Highland Seer by Willa Blair Read Free Book Online Page B

sorry. I need ye to stay.”
    “Tonight? Is that what ye’re askin’? Ye canna be offering to trade yerself for my help.”
    “Nay!” She choked, shocked he’d said that out loud, but now that he had, was he right? Had she implied that? Did she want that? Nay, she daren’t. She had something much more permanent in mind. Besides, if she saw Bram in her dream and not Donal, she’d be making a terrible mistake. Even though Donal drew her gaze every time they happened to be in the same room, not Bram.
    His muscles bulged as he ran both hands through his hair in frustration.
    “What then?”
    “I willna make that kind of bargain. But I need ye to agree to stay for the time it takes to train MacKyrie men into a force that can defend this keep.”
    “Years? That’s what ye need. I canna do that. And tonight has proven that I shouldna. If I were to stay here, Ellie, I dinna ken what will happen...though perhaps with yer Sight, ye do?”
    Her heart skipped a beat. Why did he taunt her with her Sight? “Nothing will, Donal. I promise ye.” Liar . Given time, she would come to be sure which man she saw in her dream. That man might come to care for her, at least. She could not think of love, not yet. But a partner, a man to stand beside her and help her clan, aye.
    Donal lifted one eyebrow.
    She had to make him believe her if she was going to convince him to stay. But she daren’t push him farther tonight. She’d cede this battle, but she refused to give up the war. She could only give one honest answer, though it pained her at this moment more than she’d ever imagined it could. “I’ll do what’s best for the MacKyries.”
    His shoulders dropped. “Somehow, I kenned ye would.” He reached behind him and opened the door for her, then moved aside. “Goodnight, Laird MacKyrie.”
    Head down, she stepped across the threshold into the night-darkened hallway. One torch guttered, well away from where she stood. She turned back to answer him, but he’d already closed his door to her. “Good night, Donal,” she whispered. “Sleep well.”
    ****
    Donal tossed and turned for most of the night, dozing for a while, then dreaming about Ellie. The heat of her lips close to his. How soft and warm they’d have been if he’d done what his body demanded and kissed her. The firelight reflecting in her ebony hair. The silvery depths of her eyes. Awake now in the predawn glimmer, he lay abed, staring at the ceiling, thinking.
    She’d exhilarated and infuriated him the first time he’d laid eyes on her, playing games with Micheil rather than introducing herself as laird right away. And last night—he’d held her more in anger than anything else. He regretted his roughness. But she thought to tease him into staying with her and saving her clan? By touching him? Licking her lips and showing him the tip of her little pink tongue? Foolish woman. He was made of stronger stuff than that.
    Aye, he could do what Ellie asked of him. He could make her lads into the fighting force she needed. But his loyalty to the Lathans ran deep. He must return to the Aerie.
    The auld laird had made him, a younger son of another clan, the Lathan arms master when his prowess became evident after a series of battles with encroaching clans. He had charged Donal with guarding his home in his absence. And then died at Flodden Field. Donal never forgot the trust—and the responsibility—the old man had placed with him.
    Donal had redoubled his efforts to hone Toran’s fighting skills, determined to force the new Lathan laird to develop the prowess to prevail in any battle. Toran had proved his mettle against the Lowlander invader last year. That had been a fight worthy of all the years of training.
    With the Lathans, Donal had already been through the kind of rebuilding the MacKyries needed. But the MacKyries had the misfortune to be closer to the Lowlands. They suffered more notice from the King and court, so had been obligated to send more men. And now