Read Online Highland Fire (Guardians of the Stone) by Tanya Anne Crosby - Free Book Online

their recipe for the water of life came straight from the faeries who had first led his people to this glen. Like everything in this little slice of heaven on earth, the recipe was a legacy to their ancestors, kept for generations and changed not a whit.
    Like the crannóg they slept in.
    Made completely of wood, the building had been designed to hold an entire village in the event of war, but Dubhtolargg was far larger than it had been when their ancestors had first arrived here. Despite that many Highland villages were now protected by new stone fortresses that buttressed the sky, they had no need of such bastions here. Those monstrous creations of men were monuments to fear. Here they were protected by the land itself—and some would say by the ancient faerie glen where men must pass before coming down into the vale. This was not a country for the enfeebled, and very soon he would discover precisely what Lìleas MacLaren was made of. If his bride would seek a warm bed, she would need gather near, for the walls here were no doubt far thinner than those she was accustomed to at Keppenach.
    Now it was Aidan’s turn to cough, for the thought of Lìleas lying naked in his bed sent a surge of lust through his veins that stirred his cock, startling him so that he swallowed his uisge down the wrong pipe. Mo chreach! He couldn’t recall the last time a lass had such sway over his willie. The women of his clan were hardly shy. They held as much dominion as any man, and loved where they would, but Aidan had never been able to stomach the thought of fathering lads with a woman he didn’t care to live with.
    Enemy or nay, Lìleas was a lovely thing, with curves in all the right places and breasts that were far riper than a body so lean should have a right to bear. He reasoned that it must be because she had already borne a child, but her belly belied that fact. She was a beautiful contradiction, his bride—everything about her. And though he had contemplated returning her to her father if she didn’t please him, he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that he would not.
    In fact, there was no reason to delay the hand fasting, he decided in that very instant. If Lael managed not to kill her this afternoon, he would wed Lìleas MacLaren on the morrow.
    A tiny smile curled his lip, for the simple fact that none of his sisters had returned with news of Lìleas’ demise was a verra good sign. In celebration, he poured himself and Keane another cup full of uisge . “Drink!” he commanded. “Tonight we celebrate.”
    If Lìleas made it through the afternoon with his sisters, at the very least they would celebrate not having to go to war with her bloody Da.

Chapter Five

     
    T he instant Aidan’s sisters were gone, Lìli sent Aveline to retrieve water for the basin in their room. She waited for about an hour, and when Aveline had yet to return, she went in search of water herself and found a well not far from the cottage. But even after hauling the bucket back, Aveline was nowhere to be found.
    All the better, Lìli decided, for she wasn’t accustomed to having anyone wait on her anyway and she preferred not to have an audience while she bathed.
    Aveline was likely with Rogan anyway, Lìli thought.
    Poor girl... she had come to Keppenach as Rogan’s ward and though he had wasted little time in bedding her, he clearly did not intend to wed her. He had cast her off so easily. He never showered her with gifts, nor did he publicly acknowledge her as his mistress. Whatever Aveline owned she had brought along with her from her father’s home—and quite a lot there was!
    With some effort, Lìli moved Aveline’s enormous trunks out of the way to get to her measly two chests. Lìli had brought very little in regards to clothing, but she had stuffed all the herbs she could fit in her coffers. Realizing that once she was gone they would allow her garden go to weeds, she had harvested everything she could. Half the other trunk was full of herbs