Read Online Highland Master by Amanda Scott - Free Book Online

dog at her heels. Returning his greeting, she added, “You are up early, Fin of the Battles. At this season, only osprey and fish swim so early. Is that why they call you Fin, because you swim so well?”
    “Nay, they call me so because my name is Finlagh,” he said. Then, because she still watched him, he added, “I’m coming out, lass. If you are going to look, then look. But if you want to protect your modesty, you had best turn away. My clothes lie yonder by that boulder some yards to your right.”
    “Shall I fetch them for you?” she asked demurely.
    He chuckled, swallowed water, and kicked hard for the shore. Moments later, he touched a granite slope that provided traction enough for him to stand waist deep without incident. He did not want to slip awkwardly back in while she watched.
    Shaking water from his head and slicking his hair back with both hands, he walked out of the water, wondering how long she
would
watch.
    In most Highland households, women assisted male guests with their bathing if the men had not brought servants with them. But women who did were usually married servants, not noble granddaughters of confederation captains. He noted with a grin that Catriona looked hastily away before he fully exposed himself.
    Still, she had two brothers as well as a father and grandfather, so he suspected that the male anatomy was no secret to her. Her modest demeanor amused him.
    Boreas had moved to the water to lap.
    “What are
you
doing out so early, lass?” Fin asked her as he pulled his tunic on over his head. Reaching to his knees, it covered him enough for modesty’s sake as he reached for and pulled on his braies. “Methinks your family would not approve.”
    “Aye, they would, though,” she said without turning. “I came out to apologize for… for trying to slap you yesterday.”
    “Forgive me if I doubt that they even know about that,” he said. “Don’t fret about it, but don’t try it again, either. Such behavior is always unwise.”
    His rawhide boots lay nearby, because he had worn them downstairs and across the rocky yard to the shore. But he decided to leave them off. After wearing boots and shoes for so long in the lowlands, his feet needed toughening. Moreover, the boots were still damp from theday before. Leaving them where they lay, he ignored the pricking of numerous small stones as he walked toward her barefoot.
    When she turned at last, her eyes widened. Their pupils expanded so much that her irises looked black rather than golden-hazel.
    “God-a-mercy!” she exclaimed. “You are not even… uh… shivering!”

    Catriona had not noticed his clothes before he had mentioned them, but she had expected him to have brought his plaid, at least, for warmth. Instead he wore only a thin saffron-colored tunic and thinner linen braies. So he had covered himself from shoulders to knees. But with his body still so wet, the garments hid nothing.
    Knowing he could not help but notice where she was staring, and not wanting to reveal how impressed she was with his muscular, well-hewn body, she had hastily commented instead on his lack of reaction to the shockingly cold water.
    His eyes twinkled when he said, “In troth, I feared that I had plunged into a half-melted block of ice. But, with exercise, the water soon grew bearable. I felt a current though. How far is it from here to the burn that runs out of this loch?”
    She shrugged. “A half-hour’s walk along the west shore. Or one can row there
with
the current in the coble. It would take much longer to return against it.”
    “Does the outflow produce a waterfall?”
    “Nay, just a tumbling burn that joins the Spey north of here. You must have forded it to get to where I found you, unless you entered the woods from the south.”
    “We did come into the Highlands through Glen Garry, but I turned back when my lads and I parted miles north of there,” he said. “I did not realize that I would not find another ford on this side. I