Kissing the Countess by Susan King Read Free Book Online Page B

She had a home and a hearth and a family who waited for her. Evan had none of that here. Kildonan Castle was his now, and was the home he had loved in childhood. But now he felt unwelcome, unwanted in the glen. He had dreamed of belonging here again, but in truth he was not.
    He sighed, yearning for the comforts of home, where love, and family, and smiles waited. But that dream was elusive, and always would be for him.
    * * *
    Rising carefully from the bundled blanket in the middle of the night, Catriona tiptoed to the door and cracked it open slightly. She peered out at a world gone white. Snow flew sideways with the force of the wind, and sleet pelted the walls of the house. Chilled by the icy wind in her face, she rubbed her hands, in mittens, along her arms.
    Poor weather or none, she had certain needs, and she and Mr. Mackenzie would need more drinking water as well. Besides, she had awoken feeling thirsty. Fetching the wooden bowl quietly, she then stepped outside, into a bitter blast of wind. She hurried to the far end of the building, seeking the shelter of an abandoned byre that sagged behind the shieling hut. After quickly tending to her needs, shivering all the while, she straightened her clothing, then headed for the burn at the base of a little hill nearby.
    Sleet fell fast and needle sharp, and the wind shoved at her. Bowing her head, she half slid down the incline, ice-crusted grass slippery beneath her feet. She fell to her knees, dipped the bowl into the stream, wetting her mittens inadvertently. Clambering back up the hill toward the shieling hut, she stumbled, then righted herself, then slid again.
    Her feet went out from under her, and she slid over the frosted grass and splashed into the burn, its banks edged with icy-coated grasses. The shocking sensations of wet and cold penetrated her layered clothing, and she gasped, floundering.
    Sunk inches deep in a trench of fast-flowing, icy water, she fell to her hands and knees in the water. She floundered, slipped again—in the water too long, she knew, struggling, frightened. Finally she was able to scramble to her feet, grabbed her saturated skirts, and half ran, half fell up the incline to hurtle toward the house.
    Bursting inside, she saw Evan Mackenzie sit up in the darkness, then get to his feet. Catriona ran to the hearth and fell to her knees beside its heat. Tearing off her wet mittens with her teeth, she fumbled at the lacings of her leather brogans with trembling fingers.
    Mackenzie came toward her. "What happened?"
    "I fell in the stream—through the ice. I wanted to get some water for us— ach! " she exclaimed in dismay, as she drew off one wet leather shoe to reveal her saturated woolen stocking.
    Her fingers were trembling and red with cold, and the chill in her limbs felt like knives. Her skirt and petticoats were wet through to her chemise and knickers. Thin slivers of ice clung to the hem of her skirt as she tried to unlace the other shoe.
    "Here, let me help," Mackenzie said, kneeling beside her. He took her foot and undid the lacing deftly, pulling the shoe off to set it by the fire.
    "Your stockings," he said. "Take them off."
    Mutely, she reached under her wet skirt modestly and carefully unfastened the ribbon garters around her upper thighs, rolling each knitted stocking down her leg and stripping them off, leaning to set them beside the hearth. Catriona folded her bare legs and feet under her skirt, seeking warmth, but her skirts and petticoats were cold and wet.
    "Ach Dhia," she said, teeth chattering. When Mackenzie turned to whip the blanket off the floor, she lifted a hand. "No, we cannot risk getting our only blanket wet."
    "Take my jacket, then," he said, tugging it off to drape it over her shoulders. Then he took her hands in his and rubbed them between his palms, his touch so divinely warm that Catriona gasped at the sheer relief of it. "Let me rub your feet, if you will, Miss," he said, bending.
    "It can wait," she said, but