Highland Lover. Hannah Howell

the fact that she was noticing how good he smelled told her she really should move away from him, Alana thought. The problem was, he felt good, very good. He felt warm, strong, and calming, all things she was sorely in need of at the moment. She started to console herself with the thought that she was not actually embracing him only to realize that she had curled her arm around what felt to be a very trim waist.

      She inwardly sighed, ruefully admitting that she liked where she was and had no inclination to leave his side. He thought she was a young girl, so she did not have to fear he might think she was inviting him to take advantage of her. Alone with him in the dark, there was a comforting anonymity about it as well. Alana decided there was no harm in it all. In truth, she would not be surprised to discover that he found comfort in it, too, after days of being all alone in the dark.

      “Where were ye headed, lass? Is there someone aside from the men ye were with who will start searching for ye?” Gregor asked, a little concerned about how good it felt to hold her even though every instinct he had told him that Alana was not the child she pretended to be.

      “Quite possibly.” She doubted that the note she had left behind would do much to comfort her parents. “I was going to my sister.”

      “Ah, weel, then, I fear the Gowans may soon ken who ye are e’en if ye dinnae tell them.”

      “Oh, of course. What about you? Will anyone wonder where ye have gone?”

      “Nay for a while yet.”

      They all thought he was still wooing his well-dowered bride. Gregor had had far too much time to think about that, about all of his reasons for searching for a well-dowered bride, and about the one he had chosen. Mavis was a good woman, passably pretty, and had both land and some coin to offer a husband. He had left her feeling almost victorious, the betrothal as good as settled, yet each hour he had sat here in the dark, alone with his thoughts, he had felt less and less pleased with himself. It did not feel right. He hated to think that his cousin Sigimor made sense about anything, yet it was that man’s opinion that kept creeping through his mind. Mavis did not really feel right. She did not really fit.

      He silently cursed. What did it matter? He was almost thirty years of age and had never found a woman who felt right or fit. Mavis gave him the chance to be his own man, to be laird of his own keep and have control over his own lands. Mavis was a sensible choice. He did not love her, but after so many years and so many women without feeling even a tickle of that feeling, he doubted he was capable of loving any woman. Passion could be stirred with the right touch and compatibility could be achieved with a little work. It would serve.

      He was just about to ask Alana how extensive a search her kinsmen would mount for her when he heard the sound of someone approaching above them. “Stand o’er there, lass,” he said as he nudged her to the left. “’Tis time for the bucket to be emptied and food and water lowered down to us. I dinnae want to be bumping into ye.”

      Alana felt immediately chilled as she left his side. She kept inching backward until she stumbled and fell onto a pile of blankets. She moved around until she was seated on them, her back against the cold stone wall. The grate was opened and a rope with a hook at the end of it was lowered through the opening. The lantern this man carried produced enough light to at least allow them to see that rope. Gregor moved around as if he could see and Alana suspected he had carefully mapped out his prison in his mind. She watched as the bucket was raised up and another lowered down. As Gregor reached for that bucket, she caught a faint glimpse of his form. He was indeed very tall and very lean. She cursed the darkness for hiding all else from her.

      “We will need two buckets of water for washing in the morn,” Gregor called up to the man, watching him as he carefully lowered the now-empty privy bucket.

      “Two?” the man snapped. “Why two?”

      “One for me and one for the lass.”

      “Ye can both wash from the same one.”

      “A night down here leaves one verra dirty. A wee bucket of water is barely enough to get one person clean, ne’er mind two.”

      “I will see what the laird says.”

      Alana winced as the grate was slammed shut and that faint shaft of light disappeared. She tried to judge where Gregor was, listening carefully to his movements, but was still startled a little when he sat down by her side. Then she caught the scent of cheese and still-warm bread and her stomach growled a welcome.

      Gregor laughed as he set the food out between them. “Careful how ye move, lass. The food rests between us. The Gowans do provide enough to eat, though ’tis plain fare.”

      “Better than none. Perhaps ye had better hand me things. I think I shall need a wee bit of time to become accustomed to moving about in this thick dark.”

      She tensed when she felt a hand pat her leg, but then something fell into her lap. Reaching down, she found a chunk of bread and immediately began to eat it. Gregor was obviously just trying to be certain where she sat as he shared out the food. She did wonder why a small part of her was disappointed by that.

      “Best ye eat it all, lass. I havenae been troubled by vermin, but I have heard a few sounds that make me think they are near. Leaving food about will only bring them right to us.”

      Alana shivered. “I hate rats.”

      “As do I, which is why I fight the temptation to hoard food.”

      She nodded even though she knew he could not see her, and, for a while, they silently ate. Once her stomach was full, Alana began to feel very tired, the rigors of the day catching up to her. Her eyes widened as she realized there was no place to make up her own bed and doubted there were enough blankets to do so anyway.

      “Where do I sleep?” she asked, briefly glad of the dark, for it hid her blushes.

      “Here with me,” replied Gregor. “I will sleep next to the wall.” He smiled, almost able to feel her tension. “Dinnae fret, lass. I willnae harm ye. I have ne’er harmed a child.”

      Of course, Alana thought and relaxed. He thought she was a child. She had briefly forgotten her disguise. The thought of having to keep her binding on for days was not comforting but it was for the best. Thinking her a child, Gregor treated her as he would a sister or his own child. If he knew she was a woman, he might well treat her as a convenient bedmate or try to make her one. She brutally silenced the part of her that whispered its disappointment, reminding it that she had no idea of what this man even looked like.

      Once the food was gone, Gregor set the bucket aside. Alana heard him removing some clothing and then felt him crawl beneath the blankets. She quickly moved out of the way when she felt his feet nudge her hip. After a moment’s thought, she loosened the laces on her gown and removed her boots before crawling under the blankets by his side. The chill of the place disappeared again and she swallowed a sigh. Something about Gregor soothed her, made her able to face this imprisonment with some calm and courage, and she was simply too tired to try to figure out what that something was.

      “On the morrow we will begin to plan our escape,” Gregor said.

      “Ye have thought of a way out of here?”

      “Only a small possibility. Sleep. Ye will need it.”

      That did not sound promising, Alana mused as she closed her eyes.

      Chapter 2

      Alana grimaced as she finished washing, patted herself dry with a cloth, and began to don her clean but damp clothing. The Gowans catered to her and Gregor’s need to keep clean, but there was nothing they could do about the all-pervasive damp. Or the chill, she mused, wrapping her damp plaid around her shoulders. After three days in the dark hole the Gowans had tossed her into, Alana felt as if that chill had settled deep into her bones. The only time she felt even partly warm was when she was curled up in Gregor’s arms, pressed close to his warm body.

      And that was beginning to be a pure torment, she thought as she brushed and braided her hair. All too often she had to