Taming the Heiress by Susan King Page B

back to your family." Inspired, Iain set the rest of his captured crabs free. He and Dougal bent to watch them scuttle away.
    Dougal Stewart rinsed his hand in the water, splashing near Meg's bare toes, for she still stood in the shallow pool. Aware that he stared at her feet, she dropped the hem of her skirt so quickly that it soaked in the water.
    Why bother with modesty now? she thought. The man had seen all of her—she had no physical secrets from him. Looking up into his gray-green eyes, she saw that he recalled just that, and she felt herself blush fiercely. Ducking her face under the shade of her straw hat, she stepped away and sat on a rock, covering her limbs and feet with her brown skirt and petticoat.
    "Is that why you came to this side of the island, sir?" she asked coolly. "To rescue crabs and snails?"
    "I'm glad to be of service to someone. At least the snails and crabs on Caransay will think kindly of me."
    She gave him a sour look for that.
    "I was just out for a stroll on a bonny day," he said. He bent to pick up a shell, which he offered to Iain.
    "Doing more puzzles in your head?" She wanted to seem cool, detached, but seeing him with Iain made her heart beat faster. He wiped sand from his hands, then brushed Iain's hands.
    That melted her heart. But she could not surrender. She frowned, looked away.
    "I see that Lady Strathlin has come to Caransay," he said.
    "Mmm," she said with studied disinterest, as she pressed some of the water out of the sopping hem of her skirt.
    "Now that she is at Clachan Mor, perhaps I can call on her soon." He glanced toward the water, where Berry paddled contentedly in the gentle waves, her swimming costume ballooning around her. "I seem to have found her at a most inconvenient time."
    Iain giggled. "You found her! Hasn't he, Cousin Meg?"
    She glanced down. "Iain, the hole you dug over there is filling fast with water. You had better go save it."
    Iain started off, turned. "May I wade in the water, Meg?"
    "Yes, but do not go in higher than your knees," she said. He nodded and ran off.
    "Meg?" Dougal asked. "It suits you—honest and beautiful."
    Honest. She felt her cheeks burn. She had always been honest by nature–but life and society had forced her to keep secrets. How she hated lies, hated that she had allowed them to run her life, hated the way they made her feel, hollow and vulnerable and sad. She wanted to tell Stewart the truth. But she had to trust him better first.
    Not yet, she thought. She could not risk losing Iain.
    "My mother gave me an English name," she said, glad for something to say, for he was watching her curiously, the wind ruffling his rich brown hair, his glance keen. "She was from the mainland, you see, before she lived here on Caransay with my father. My parents died before I was twelve."
    "I'm sorry," he murmured. "It is hard to lose both at once."
    "Not together. My mother died of a sickness when I was eleven. I think she had a broken heart, for my father had died the year before—out there," she murmured, looking out to sea. "A storm took him."
    "On the reef?" he asked.
    She nodded. "My mother was lovely. Very kind, with the natural elegance of a lady," she said. "Her father was... he had wealth and status on the mainland, yet his daughter went on holiday in the Hebrides and fell in love with a simple fisherman and married him without her father's consent. He was furious about that." She gave a flat laugh. "He accepted it later—and made amends to the family, I suppose."
    "Your father must have been a remarkable man," Dougal remarked quietly.
    "He had such goodness in him," she said. "A big heart and such humor, and when he sang it was magic to hear it. Handsome, too," she said, and smiled. "But he died out there, taking in his lobsters. Went out on a bright morning, singing and laughing, and never came back. My mother never recovered from it." She shook her head. "His nephew, my cousin Fergus MacNeill, is very like him."
    "And Iain?" he