
one person. He touched the dress again. The dark eyes of a woman
looking down at him flashed through his mind again. Colin carefully
wrapped the bundle of child’s clothing in the blanket and put it
back where he’d found it.
    Pushing himself to his feet, he picked up a
more worn woolen blanket that he saw folded by the bed and draped
it over his shoulders. With one more glance around, he descended
the stairs and pushed out into the storm.
     
    Added to the shivering that had taken
control of Tess’s limbs, her teeth were now chattering and she
could not stop it. Her clothes were soaked through from her efforts
to get the man out of the tidal pool. Her skin was clammy, and she
was feeling chilled to the bone. The leather cloak offered some
protection against the bitter wind-driven rain, but her body seemed
unable to produce any warmth as she lay flat on her stomach on the
rocks to the west of the priory.
    Tess’s eyes narrowed as the Highlander
finally came out of her house.
    She had hoped to go inside and get a blanket
or two and some food before fleeing to the caves on the western
side of the island. In fact, it was much more than a hope, she
corrected. She had to get some supplies before retreating
there. Who knew how long the storm surges would require her to stay
hidden or how many days it would be before the Highlander’s people
would return?
    Night was quickly dropping its dark cloak
over the island. The storm, though, seemed to have shaken off its
leash. It was now hammering the island with ten times the fury it
had before. A freezing rain had been falling in fits and spurts. It
was not a night to be out.
    He was making a fire. She saw him walk back
toward her house a couple of times. Each time he came back carrying
armfuls of dry seaweed and driftwood she had diligently gathered,
she felt herself growing angrier. And if this wasn’t enough, he was
building his fire within the area protected by the priory
walls.
    A standing stone wall served as a windbreak.
The location kept away the rain. There he was, safe and warm. But
there was also no chance of any passing ship seeing his fire.
    And what was worse, he was building it where
she could not possibly get inside her house without being seen by
him.
    She should have left him to swallow more
seawater.
     
    The sparking flames, hissing and crackling,
climbed high into the night. Colin’s clothes were practically dry
now. His plaid, with the added layer from the blanket he’d borrowed
from the house, was keeping the worst of the rain off him.
    He was surprised to find that he was even
growing hungry. He considered for a moment the food he’d seen in
the priory building. Making one last trip, he entered and
approached the hearth, picking up the wooden spoon beside the
still-simmering cauldron. One mouthful of the thick, bitter-tasting
brew, though, and his stomach wrenched. Colin ran outside, gulping
down draughts of fresh salt air to keep