Heaven and the Heather by Elizabeth Holcombe

lap and raised it to her lips. “Ye’re a muckle peckish. Eat.”
    For once he spoke with sense, at least she thought he did. Those Scottish words were so confusing.
    She opened her mouth and allowed him to slide the bread onto her tongue. Let him serve her. The honey left a trail on her bottom lip and on Niall’s finger. She closed her lips, softly around it. Her tongue flickered over the honey on his finger until it was clean of it. How liberating to do something so absurd! It must be the wine gone to her head.
    “Lovely,” Niall said sliding his finger over her lips. He swiped it through the honey on the plate. This sweetness he did not give to her, but kept for himself. “So, very lovely,” he said. Did he speak of her?
    Sabine straightened and blinked. “Remove that mask. You look absurd.”
    “Oh, aye? I thought I look quite dashing. Yer lover didnae even recognize me.”
    “Lover? You speak a lie, Niall MacGregor. I do not love Campbell. I hardly know the man.”
    He reached to the bedside table and took up a knob of beef from the trencher. He took a large bite of the meat. “Campbell seems to enjoy having you for a pet. But that is the way of the wealthy, marry someone ye dinnae know and suffer the rest of yer life in gilded glory.” She tried to snatch her sac from him. He immediately held it beyond her reach.
    She huffed. “You are so very rude. And that is my supper that you seem to be so very much enjoying.”
    Niall stopped chewing. “Was this yers?” He held the beef out to her.
    “You know very well that it is mine.” She looked away catching a glimpse of the attendant and the Highland bear, now unmasked, sharing what appeared to be intimate conversation before the tapestry of dancing nymphs. The woman twirled a lock of her golden hair about her forefinger, and looked at the Highlander through her dark lashes, a coy smile on her lips. If the attendant heard her and Niall, they seemed unconcerned, oblivious. Sabine looked away. “How dare you call me Campbell’s pet.”
    “You deny that he doesnae enjoy having ye beside him.”
    “Campbell relishes his proximity to Her Majesty more.”
    She could not help but look into the blue eyes of this Highland man, sitting so close to her.
    Free me.
    Sabine gasped. Had she said that aloud? Niall’s face showed no reaction. He took another bite of meat before setting it back on the plate.
    “Why are you really here, away from your wild home?” she asked.
    He swallowed. The sinew of his strong neck tightened. “‘Wild home’. Ye speak of the Highlands with a soft music in yer voice, as if they were far more agreeable to ye than this place. Do they entice ye a wee bit?”
    “I have never been to these Highlands. How can they possibly agree with me, much less entice me?”
    Niall leaned forward on the bed, the warmth of his breath touched her face. The scent of the meat on his breath drew her nearer to him than she would dare. Her belly rumbled again.
    He reached around her, his knuckles brushing the side of her breast. She thought, or did she hope, he was going to hold her, but the next thing she knew he held the knob of beef before her astonished eyes.
    “Eat, and I’ll tell ye why I’m here.”
    “Perchance I do not wish to know.”
    “If that were true,” he said. “Ye would have screamed for the guards.”
    Sabine harumphed and took the meat from him. She was not going to let him feed her again. She bit into it. The juices exploded on her tongue, filling her mouth. She chewed and swallowed then took another bite, before realizing Niall was staring at her.
    “And ye called me savage,” he said. “Ye eat with all of the delicacy of a wolf on fresh prey.”
    “I eat because I’m hungry. I eat with ferocity because I’m angry,” she snapped.
    “Why?”
    “I want my sac . You waste time with me here, when you could go to the queen.”
    “Aye, I will go to her, and I havenae been wasting my time with ye. I will honor our agreement. I