Read Online MacAlister's Hope by Laurin Wittig - Free Book Online Page A

minutes later he pulled her off the trail they had been following, and they climbed up a heavily wooded hillside, stepping around huge boulders, and over downed trees, until they arrived at the summit and the trees opened up to reveal the sweeping vista of the loch. Yellows and oranges of autumns’ trees, and a splotch of green here and there from the determined pines, framed the crystalline surface.
    Fia realized she had covered her open mouth with her hand. ’Twas possibly the most beautiful view she had ever seen.
    “Do you like it? Was I right ’twas worth the effort to get here?” Kieron asked, his voice reverent. “If there was a spring up here, I would build a house so I could wake to this sight every morn.”
    “I would like that, too,” she said. She leaned against his arm, their hands still joined as they had been since they left the chief’s chamber. As she looked out over the loch she couldn’t help but think about waking to this view every day with this man by her side, and what a blessing that life would be. “I would like that, too.”
    “Would you? Truly?”
    She sighed. “I would.” She slipped her hand out of his and walked closer to the edge of what she now saw was a bluff overlooking the loch. “Do you come here often?” she asked him, just as she felt him slide his arms around her waist. He pulled her back against his chest and it was only then that she realized she was chilled.
    “Not much anymore,” he said. “I used to come a lot when I could not take the cruelty of the other lads any longer. Now I come here when I need a bit of quiet, or just to enjoy the view.”
    They stood there in companionable silence for a while until Kieron said, “I do not want you to leave, Fia.”
    Fia’s breath hitched. “I must. Elena’s time nears and I must be there when the bairn comes. Mairi needs more training. Her sisters need…”
    “I need you,” he slowly turned her in his arms to face him. “I need you, too.” He kissed her and she could feel every reason she must leave grow hazy in her mind, even as her body heated and came alive. “I love you, Fia,” he said.
    She wanted to say the same thing to him, yearned to tell him of the incredible feelings that had come upon her so suddenly, and so completely, but she would not. It was already too late to prevent heartache for either of them, but she would not let the bond between them grow even stronger by saying what had blossomed in her heart for this man.
    When she did not speak, he looked down at her. “Do you not feel the same for me?”
    Fia shook her head, fighting her heart with every breath she took, and Kieron looked puzzled.
    “You do, lass, I know you do. I can feel it when we touch, when we look at each other, when you sleep in my arms. I can see it in your smile, and the way your eyes light up when you look at me.”
    Every word he spoke was true, but still she could not let herself say them.
    “Will you take me back to the village now, Kieron,” she said, pulling out of his embrace and heading back the way they had come.
    He followed her down the hill letting silence fall between them like a heavy winter blanket, and Fia knew she had hurt him, though that was the last thing she would ever want to do.
    When they reached the trail, he drew up next to her. “Why do you deny it, Fia? I ken we have not known each other long, but what I feel is real. What you feel for me is real, even if you will not admit it to me.”
    Fia tried to swallow, but the lump in her throat almost choked her. She stopped and looked up at Kieron, her Kieron if she could allow it.
    “Can you leave here and stay in Kilmartin with me?”
    “For a short time, aye, and then we can return here. I shall build us a cottage near my grandmum’s. I think you two will like each other.”
    Fia shook her head. “I cannot come back here, at least not until Elena’s children are grown, Mairi trained in herb lore, the little girls, too. She and Symon have done so