Read Online Morna's Legacy 04 - Love Beyond Measure by Bethany Claire - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bethany Claire
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“Stand up and let’s move your chair into the bathroom. I don’t want to trim your hair over the carpet.”
He did as I asked. Once he was vertical, I dragged his chair along onto the tile floor, surprised to find a pair of scissors resting in a small basket on the bathroom sink, along with wrapping cloths, washcloths, and a large jar of a homemade salve. “What’s all this?” I asked as Eoghanan joined me, sitting down in the chair, immediately leaning his head back into my open hands.
“’Tis what Morna applies to me wound each day. Makes it herself.”
“Up you go.” I lifted his head and turned on the faucet, wetting my hands so that I could run them through his hair, re-wetting the strands so I could comb them through. “Have you been doctored today, yet?”
“No. I shall do it meself once ye have finished.”
I examined his scar as I combed his hair. It would be a messy job if he tried to apply the salve himself, and I imagined it wouldn’t feel good on his shoulder. “No. I’ll do it when I’m finished.”
“There’s no need. The sight of me naked from a distance scared ye half to death. I doona wish to make ye see it more closely.” He laughed a little, but there was a question in his statement.
With his head sufficiently wet and combed, I picked up the scissors and set to work, one curl at a time. “The only reason I turned away was because I’d not expected to find you naked, not because it hurt my eyes to look at you. Quite the opposite actually.”
I couldn’t hide the heat that spread up my neck this time, not with him staring up at me from the mirror. I’d truly meant to keep that last sentence inside my head and inwardly I grimaced. What was it about him that made me blurt things out without thinking?
I glanced up to see both corners of his mouth quirk a bit, trying to hold back a smile, but as soon as he caught my attention he let it loose. “Aye? Is that so, lass?” He twisted in his chair to look over his back at me.
Deciding there was no way to answer without embarrassing myself further, I placed my hands on either side of his head and twisted him back around to the front. “Unless you want to end up bald, I suggest you quit squirming in your seat.”
He laughed loudly but obeyed, stiffening his shoulder as he sat up straight. “As ye wish, lass. As ye wish.”
Chapter 10
Eoghanan woke the next morning energized in a way unfamiliar to him. Lying with his eyes still closed, he reveled in it—the newness of the feeling of a good night’s sleep. Instead of waking on edge, his jaw clenched and shoulders tight, he woke to find a pleasant numbness radiating down his body. His shoulders loose, his mouth still wide from sound sleep. He usually never slept more than a few brief moments each night, waking often with his mind churning.
He’d not always been that way. As a young boy, still free and naïve of life’s inevitable woes, he’d been able to sleep until the sun was far into the sky each day. The night of Osla’s death, his brother Baodan’s first wife, everything changed for him. Unable to save her, an impenetrable sense of failure and guilt settled over Eoghanan. Impenetrable, until now.
While the blade Niall had run down his body nearly killed him, it had also saved Eoghanan in ways he was just beginning to see. Without such an injury, he would never have journeyed to this strange time. He would never have met Grace.
Her presence here was no accident, of that he was now certain. Morna had lied to him before, when she’d said she didn’t control where he went on his travels. She was too much of a matchmaker and the coincidence too strange to explain Grace’s arrival at the small inn otherwise. The old witch had shown him the lass for a reason. Eoghanan couldn’t help but hope it was to fulfill some missing piece of his soul.
For over seven years, he’d shut out any possibility of love for another woman, paying a silent penance for sins that weren’t
He did as I asked. Once he was vertical, I dragged his chair along onto the tile floor, surprised to find a pair of scissors resting in a small basket on the bathroom sink, along with wrapping cloths, washcloths, and a large jar of a homemade salve. “What’s all this?” I asked as Eoghanan joined me, sitting down in the chair, immediately leaning his head back into my open hands.
“’Tis what Morna applies to me wound each day. Makes it herself.”
“Up you go.” I lifted his head and turned on the faucet, wetting my hands so that I could run them through his hair, re-wetting the strands so I could comb them through. “Have you been doctored today, yet?”
“No. I shall do it meself once ye have finished.”
I examined his scar as I combed his hair. It would be a messy job if he tried to apply the salve himself, and I imagined it wouldn’t feel good on his shoulder. “No. I’ll do it when I’m finished.”
“There’s no need. The sight of me naked from a distance scared ye half to death. I doona wish to make ye see it more closely.” He laughed a little, but there was a question in his statement.
With his head sufficiently wet and combed, I picked up the scissors and set to work, one curl at a time. “The only reason I turned away was because I’d not expected to find you naked, not because it hurt my eyes to look at you. Quite the opposite actually.”
I couldn’t hide the heat that spread up my neck this time, not with him staring up at me from the mirror. I’d truly meant to keep that last sentence inside my head and inwardly I grimaced. What was it about him that made me blurt things out without thinking?
I glanced up to see both corners of his mouth quirk a bit, trying to hold back a smile, but as soon as he caught my attention he let it loose. “Aye? Is that so, lass?” He twisted in his chair to look over his back at me.
Deciding there was no way to answer without embarrassing myself further, I placed my hands on either side of his head and twisted him back around to the front. “Unless you want to end up bald, I suggest you quit squirming in your seat.”
He laughed loudly but obeyed, stiffening his shoulder as he sat up straight. “As ye wish, lass. As ye wish.”
Chapter 10
Eoghanan woke the next morning energized in a way unfamiliar to him. Lying with his eyes still closed, he reveled in it—the newness of the feeling of a good night’s sleep. Instead of waking on edge, his jaw clenched and shoulders tight, he woke to find a pleasant numbness radiating down his body. His shoulders loose, his mouth still wide from sound sleep. He usually never slept more than a few brief moments each night, waking often with his mind churning.
He’d not always been that way. As a young boy, still free and naïve of life’s inevitable woes, he’d been able to sleep until the sun was far into the sky each day. The night of Osla’s death, his brother Baodan’s first wife, everything changed for him. Unable to save her, an impenetrable sense of failure and guilt settled over Eoghanan. Impenetrable, until now.
While the blade Niall had run down his body nearly killed him, it had also saved Eoghanan in ways he was just beginning to see. Without such an injury, he would never have journeyed to this strange time. He would never have met Grace.
Her presence here was no accident, of that he was now certain. Morna had lied to him before, when she’d said she didn’t control where he went on his travels. She was too much of a matchmaker and the coincidence too strange to explain Grace’s arrival at the small inn otherwise. The old witch had shown him the lass for a reason. Eoghanan couldn’t help but hope it was to fulfill some missing piece of his soul.
For over seven years, he’d shut out any possibility of love for another woman, paying a silent penance for sins that weren’t
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