Read Online Susana and the Scot by Sabrina York - Free Book Online Page A

sip and then stared into the crackling fire for a long while. “A damn shame, it was,” he repeated. “A damn shame.”
    Andrew opened his mouth to say something, change the subject, perhaps even bring up the castle defenses, when Magnus continued on, nearly mumbling to himself. “Thing was, Gilley couldn’t do much, but he could swim.”
    â€œI beg your pardon?”
    â€œHe could swim. Better than any man I knew. Odd that he should drown. In a loch he knew like the back of his hand.”
    â€œAccidents do happen,” Hamish offered.
    Magnus sighed. “Aye. They do.” He scrubbed his face with a palm and of a sudden, his fatigue—and his illness—were apparent.
    Andrew exchanged a look with Hamish. If their host was ailing, it was only good manners to make their excuses and leave. No doubt they could find a meal in the kitchens—Hamish had already found a very pretty cook he reported was … amenable. But before he could say a word, Magnus’s eyes lit up. “So tell me, Andrew. Do you hunt?”
    â€œHunt?” What man didn’t hunt? “I love to hunt.”
    â€œOch. Excellent.” The old man rubbed his hands together. His fatigue, miraculously, melted away.
    The rest of the evening consisted of one tale after the other, all revolving around Magnus’s hunting prowess.
    Neither Hamish nor Andrew was able to get a word in edgewise.
    *   *   *
    After she left Keir’s office, Susana filled her day making the rounds of the crofts, overseeing the schedule for the fall planting season and meeting with the tacksmen. It wasn’t difficult to avoid Andrew. Thoughts of him, however, were harder to excise.
    No matter what she did, his specter haunted her.
    He was a magnificent man … in every way. The thought only annoyed her more. And that kiss? Every time the memory rose in her mind, she was flooded with a prickling heat, a hunger, a craving … for more.
    Which was ridiculous. She didn’t want more. She didn’t want him to kiss her again. She wanted him to do one thing and one thing only.
    Leave. Hop back on his horse and hie off to Dunnet. And leave her in peace.
    She had to admit—as she reviewed the salt production reports, and met with her factor about the repairs that needed to be made in the mill, and conferred with the leader of the fishermen’s guild—it would have been wonderful to turn over the defenses of Dounreay to someone else. It was yet another duty she had to juggle in her busy day. Aye, she would have loved to turn them over to someone else. Anyone else. Anyone other than him .
    It irked her beyond belief that he didn’t even remember her, when she’d never been able to forget him.
    And today … ah, today, the memories, the regrets were even sharper.
    They’d met for the first time on a beautiful spring day. She’d been visiting family who lived in a little village outside Perth. She’d been so young then. So foolish. So when she met a handsome boy while on a walk in the woods, she’d allowed him to talk to her, charm her. She’d even flirted.
    The next day, when she’d gone for another walk—hopeful perhaps that she might see him again—he’d been there. This time he’d taken her hand and held it as they strolled through the woods.
    The next day, he’d kissed her.
    Everything had been so simple back then. Susana had been thrilled that a boy as handsome as this was interested in her. She’d been helpless before his dazzling grin, unable to resist his wiles. Indeed, she hadn’t wanted to.
    She’d fallen in love with that boy in a space of days. Fallen in love and given him everything.
    It had nearly destroyed her.
    Because one day, she went on her hopeful walk and she’d found him … but he hadn’t been alone.
    Nae. He’d been there in the woods, in their spot . With Kirstie Gunn in his