Unwilling (Highland Historical #2)

Roderick
the first tankard, congratulating him for his bravery with a hearty laugh.  The
next one was granted to Connor for performing the honors.  He toasted his
brother and tilted his head back and drank deeply. 
    Lindsay tried not to watch the
cords of his neck work over the swallows, or notice the flex in his arm as he
lifted the tankard to his lips.  His impressive body was well displayed wrapped
in a tartan and naught else but his boots.  Across his chest, dark tattoos of
knotted design spiked and wended through the cords of his flesh, branding him a
chieftain in the old way.  Likewise bands of knots encircled his biceps.  They
entranced her for a moment before she broke the spell with a blink.  She
resented her awareness of him and this vital, inescapable connection between
them.   
    Evelyn linked arms with her and
steered them toward the men as the music began in earnest.  “They’re
magnificent, aren’t they?” she purred.  “I know you’re cross with Connor at the
moment, but I wish you’d at least lose yourself in the festivities.”  She cast
Lindsay a suggestive look from beneath her lashes.  “Berserkers are excellent
dancers.  It must be some primitive, innate rhythm they’re in tune with.”
    “Indeed?”  Lindsay didn’t dare to think
about it.  Something about the words ‘primitive’ and ‘rhythm’ sent a dangerous
thrill through her.
    Roderick’s entire demeanor lit from
within as they approached, “Evelyn, mo chroi, I hope ye doona mind that
I promised the first dance of the night to another.”  Several masculine sets of
appreciative eyes turned toward them, and Lindsay ignored one burning glare, in
particular. 
    “And who would that be?”  Evelyn
asked with a sweet smile as she accepted a sip of ale from her husband’s
tankard. 
    “This lovely lass, here, has
requested a dance of me and she’s so charming I canna refuse.”  He swept his
hand toward a gangly girl dressed in a clean, but shabby dress.  She couldn’t
have been more than eleven, and when she offered a shy smile a few spaces
showed that she’d recently lost the last of her child’s teeth.   
    “Well.”  Evelyn winked at the
child.  “I can’t say that I blame you, but don’t expect me to be sitting here
waiting for you to return to me.  I’m going to accept the first invitation I
have to dance!”
    With a possessive kiss for his
wife, Roderick swung his dance partner to the floor and opened the evening’s
festivities.  Immediately, a handsome MacLauchlan cousin offered his hand to
Evelyn and she succumbed to the call of the pipes and drums. 
    Trying her best not to feel
abandoned, Lindsay offered a polite and inviting smile to the gathered Highlanders,
still avoiding Connor who loomed like a threatening shadow.  Perhaps one of
them would offer an escape to the dance floor. 
    Instead, they simultaneously seemed
to find something rapturously fascinating in their tankards.  Mayhap it would
be more decorous to stand with the women?  Lindsay had noticed a rakish
disregard for certain societal strictures out here in Strathlauchlan, but one
could never be certain of which rules could be adhered to or discarded in the
space of a few nights. 
    Wandering past the Laird she still
refused to acknowledge, she ambled toward the opposite side of the floor where
local and visiting ladies chatted and preened in hopes of catching the eye of a
handsome reel partner.  Though they gave her a few curious looks or polite
smiles, the women weren’t abundantly friendly.  In fact, Lindsay felt a
distinct chill from more than a few, especially those wearing the Lauchlan
colors. 
    She looked down at her borrowed
gown of deep, royal blue.  In honor of the Clan Lauchlan, she’d wound red
ribbons in her hair.  She hadn’t donned their tartan, as she was still a Ross
and not wed to a MacLauchlan, but she’d thought the gesture of wearing
the colors had been a friendly one. 
    Feeling uneasy, she turned toward
the dance floor and sought Evelyn.  To everyone’s riotous amusement, Roderick
reached out and swatted his wife’s backside as they crossed each other on the
floor.  Before she could exact her revenge, their partners swung them wide and
they were lost amongst the dozen or so other couples.  Lindsay joined in the
laughter, thoroughly charmed by the happy couple.  A melancholy weight kept her
from completely enjoying herself.  What Roderick and Evelyn shared was rare