by Tefft, Cyndi
“Shut up! These heads are freaking me out. I swear they’re watching me.”
Grinning, Aiden looked up at the hunting trophies in appreciation. “‘Tis a fine, braw stag there.” He pointed to one with a massive set of antlers. “Lord in heaven, I’m looking forward to going hunting again.”
I swiveled my head in surprise. “When are you going hunting?”
“Next weekend, with Ian and Paul. Och, I must have forgotten to tell you.” My face fell at the thought of him being gone another weekend. “I’m sorry, Lindsey. Ian had already bought the tags before he asked. I didn’t think it proper to turn him down.”
I tried to put on a brave face. “It’s all right. You said yourself that you’re really looking forward to it.”
He smiled then and I could see the truth in that statement. His eyes got a faraway look as he talked about the joy of tracking a deer through the brush, finding the signs of the trail like pieces to a puzzle, and waiting for just the right moment to make the kill, clean and quick.
I grimaced and shook my head. “I don’t like the idea of killing an animal, not when you don’t have to.”
He took my hand and we left the lodge, walking back along the path into the woods. “I can see why you’d feel that way. You’ve never had to kill a living thing in order to eat. All your food comes in a wrapper or a box, from a shelf in the store. But there is something beautiful and wild about the dance between a man and a beast when you depend on the meat to survive. And aye,” he held up a hand to stifle my protest, “I know very well that I will not starve now without the hunt, but I will honor the spirit of the animal and use every bit that I can, just as my family always did before.”
“Well, I guess it won’t be a complete loss. Mom wanted me to take the girls to the seamstress next weekend so we can be fitted for our dresses for the wedding.” I was telling him about the pattern I’d picked out for the bridesmaids’ dresses when we heard a muffled cry off in the distance.
Aiden stopped on the trail, listening, his brows drawn in concentration. The sound of a woman crying became more pronounced and he moved off the trail toward her. I followed behind him, worried about how badly she might be hurt and what had happened. But I came to a dead stop when we found Mona on the ground, hunched over and clutching her ankle. Aiden bent down beside her and reached toward her injury, but she batted his hand away.
“Freakin’ hole came out of nowhere and I fell right in like a dumb Dora,” she said, tears streaking her cheeks.
“Can you put any weight on it?” He gently pulled her to her feet, putting one arm around her waist. She tried standing, but winced in pain and shook her head. Aiden effortlessly lifted her into his arms and carried her back to the main trail. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder, and I could swear I saw her breathe in his scent with a little smile.
“Maybe you shouldn’t wear high heels when you’re hiking in the woods, Mona,” I snarled while holding a tree branch out of the way for them to pass.
“Eh, it happens. It’s a good thing I got this big, strong fella to come rescue me, ain’t it?”
Aiden insisted it was no problem and brought her back to the cabin. The rest of the group was sitting around a campfire in the open clearing between the two cabins, and Ravi jumped to his feet when he saw Aiden carrying Mona.
“She fell and hurt her ankle,” Aiden explained as he set her down. Her fingernails trailed over his chest before he straightened. Ravi made worried noises of concern as he sat down beside her and she basked in the attention.
The setting sun lit the sky in hues of red and orange, and the mood at the campfire was one of an unspoken truce. I started to relax a little, thinking that maybe Paul’s unorthodox methods might have some merit after all. Micah was whispering something in Steph’s ear and playing with her hair affectionately. She leaned back against him with a contented smile.
Paul mentioned to Jen that he and Aiden were going hunting the next weekend and she looked as surprised as I had been.
“Since when do you hunt?” she asked.
“I don’t. I mean, I haven’t ever tried it before. But Aiden used to hunt all the time back in Scotland, so he and Ian are going to show me.”
Jen lifted her eyebrows in challenge at Aiden, the hint of a smile on her mouth. “Oh yeah? And what else did you used to do in Scotland, besides hunt? Do you know how to play the bagpipes, too?”
Aiden laughed good-naturedly and shook his head. “Nae, I never learned to play the pipes, though my cousin Angus was fair good at it. My brother and I spent most of our days hunting for the family, tending the animals or training blades with my Uncle William.”
Paul’s eyebrows perked up with interest. “What do you mean by ‘training blades’?”
Aiden pulled his dirk from its sheath on his belt, resting it by the weight of its hilt in his cupped palm. “Mostly swords, but all I have now is my dirk. I’ll show you, though, if you care to learn.” Paul jumped up, an enthusiastic pupil. All eyes along the campfire watched with interest as Aiden instructed him on the basic methods of thrusting and parrying. He handed Paul his dirk and picked up a short stick to use as his own weapon.
“Ideally, you’d have a targe in your left hand for to protect your body, but when you do not have a shield, you simply must be quicker.” Paul nodded seriously, intent on his lesson as he tested the feel of the dirk in his hand. “The first rule and the most important thing to remember in any fight is to keep your balance. For if you go down, you’ve lost.”
Paul made a half-hearted strike toward Aiden, who easily moved to one side and countered by poking his stick to Paul’s chest.
“Keep your elbows in toward your body so you do not open yourself up. And shuffle your feet from side to side when you move so you cannot be knocked down.”
“Right, don’t fall down. Got it,” Paul responded, moving his feet experimentally and tucking his arms closer to his torso. They circled one another slowly, Paul thrusting forward with the blade and Aiden calmly instructing him on technique as he avoided each strike with ease.
“I know ‘tis tempting to look at my blade, but you should watch my eyes and my body instead. That’ll tell you which way I’ll move next so you can parry and counter. There’s a flow and a rhythm to a fight, and you must observe your opponent to find it. Only then can ye control him.”
Aiden made small grunts of praise and encouragement as Paul practiced, and I had to admit that Paul was a quick study. Still, Aiden had no problem keeping up with him and occasionally poked Paul in the ribs with the stick to remind him to keep a defensive stance. The pop and hiss of the campfire accentuated their battle dance. Even though Paul was the one with the knife, Aiden easily maneuvered Paul toward a fallen branch on the ground and he went down without even realizing it was there.
“That’s the second rule. You must constantly take stock of your surroundings so you cannot be tripped up. Well, I suppose that’s back to the first rule, aye?” He laughed and held out a hand, helping Paul up. Paul was smiling, obviously enjoying himself, and he looked at Aiden with a sense of awe and respect. Micah saw it, too, and a jealous sneer flashed across his face. He jumped to his feet just as Paul bent to pick up the dirk for another round.
“My turn!” he said, walking over to them and taking the knife from Paul’s hand. Aiden glanced at him warily but said nothing. Micah assumed the position, his jaw set in determination and his eyes glinting in excitement. Aiden quietly offered instruction on positioning and reminded him to keep his elbows bent, but Micah ignored him for the most part, concentrating on trying to catch Aiden off-guard. Micah took an aggressive stance and danced around the clearing after Aiden, thrusting the dirk at him repeatedly. Aiden refrained from using the stick to prove how Micah was leaving himself open, so as not to embarrass him. I squirmed on the ground in discomfort, trying to decide whether or not to say something. Stephanie, sitting next to me, looked as concerned as I was by Micah’s bravado.
&nb
sp; “Remember to watch my eyes,” Aiden said to Micah, who snorted derisively in response.
“I ain’t looking in your eyes, homo. You just keep your eyes on my blade.”
Stephanie pinched me hard on the leg with a look that clearly said, “Do something!”
“Ow!” I cried out in surprise and Aiden’s head jerked briefly in my direction. Micah lunged forward. Aiden grunted in irritation as the blade swept across his arm, leaving a bright red stripe on his bicep. He moved so quickly that he was nothing more than a blur. In a split second, he’d twisted Micah’s arm up behind his back, retrieved and sheathed the dirk at his belt and stood pressing the tip of his stick under Micah’s throat.
For an instant, I had a flashback of the attacker in Paris, and the sickening sound of bones snapping when Aiden had broken the guy’s arm. But Aiden released Micah as quickly as he’d pinned him and the group around the campfire let out a collective breath, waiting to see what Aiden would do next. Micah jerked away, rubbing his arm and glaring at Aiden, who tipped his head coolly.
“Well done. You’ve effectively demonstrated the third rule, which is to never turn away from your opponent.” The two men stared at one another for a long heartbeat, and then the tension was broken as Aiden moved off to sit down next to me. I asked him in my mind about his arm and he shook his head lightly so that only I would see.
‘Tis naught but a scratch. I shouldn’t have turned. His irritable tone made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it.
It had grown full dark so the only light was the campfire, and small talk gradually resumed once the uncomfortable silence had passed. Micah got up and stretched, then announced he had to take a piss and wandered off into the woods. Mona asked Ravi to go inside and get her some ice for her ankle and then stood up, testing it. He left to do her bidding and she limped over to me and dramatically sat down with a grimace. She waited until Aiden was in conversation with Stephanie and leaned over to me, her voice low.
“It was awfully nice of Aiden to carry me all the way back, don’tcha think? He didn’t really have to, but I guess he wanted to. He has very strong arms.”
She was baiting me and I knew it so I didn’t say anything and stared at the fire, wishing she would go away.
She pressed on. “I hear you invited Stephanie to stay in your room tonight and left Aiden out in the cold.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be surprised to find him warming someone else’s bed, since you’re keeping tight as a nun.”
I was staring open-mouthed at her, ready to say something I’d regret, when I felt Aiden’s hand on my leg.
Everything all right? He hadn’t spoken out loud, but Mona smiled at him like she knew what he was thinking. He put his arm around me and pulled me close against his side, shutting her out. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down.
Ravi appeared at the edge of the clearing with the bag of ice and Mona limped back to the spot where she’d been sitting before. She accepted his ministrations with exaggerated sweetness, stroking his arms affectionately. The sincerity of Ravi’s smile and the concern on his face made my stomach clench in anger, since he clearly had no idea she was using him.
Micah returned from the woods and sat down on a log at the edge of the clearing, kicking a foot against it absentmindedly. Aiden tensed next to me and in the blink of an eye, he’d drawn his dirk and flung it with all his might at the log where Micah sat. Micah made a girlish squeal and jumped back when the knife came at him, the silver of the steel glinting in the firelight.
“What the fuck?!” Micah cried, ready to launch himself at Aiden.
“Holy shit,” Paul said in disbelief, pointing at the ground at Micah’s feet where the blade was stuck through the head of a greenish-gray rattlesnake. The snake had slithered out from under the log when Micah sat down and now lay pinned and writhing beneath him in the dirt, its tail flailing helplessly. Micah stared at it dumbly for a second and then his face registered sudden understanding. He swallowed hard, recognizing the danger that had been averted by Aiden’s quick strike. He stared at Aiden, obviously torn between anger and relief.
“Nice shot!” Paul cried, jumping up to peer at the two-foot long snake that had finally stopped squirming. “Dude, you should cut the rattle off and keep it as a souvenir,” Paul told Aiden, who declined and gestured to Micah apologetically.
“Sorry I scairt ye, Micah. But I didn’t know if it would strike and I didn’t want to wait to find out.”
Micah mumbled his thanks begrudgingly.
Mona got up and hobbled over to the snake for a closer look. “Ooh, look at those teeth. That venom would have knocked you off with one bite,” she said admiringly, reaching out a hand.
“I wouldn’t touch that, lassie,” Aiden called out. Just then, Paul yanked the knife free and chopped off the snake’s head with a quick blow. Vile excrement that reeked like rotting meat suddenly erupted from the snake and sprayed all over Mona’s chest. She reeled backwards at the heinous stench, swearing a blue streak in her thick New York accent. Then she covered her mouth and made gagging sounds, trying not to vomit. I giggled at the scene she was making and Ravi shot me a dirty look as he leapt to her aid. I coughed a little and looked away but could not suppress the grin on my face.
Mona snapped at Ravi and limped back toward the cabin to get cleaned up. He followed her like a puppy dog afraid of its master. Paul wrinkled his nose at the snake’s septic odor, but proceeded to chop off its tail as well. He gave the rattle to Micah who wiggled it back and forth. One corner of his mouth curled up in a smile.
“That’s cool,” he admitted and proceeded to play with it for the rest of the evening until the fire burned down to embers and we all retired to our cabins.
Chapter 26
Stephanie slept soundly next to me in the homey, country bedroom of our cabin, the down comforter tucked under her chin. Aiden had kissed me goodnight after he’d changed into his kilt, then left to go make his bed in the woods. I knew he was more than capable of taking care of himself out there, but I couldn’t stop thinking about snakes and Mona’s wicked insinuation. I didn’t trust her to stay away from him, injured ankle or not.
Staring at the ceiling, I tried to will myself to sleep but I knew it was no use. The damning glow of the alarm clock confirmed it. One o’clock in the morning and I was no closer to sleep than I’d been two hours ago. I gave up and quietly slipped out of bed, pulling my bathrobe on over my nightgown. Stephanie rolled over and made a snuffling sound. Frozen in place, I counted my breaths—one, two, three—but she didn’t move again. Quickly, before I lost my nerve, I donned my sheepskin slippers and headed outside to find Aiden.
Crossing the clearing, I passed the blackened, cold remains of our earlier campfire. I cast a sideways glance at the log where the rattlesnake had been hiding. The cold night air made me shiver, but the stars shone so brightly that I had no problem finding my way. I hurried into the woods along the path I’d walked with Aiden earlier, trying to decide which way he might have gone. I pulled my bathrobe tight against my body to block out the chill, then stuffed my hands into the flannel-lined pockets.
Aiden stood off to the left up ahead, leaning against a tree. Legs crossed at the ankles, he struck a casual pose, but there was nothing casual in the way he was looking at me. His eyes drank me in as I made my way toward him.
He’d been waiting for me. Like he knew I’d come.
I couldn’t decide if I was impressed or annoyed by that.
“Am I so predictable?” I asked, stopping just shy of his reach. With a tilt of my chin, I dared him to reply.
“Not predictable,” he said, glancing down at my fuzzy slippers. “Audible.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling like a moose blundering through the underbrush, leaving an easy trail for the hunter. He could hear me coming from a mile away. Embarrassment flushed in my cheeks and I turned to go.
Aiden caught me before I’d taken one step.
“Why did you come?” His
face held only curiosity, no mockery. Moonlight painted streaks in his blond hair before disappearing into the shadow of his cheek. The urge to reach up and touch him nearly overwhelmed me.
“Because...” I began, but then faltered.
Because there are snakes and creepy crawly things out here?
Because it’s cold and you might get lonely?
Because Mona was taunting me and I don’t trust her?
Because...
Because...
Because...
“I missed you,” he said, stealing the words from my lips. I nodded. That’s what I wanted to say and the fact that he said it first made my heart swell. His thumb traced the contours of my cheek, then trailed across my jaw. “Lord in heaven, you are beautiful,” he said, leaning forward slowly. Soft lips brushed against mine like a whisper, just a taste. His fingers threaded through my hair as he kissed me again, teasing his tongue across my lower lip. Desire quivered within me, building in intensity like a kettle on a hot burner. Stepping into his embrace, I blocked out everything but him: his body heat wrapping around me, his masculine scent filling my lungs, his touch turning every nerve ending into a live wire.
Blissful whimpers escaped from my lips as his mouth moved lower, down my chest. A growl of need echoed in my head.
I want ye.
He twisted us around and pressed me against the trunk of the tree, dropping his hands to the front of my robe. I sent him a mental picture of the two of us covered in nothing but the silver gleam of the full moon. His visceral reaction lit my skin on fire. I dragged his face back to my lips just as he hoisted me up so that my legs wrapped around his waist.
