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"Nonsense! A woman does need to protect herself, does she not, Lochiel? I aian dubh? Noould you please be so kind as to assist…" She wagged her calf in his general direction
"How dare you behave so at my table, Rowena, " Ewen spat "If you can carry the blade, you can unsheathe it yourself Now somebody please call Lily back so we can have this over with "
As Ewen turned his back on Rowena, Robert was the only one to notice the spark of anger that flashed through a crack in her otherwisethe moment’s rare solitude, Lily spent her ti over what she ’d request as her part in the gaood at Truth or
Dare either The other kids always came up with provocative questions to ask or clever pranks to dare, but she always found that she just ended up dreading her turn When Donald called her back into the roo off the table and request a sih
The ite array of ould have been priceless antiques in her ti any one of those things back with her through the labyrinth and sell it, she wouldn’t have to work for a year At this thought, a vague sense of anxiety washed over her
Lily didn’t understand why the thought of leaving the Camerons would et back to her own life, wasn’t she? Granted, she clearly felt a connection with the laird How could any red-blooded woravelly voice and intense dark blue eyes, theappreciation that she ’d seen flicker in his eyes, at the sight of his son, or even of Kat, or that monstrous horse of his
Lily sh the halls of Tor Castle, with a purposeful stride that ihlands rested on his shoulders alone An i toward her earlier, his for off the utter blackness of his hair, and his handsome waistcoat as it strained over the muscles in his arms and back His eyes and mouth had been set in a deter the line of her neck with hands that, though strong and scarred, were capable of such gentleness
Just the h her belly, contracting the muscles at her very core
She dared not confuse desire with true intimacy Just because her body responded to him, to his touch, his voice, did not mean that there was any real connection there Didn ’t he pull away every tiestion of emotional intimacy? She felt a rush of dread, and wondered that maybe he even considered her coy, or a flirt Lily quickly replayed their exchanges in hersome of their more playful banter Yet he always pulled back Clearly he knehat he wanted, and it wasn ’t some twenty-first-century woman with improper notions of femininity and equality
She could only attribute the confusin g sensation to tooto participate in this preposterous ga her shoulders, Lily took a deep breath She needed to get this evening on and over with Mindful of her plan, she studied the table and was thankful that there was a sly worthless iteerly picked up the tiny brown tooth and studied it in her palm A nuan to feel eh she had no idea why
"And I would like the owner to sing us a song "
There She did it Her turn was done, and if the owner didn ’t want to sing a song, then, all they would be out was a gross old tooth
"Och, lad, did you really think to forfeit your badger tooth?"
"Uncle, I’ve not lost it yet "
Donald, looking positively grieved, was not satisfied with this answer so Ewen continued, "’Twas the si I could think of "
"I… I’? I ’ else Actually, please letannoyed that her si without value on the table ended up being of some sort of priceless elimpse a moine the boy he had been as he ht nobody would want it, aye?"
"You see, Lily, " Robert took it upon hiinally hails fronificance to the clan Badgers are quick and clever fellows "
"Aye, and braw too "
"Thank you, Haive up a fight easily, just like we Highlanders Many er tooth on their person to represent their own strength and endurance "