The Highlander's Secret(7)

Jain always looked forward to seeing him, but had the sneaking suspicion Moira had an ulterior motive for asking him to come. Jain was of marrying age now, and the other girls in Elign had already been promised to respectable husbands. She suspected her mother had taken it upon herself to play matchmaker.

Jain shook her head and smiled, working on her second loaf. She glanced over at her mother in the corner. Before she could say anything, there was a bustle of noise outside and a knock on the door. Moira went to answer it and Aileen turned to Jain excitedly as the door swung open, giving her arm a gentle squeeze.





Chapter Three


Jain didn’t know what to do with her hands while she looked up at Alan standing in the doorway. His broad shoulders and muscled chest nearly blocked the entire opening as he greeted Jain’s mother in the threshold.

“Good morrow, Moira. Jain. Aileen,” he addressed the others with a nod. His shaggy blond hair fell past his shoulders and in his arms was a bit of cloth.

“Good morrow. Glad to see ye,” Moira greeted him, ushering him to come inside. “Please, come in and warm yerselves by the fire.”

Jain glanced over at him while her mother spoke, and their eyes met from across the room. His were dark and mysterious, and brown as the chestnut mare they had outside. She felt like she could get lost in them for hours. The corner of his mouth edged up into a crooked smile when he saw her and Jain felt a warm sensation spread across her body.

She looked away before anyone else could notice, but the apples of her cheeks felt hot. Thankfully, her mother and Aileen were too distracted at playing host to see her skin grow flushed.

“Bruce had me bring up the blade ye commissioned, since I was coming here anyway. I wanted to show ye it was finished.”

Moira clapped her hands together and laughed. “Ah, yes. The blade is here at last. Let’s see it then.”

Alan walked into the house and set the bundle on the table. It landed on the wooden surface with a metallic clink and he started to unwrap it.

Rodrick appeared at the door a few minutes later and waved his hand in greeting. He had an easy smile and boyish charm that endeared him to everyone he met. His warm, brown eyes twinkled when he saw her cousin, and then he cleared his throat discreetly. Aileen flushed at the sight of him and stood up from her chair, almost knocking it over in the process.

Jain rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh at the two of them. They were just so adorably awkward she couldn’t help herself at times.

“Good morrow, Moira … Aileen,” he said nervously.

Moira embraced him with a hug and welcomed him inside. “Good morrow, Rodrick. Alan was just about to show us the blade that he’s been working on.”

Jain watched as Alan unwrapped the fabric on the table and laid the blade out for them to see. The blade was razor sharp, with a Celtic dragon on the hilt. The carving along its handle was intricately fine and would be the envy of all who saw it. Especially for an apprentice so new to the trade, the work was far beyond anything she expected – he’d be a master of the craft in no time.

Jain heard her mother gasp at the sight of it, gazing down at the crafted steel. “Oh, Alan … tis beautiful,” Moira told him.

Alan smiled at her compliment, but gazed up at Jain when he responded, “I agree. Beauty does not begin to describe it.”

The tone of his voice was tender, and it did not escape her notice that Alan was talking about her and not the blade. Jain gazed back at him in surprise. His brown eyes bore into her from where he stood, beneath a handsome brow ridge. She felt her body stiffen at the connection and butterflies danced within her stomach, before Jain shook her head and blushed.

Moira continued to gaze down at the prize. “How did ye get the metal to shape like that?” she asked.

“I was trying something new with the steel and it turned out better than I could have hoped.”

Rodrick chuckled. “Alan has been working on nothing else fer a whole month straight. I thought he was going mad.”

Jain grinned and rinsed her hands off in the basin before crossing her arms in front of her chest and coming to see Alan’s work. She’d been over to the smithy regularly to visit her uncle and had plenty of opportunities to see Alan work. It was an impressive sight to see, whenever Alan wielded a hammer. Over the past year his skill grew from that of a mere apprentice to that of a talented craftsman. He was not a scrawny teenager anymore, the years with Bruce had made him strong. He was two and twenty years old, and tall.

When Jain stood beside him, she felt the heat of his body next to her and the hairs of the back of her neck stood on edge in anticipation. At one point their hands accidently touched underneath the table and it made her skin ignite with delicious tingles. Perhaps it was not so accidental after all – for either of them. He smelled dark and heady, with just a hint of sweat.

Jain thought it was exactly the way a man should smell, and it stirred something deep inside her she could not identify.

What was wrong with her? She shouldn’t be focusing on the way he smelled or looked, but it was near intoxicating once she recognized the effect he had on her and that made it difficult to think about anything else. Jain’s breath caught in her chest as his presence beside her became even more of a distraction. She brushed her fingers across the hilt.

Her jaw fell open at its delicate beauty.

How could someone as large and strong as Alan be capable of such intricate work? Jain had seen his hands as they wielded a hammer in Bruce’s shop and knew the power they could harness. Yet, those same hands were able to handle something this fine and delicate. It was a marvel of skill and artistry.