THE GIFT: A Highland Novella Read Free Page A

forward.
    Suddenly she was flying over the ground, with the grass a blur beneath her and her rescuer ’ s body enfolding hers as if they were one. Her heart pounded and she felt breathless.
    Had her ordeal addled her mind? She was on a horse with a wild Highlander, going God-knew-where with men even he did not trust, and yet she found it … thrilling .
    It was not as if she had never been close to a man before. She had touched plenty of men, intimately. She had looked down their throats, felt their bellies for tumors, and applied poultices to their weeping wounds. Once, she ’ d even treated an infected cock. Now that was disgusting.
    Despite all her experience as a healer, she was quickly discovering that having a healthy and handsome man ’ s body touching hers from her head to her heels was an altogether different sensation. Of course, many women had told her as much when they came to her begging for love potions. But as a healer, she knew every sort of trouble men caused women, and she ’ d never met a man she thought was worth the risk.
    After the Highlander slowed the horse to a walk, he handed her his leather pouch, which she opened to find hard oat biscuits and dried venison.
    “ Ye must eat some more, ” he said, “ but do it slowly. ”
    That was good advice, but her stomach had shrunk so from her ordeal that she doubted she could eat much anyway.
    Each step the horse took caused the Highlander ’ s thighs to rub against hers, which in turn sent tingles of awareness coursing through her body. She liked the sensation far more than she wished. While she could never abide the thought of being chained to a husband for life, she began to understand why a woman would take a lover.
    “ Feeling better now, lass? ” the Highlander asked, the rumble of his voice sending another unexpected thrill through her.
    “ I am, thank you. ”
    She looked down to find the leather pouch in her lap was empty. She had been so distracted by the unusual course of her thoughts that she had eaten it all without realizing it.
    “ You ’ re warm enough? ”
    She swallowed. “ Thoroughly warm. ”
    “ Then perhaps ye can tell me now how an English lass came to be wandering alone in the hills of Scotland? ”
    She could not very well admit that she left London for fear of being burned as a witch.
    “’ Tis a long story, ” she said, making her voice faint, “ and I fear I ’ m still a bit weak. ”
    “ Hmmph. Ye must at least tell me whereye were headed, or I cannot help ye get there. ”
    Now that her blood was moving again and she had some nourishment, Lily remembered her journey only too well. When the boat left her in Edinburgh, she should have stayed there. She knew how to survive in a city, even an unfamiliar one where the people had such an odd way of speaking English.
    “ I was on my way to Northumberland, ” she said, deciding it was safe to tell him that much.
    “ Walking. All that way. By yourself. ” The Highlander added something in a language she could not understand, which she surmised was a curse.
    “ How else was I to get there? ” She certainly was not getting on a ship again after what happened the first time. “ I heard tell of a famous healer who lives near the border. As I ’ d be passing by, I intended to stop and pay her a visit. ”
    “ Why did ye wish to see this healer? ” he asked. “ Are ye in need of a cure? ”
    Tension vibrated from his body, a warning that her answer was important to him, though she could not imagine why.
    “ I hoped to learn new cures from her, ” she said, deciding to tell him the truth, for lack of a better idea. “ You see, I ’ m a healer myself. ”
    ***
    Women who had the gift of The Sight were very often healers.
    His grandmother ’ s last words returned to Roderick like a thump on the head. Ye won ’ t find the lass ye need until ye stop looking for her.
    He had stopped looking for her. Despite his suspicion that his grandmother was confused when she