Highland Lover: Book 3 Scottish Knights Trilogy (25 page)

“If I look down to do that, won’t I see the sea below me?”

“Afraid of heights, lass?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t fear many things, but I’ve never stood in such a place as that before. Do you mean to lift me up there?”

“I won’t have to. You can step up yourself if you take care. ’Tis not far, the planking is wide, and I’ll steady you. Now, give me your hands again.”

When she did, he told her to put one foot by his. A moment later, she stood on one foot beside him and saw that the railing was wide enough for her to put her other one down beside it. She glanced down farther, saw waves roiling around the ship, felt a rush of dizziness, and decided not to look down again.

“Your hands are shaking,” he said.

“Perhaps I
am
just a trifle afraid of heights,” she admitted. “Moreover, I think you are more than daft. You are mad.”

His grin flashed again. “You’re not the first to say so. Nonetheless, I will see you safely onto yon roof. Then, if you prefer it, I can easily get you back to the deck from there without coming this way.”

“I would most sincerely prefer that,” she said.

He chuckled, and she found herself smiling in response.

They had to negotiate only three steps, and the mainstay helped. Jake held on to it and guided her to the second step. Then Alyson held on to it while he moved to the third. Soon they stood together on the flat roof of the stern cabin.

He picked up her cloak and draped it around her shoulders.

“Better?” he asked when she reached to tie its strings.

“Aye, but
how
did you learn to do such a thing so easily?”

He shrugged. “I’ve been running everywhere on ships since I took my first voyage,” he said. “To me, it is much like doing the same things on land.”

“I do not think it could ever become so for me.”

“How do you like it now that you are up here?”

“The view is spectacular,” she said. “I’m glad I’m here, but I’ll admit, sir, I was terrified that I’d slip and take us both down into the sea.”

“Ah, but you told me you can swim.”

She laughed then. “And so I can, although I don’t recall telling
you
so.”

“In troth, you said that Clyne could not, from which I deduced that you can.”

His voice changed as he spoke, and his gaze sharpened, holding hers.

Chapter 12

T
he moonlight was magical, Jake thought. The way it touched Alyson’s face and made her eyes sparkle was magical, too, although she didn’t need magic. She was enticing enough without it. By moonlight, she was a goddess, a Fate drawing him nearer with the wind dancing round them, singing a siren song.

He would not say so, though, not to her. She already thought he was daft, and mayhap he had been, bringing her to the roof in such a way—sakes, bringing her at all. But he’d wanted to show her how the sea looked from there by moonlight. And more than that, he’d wanted her to share his way of doing things. It had seemed important that she share something that he had shared with no one else, ever.

Mace was below them. They were out of his sight as long as he did not turn to look, but Jake knew that Mace would say nowt of aught his captain did, if he did see them. The other lads were asleep. And Jake had been heedful for days.

But now…

He gazed into her eyes and knew that her power over him was too strong. It was also dangerous. He should not allow himself to succumb.

With a groan, he grasped her upper arms and pulled her close. When she did not object, he put two fingers to her chin, tilted her face up, and kissed her. He’d meant only to steal a taste. But when his lips touched hers, he was lost.

Her lips were cushiony soft, and the little moan she gave was more in the nature of a woman savoring a delicious sweet than one objecting in the least to his kiss. Not that he was personally acquainted with such objections, but he did believe he would recognize their sounds if ever he heard any.

“Oh, lassie,” he murmured against those yielding lips. “You taste the way the nectar of the gods ought to taste.”

“Do I?”

“You do.” Deciding that a mere taste would not suffice, he captured her lips again. He wanted to savor her, but he could not give himself free rein.

There were rules about such things. And if he forgot them with Alyson, her cousin Ivor would remind him of them… painfully. Not that he feared Ivor, for he did not. But he did value Ivor’s friendship, and his own honor.

Alyson had shut her eyes when Jake touched his lips to hers. Her body had reacted to his slightest touch from the start. But standing atop her cabin roof in the moonlight with him had stirred a host of new feelings. Moreover, she had known what he’d meant to do from the moment his gaze locked with hers.

And, right or wrong, she’d let him do it.

If God was watching, what must He think? Surely, He would expect her to mourn her husband longer than a
sennight. She realized to her shame that the only reason she’d thought of Niall was that Jake had mentioned him when he’d teased her about perhaps having to swim.

As Jake’s warm lips brushed enticingly to her cheek and then to her ear, other thoughts fought to intrude. She should feel guilty… and… As she struggled to finish the thought, his breath caressed her neck, stirring a tiny shiver.

She remembered the earlier chill she’d felt. The awful image she had seen as she’d stood by the railing filled her mind again. She stiffened in Jake’s arms.

He released her at once. “What is it, lass?”

“You said you were up here before, aye?”

“I did, and I was.”

“How? What I mean is, were you standing, sitting, or lying down?”

He cocked his head, either trying to remember or wondering at the question.

“Prithee, sir, it’s important.”

“I was leaning back against the highest bit there behind us. For a time, I expect I was half dozing, just watching the moonlight play on the sea. Then a beautiful wraith moved across the afterdeck below me and diverted my attention.”

“Before that, were you lying with your head turned away from me?”

“Suppose you tell me why you are asking such a question.”

She winced, realizing how she must sound to him. Then, remembering how easily he had talked with her about the Sight, she said, “Sithee, I saw you. You lay in dark shadows, slumped awkwardly against a wall.”

“I suppose one might describe my posture then in such a way, although I reject the notion that I am ever awkward.”

Although he clearly expected her to smile, she could not. She said, “Your head
was
turned away from me.”

“Then how did you know that it was I?”

“I knew. I saw myself holding you and feeling sad when you died.”

“But I’m not dead, lass. Also, although I may have turned my head away earlier, I did not do so then. I saw you go to the rail and did not look away even whilst I made my way down and crossed the afterdeck to you.”

“Did you not? By your troth?”

“Not once. Might you have
seen
me as I was and then shifted to see some other time or place, as one does in a dream?”

She sighed. “Such a thing has not happened before, nor would I like it if that
were
the case. Sakes, I don’t understand what I saw unless God is trying to warn me that I must mourn Niall’s death in every way for a more seemly length of time.”

He was silent, his gaze studying hers. Then he said, “Do you think of the Sight as a gift from God?”

The question startled her. “I’ve never questioned its source,” she said. “I just know that it exists and that it has caused me strife more often than not. But if it comes not from God… then from whence
could
it come?”

He shook his head. “I know nowt of it but what you’ve told me. It does occur to me, though, that bards say the Sight has existed since the dawn of time.”

“So has God.”

His lips twitched. “Aye, but d’ye think the poor Man
looks down here and strives to guide our every step? I don’t. I think He allots certain gifts to certain folks and expects them to get on with their lives without troubling Him to look after them as closely as that. Sakes, but the Man would go daft from us all.”

“He is all-powerful. He would
not
go daft.”

“You make my point, lass. If He’d meant to make a perfect world, He’d never let anyone take a misstep. All-powerful as He is, He’d have less obscure ways to show us the right path. I think He gives us each a brain to use and innate wisdom, as well as certain talents—and perhaps certain powers, such as the Sight. Then the Man lets us get on with it—choose how, as a Yorkshireman might say.”

“You may be right,” she said. “In troth, I hope so. But I do not know how to explain what I saw or how I felt when I saw it, except to say that it felt like a warning. You’d mentioned Niall, and I do think of him with guilt. He has been gone just a sennight. Yet here am I, his wife, enjoying the kisses of another man.”

“You enjoyed them then.”

“You ken fine that I did,” she said.

“I do, and I shouldna tease ye.” He stroked her cheek with a finger. “You said you could not see the shadowy man’s face. Could you see his clothing?”

Grasping his hand, she pressed its palm to her cheek. “I saw his shape,” she said quietly. “Would you know mine if you saw me in a similar way?”

He grimaced. “I would, aye. But if you are thinking you saw me as I was at the time, I’d remind you that the moon was shining down on me and I could see you clearly from where I sat. Had you turned and looked, you’d have
seen me. You can see the top of Mace’s head from here now. Beyond it, the railing where you stood is as visible as it was to me then.”

“I don’t know what to say then,” she said.

“Use that wisdom of yours, lass. You told me that you see things only as and when they happen. Yet nowt was happening to me.”

“But if it was a warning about
my
behavior—to make me heed the warning—mayhap it revealed a moment in the future.”

“So you fear that something dreadful will happen to me in the future, because of something
you
are doing now. That is what you said, is it not?”

“When you put it that way…”

“Aye, it makes God sound like a gey vindictive chap, not to mention a most unfair one, does it not? That is not the God I know, lass. Nor, from what you’ve told me, do I believe your Sight works in such a complex way.”

“Perhaps not,” she said. “But the Fates often do unfair things. Do not forget the odd warnings I felt before my cat, Pallie, died. I felt them when I was small, too. They were especially strong before Grandmother MacGillivray died.”

“But you did not see the cat or your grandame lying in darkness. Nor did you dream about your grandame’s death before it happened, did you?”

“I did dream about her being dead before they
told
me she had died. Forbye, we’d heard that she was sick, and I don’t know that I saw it happen as it did. I
had
worried about her for some time.”

“Then this, tonight, was not the same,” he said flatly. “That dream about your grandame’s death sounds much like the one where you saw Clyne’s. At St. Andrews,
Bishop Traill used to say that the value of things lies not in possessing them but in understanding their use. I’d look on your gift that way if I were you.”

“But how can I understand it when I cannot control it?”

“We learn best from experience, lass. My da used to say that trying to understand summat of which one kens nowt be right daft. If what you saw pertains to the future, you’ll learn more about it soon enough. Meantime, you’d be wise to exercise patience and go on as if you’d seen nowt tonight.”

She bit her lip.
As if she could forget that she had seen him!

“Don’t do that,” he said with an odd note in his voice.

“Don’t do what?”

“Nibble your lip like that.” His grin flashed but looked rueful. “Sithee, I do try to behave. But I
cannot
watch you do that without wanting to do it for you.”

“You would bite my lip?”

“Nay, just nibble it, taste it… like this.” He reached for her, and a chaos of sensation rushed through her before he even touched her. Despite knowing that she should not let him do such things, she banished sense and let instinct rule.