Bride for Glenmore (10 page)

Her brother was very astute about other people’s problems, she mused, just not about his own.

When was he going to notice that Evanna was perfect for him?

Ethan returned to the picnic rug and handed Kirsty to Logan. ‘She loves the water.’

‘Of course. She’s a local. She’ll swim like a mermaid by the time she’s four.’ Logan grinned. ‘Just like her Aunty Kyla.’

‘I was three.’

‘And you were always leaping off the rocks into the water. “Keep an eye on your sister Logan.’” Logan gave a wry smile as he mimicked his mother’s voice. ‘You had no sense of danger.’

‘You can’t live your life looking over your shoulder.’ Kyla finished the food on her plate, careful not to look at Ethan. She wanted to swim but not now. Not while he was there. She’d go back to her cottage, wait for them to finish the picnic and then come down later. ‘I’m off.’ She jumped up and brushed the crumbs from her jeans. ‘Thanks, Evanna, that was delicious. Logan, I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t forget to phone Mum later. She keeps missing you when she calls and she wants to chat about the arrangements for Aunty Meg’s birthday.’

Ethan was watching her. She could
feel
him watching her and she forced herself to cast a casual glance in his direction and smile.

‘Bye, Ethan.’ She felt as though her face was going to crack. ‘See you tomorrow.’

Walk, Kyla, walk.
And no looking back.

There are other men out there, she reminded herself as she made her way across the sand to the cottages. Nice men. Uncomplicated ones.

And one day she was going to meet one of them.

CHAPTER SEVEN

E
THAN
hesitated by Kyla’s back door, knowing that he shouldn’t be there. But how could he stay away? She was avoiding her family and he was the cause of it.

She didn’t want to bump into him.

Gritting his teeth, Ethan lifted a hand to knock on the door, but at that moment she wandered into the kitchen. And saw him.

She’d obviously just come out of the shower and was wearing a pair of tiny shorts and a skimpy top, and her hair fell in damp, curling waves over her shoulders. Her feet were bare and her legs long and lightly tanned.

Their eyes held for a long moment and he wondered fleetingly whether she might just ignore him.

But then she walked over and opened the door. ‘Is something the matter? I was just going to bed.’

Bed? She looked like that to go to bed?

Ethan felt his blood pressure rise several notches and suddenly he wished he’d left this visit until the morning. Everything that needed to be said could have been said in the harsh light of day when she was wearing a navy uniform.

Not that her navy uniform did anything to disguise the tempting curve of her bottom.

‘Ethan?’ she prompted him with a frown. ‘What’s the matter?’

He pulled himself together. ‘You’re going to bed? It isn’t even nine o’clock.’

‘I’m tired.’

‘Can I come in?’

Something changed in her eyes. Suddenly they were guarded. Wary. ‘Why?’

‘Because I need to apologise.’ He came straight to the point, his voice rough. ‘And because we need to talk about the other night.’

She didn’t play games—
didn’t pretend that she didn’t know what he was talking about.
She wasn’t that sort of woman. ‘It was over a week ago, now. It doesn’t matter.’

‘I’ve tried pretending that it doesn’t matter but it hasn’t worked. And it hasn’t worked for you either, has it? I haven’t seen you at Logan’s once this week.’ And he knew she was protecting herself.

From him.

She inhaled sharply. ‘I’ve been busy, Ethan.’

‘Busy avoiding me.’

Her shoulders stiffened. ‘And what if I have? I can read signals. You made your position clear and I’m not a woman who needs to be told anything more than once.’

‘What if I told you that you misread the signals?’

‘I’d say you were lying.’ She tilted her head to one side. ‘I know rejection when I see it.’

‘No, you don’t. That wasn’t rejection.’ Suddenly it was imperative that she understood that much at least. ‘That wasn’t rejection, Kyla.’

‘Then my fluency in body language is less accomplished than I thought, because it certainly felt like rejection.’

He didn’t associate her with coldness and yet her expression was anything but encouraging. He jabbed his fingers through his hair. ‘It wasn’t rejection. Far from it. But things are complicated.’

‘And I certainly wouldn’t want to make them more complicated—goodnight, Ethan.’ She made a move to close the door but he stopped her easily and moved inside.

‘I’ll leave when you’ve heard me out. There’s something I need to tell you. I probably should have told you earlier but I couldn’t.’

She hesitated and then let go of the door but she didn’t close it. ‘All right. I’m listening. You’re going to tell me that the kiss was a mistake.’

‘It wasn’t a mistake. I just didn’t plan for it to happen.’

‘And do you plan everything that happens in your life?’

‘No. But there are things that I need to explain to you before we go any further with this.’

The chemistry was there again, pulsing between them, drawing them in. The wind was blowing outside and yet in her kitchen the air was thick, hot and pulsing with expectation. Suddenly his throat was so dry he could hardly speak and he guessed she was feeling the same way because she swallowed hard.

‘You don’t have to explain anything to me.’

‘Yes.’ The dryness made his voice hoarse. ‘Yes, I do, Kyla. It’s important.’

‘Then tell me.’

He almost laughed.
Tell me.
She made it sound so easy and yet now the moment had come he had no idea what to say. He didn’t know where to begin. He wasn’t even sure where the beginning was.

‘Are you married?’ Her softly spoken question shocked him.

‘Why would you think that?’

‘Because I suppose it’s the one thing that would stop this thing between us going any further.’

‘I’m not married.’

‘Then nothing else matters.’ She sounded so certain. So confident about everything. And she made life sound simple. ‘Ethan, you don’t need to worry. Or feel guilty. This isn’t right for you and—’

‘It’s right for me.’ He growled the words against her mouth because his hands had reached out and hauled her against him even while his brain had been sending out warnings. He ignored the warnings and kissed her.

Later. He’d worry about everything else later.

Her arms slid round his neck and he felt her slender body press against the hardness of his. He was hot and aroused and more desperate for this woman than he’d been for any other in his life.

He forgot all the reasons why he shouldn’t be doing this.

He forgot that she was probably going to hate him when she found out what he was doing there.

He just needed to answer his body’s screaming need to possess her in every way.

His hands were on the rounded curve of her bottom when they heard hammering on the door.

Ethan didn’t even lift his head but the hammering intensified and she pushed at his chest and he broke the kiss with a fluent curse.

‘Yes.’ Her flushed cheeks and faint smile told him that she agreed with his assessment of the timing. ‘Not good. But I need to see who that is.’

Ethan ran a hand over the back of his neck and hoped that whoever it was could be despatched quickly. ‘It’s pretty late. Are you expecting anyone?’

‘No. But around here people just call. Especially if they’re in trouble.’ She gave a frown, straightened her top and walked out of the kitchen towards her front door. ‘Aisla?’

Ethan heard the surprise in her voice and wondered what on earth Aisla was doing calling so late in the evening with a storm brewing. Was it her diabetes again?

And then she spoke and he heard the raw terror in the woman’s voice. ‘It’s Fraser. He’s gone.’

‘Gone where?’

‘I don’t know. He told me he was going to Hamish’s for a sleepover but I needed to speak to Hamish’s mother about a knitting order, so I rang and she told me that he wasn’t with her. And Hamish had no idea where he was.’

Kyla frowned. ‘Well, he’s an imaginative boy. He’s just playing.’

‘But it will be dark soon.’ Aisla covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head. ‘I’ve told him over and over again that he can’t just go off on his own, but he’s so independent and he sneaks off when I’m not looking. I’m a terrible mother.’

‘You’re not a terrible mother,’ Kyla said immediately, ‘and try not to panic. He’s probably gone to tea with someone else and forgotten to phone. Have you called Paul Weston? Henry Mason? They might know.’

‘I’ve called them both and they haven’t seen him.’

‘Then I’ll give Ann Carne a ring,’ Kyla said immediately, reaching for the phone. ‘She might have an idea what was in his head today.’

Ethan walked forward, ignoring the potential consequences of revealing his presence in Kyla’s cottage. ‘Where else does he normally play?’

Aisla looked distracted and her eyes were full of fear. ‘I don’t know—the beach? That’s his favourite place. He’s always sitting there, dreaming about Vikings and shipwrecks and making up stories in his head.’

Kyla came off the phone. ‘Ann Carne said that he was in school until lunchtime and then said he had to go home because he had a doctor’s appointment. He gave her a note.’

Aisla stared at her. ‘I didn’t give him a note. And Hamish didn’t mention that he hadn’t been at school this afternoon. Oh, God…’

‘There’s going to be a perfectly reasonable explanation.’ Kyla slipped her feet into the trainers that she’d left lying by the door and reached for a coat from the peg. ‘We just need to think logically and not panic. But I think, given the fact that it’s going to be dark soon, we should phone Nick Hillier and tell him what’s happening. He’ll get the whole island searching, if necessary. In the meantime we’ll take a look ourselves. I’ll go down onto the beach and take a look around.’

Ethan stepped forward, reflecting on the fact that they all turned to Kyla in a crisis. ‘I’ll just go next door and grab a jacket and my car keys. Then I’ll come with you. Two are better than one.’

‘Go back to the house,’ Kyla told Aisla. ‘That way, if he turns up at home, you can let us know. I’ll keep my mobile switched on. Call Nick and fill him in.’

Ethan grabbed what he needed from his cottage and then rejoined Kyla as she walked out of the back door and down onto the beach. Angry streaks were splashed across the darkening sky and the waves lifted and crashed against the rocks at the far end of the bay.

‘The storm is closing in. Is it worth calling the coastguard? If Fraser was walking on the cliff path, he could have been swept into the sea.’ Ethan stared at the boiling, churning water, trying to not to think about the young boy being devoured by those waves.

‘He hasn’t been swept into the sea. Don’t even think about it.’ Kyla spoke briskly but her stride quickened. ‘Fraser isn’t stupid. And, anyway, we were down there earlier. If he’d been hanging around, we would have seen him.’

‘Unless he went to a different beach.’

The both stopped and searched with their eyes and shouted, but their cries were snatched away by the rising wind.

‘Why would he go to school for the morning and then leave? It doesn’t make sense.’ Kyla reached up to stop her hair blowing into her face, a frown in her eyes as she stared at the ocean. ‘If you’re going to play truant, why turn up at all? Why do half a day at school?’

‘You think that’s significant?’

‘I don’t know. It might be. I’m going to call Ann Carne again, but I’ll do it from the house. It’s too wild on this beach to hear properly. And, Ethan…’ She put a hand on his arm and her blue eyes were worried. ‘I think you might be right. Perhaps we’d better put in a call to the coastguard. Just put them on alert.’

He followed her to the house and made the call, and when he’d finished she was standing next to him, an urgent look on her face.

‘I’ve spoken to Ann Carne.’

‘And?’

‘The last lesson of the morning was history. They were doing something on the Celts and Vikings.’

He looked at her blankly, failing to follow her train of thought. ‘Why is that significant?’

‘Because the bloodiest battle of this island’s history was fought between the Celts and the Vikings.’

‘And Fraser loves history. It’s his favourite subject.’ He looked at her, suddenly understanding. ‘Where was this battle fought?’

‘The castle.’

He gave a grim smile and reached for his keys. ‘Let’s go.’

Kyla huddled the coat around her and peered at the sky as Ethan pressed his foot to the accelerator. ‘There’s a wild storm coming. Let’s hope we find him before it hits. We could walk from here but it’s probably quicker to take the car.’

‘He might not be anywhere near the castle. We might be completely wrong. Can we park near the ruins? How close can I get?’

‘Pull in further up the road—that’s right. This is good. We have to walk from here.’ She undid her seat belt and was out of the car before he’d even switched off the engine. ‘The kids do come and play up here sometimes. During the day there are guides, waiting to tell horror stories of the dungeons.’

‘Just the sort of thing to appeal to a twelve-year-old with a vivid imagination.’

‘Precisely.’

‘But wouldn’t there have been guides today? If he came up here this afternoon then surely someone would have seen him?’

She shook her head. ‘It’s only open from ten until two. My guess is he actually waited for them to leave so that he could explore.’

‘I haven’t even had a chance to look round the ruins yet.’

‘They’re brilliant. Remind me to bring you here under less stressful circumstances.’ She broke into a run, thinking about Fraser. What would have been in his head? Where would he have gone?

She clambered over the crumbling stone wall that led into the main part of the castle. ‘Fraser? Fraser!’ The wind took her voice and carried it away and she looked at Ethan with frustration. ‘Even if he is here, he’s never going to hear us above the weather.’

‘Then we just have to search.’

She looked at him helplessly. ‘The place is a warren and it’s getting dark.’ She suddenly realised that she’d given no thought to the approach of night, and when Ethan pressed a torch into her hand she almost sobbed with relief. ‘Thank goodness one of us was thinking.’

‘You were thinking, Kyla,’ he said roughly, switching on his own torch and sending a powerful beam over the surrounding landscape. ‘It was your thinking that got us up here. Now we just need to search. If he’s here then he should see the light.’

‘Maybe. Maybe not. I’ve been thinking, Ethan.’ Kyla looked round her, focussed her eyes on the dark, crumbling ruins of the castle. ‘Fraser wouldn’t want his Mum to worry. He wouldn’t be hiding on purpose.’

‘He played truant.’

‘But for the afternoon.’ Kyla bit her lip. ‘I bet he was planning to home before the end of school so his mother wouldn’t even know he was missing. Don’t you remember that day on the beach when he came to get me? He didn’t want his mum to know. He really cares about her. He thinks about her.’

‘You’re suggesting that he’s injured.’

‘Yes.’ Kyla nodded slowly and forced herself to take a deep breath. ‘Yes, that’s what I think has happened. So he might not see the torchlight, Ethan.’

Ethan’s mouth hardened and he gave a nod. ‘So we need to look carefully.’

‘For goodness’ sake, be careful walking along the ramparts. There’s a sheer drop on the far side. There is a fence but the wind is fierce.’ And she desperately hoped that Fraser hadn’t gone in that direction.

Zipping up her coat to give her protection against the rising wind, Kyla moved through the ruins methodically, making the most of her local knowledge to search.