Page 32 of Leila’s Legacy

Heat flooded Niall’s face. “To catch ye chanting a spell while ye bewitch me.”

Those pinched brows lifted now. “I’ve bewitched you?”

The dream flooded back to him, hot with lust. “Ye lodged yerself in my mind. I know it. Ye sent me dreams…”

She was looking at him as if he was mad. “What fools you Scotsmen are.” She spoke in a low, quiet tone that was absent malice, and yet cold as ice. “You confuse your own lusts for bewitchment and set the blame at my feet when I never asked for your attention or that of any other.”

Niall frowned. “Any other? Has someone else claimed ye’ve bewitched them as well?”

“Alban,” she replied, as if disgust roiled in her stomach. “I thought you were better than him. It appears you are not.” Her shoulders fell and she sounded suddenly very tired. “Please leave me.”

“Alban was here?” he demanded.

She sucked in a hard breath. “Leave me.” She put her back to him and hugged her slender body.

What had Alban done to her? Niall ground his teeth, assuming the worst and most probable scenario.

“Did he touch ye?” Niall asked.

“Leave me,” Leila repeated. “I’ll not have you presuming I only seek to further bewitch you this eve.”

Niall approached slowly. “Lady Leila. Forgive me.”

She lifted her eyes to him, large and luminous in the muted moonlight. “I have not bewitched you,” she whispered. “I swear it on my love of my family.”

And in that one moment, Niall realized the truth of her words, as well as the power of his own longing and care for this seemingly frail woman. God, he was a fool.

“I know,” he said quietly. He wanted to reach a hand up to her face, to stroke the creaminess of her skin in the fragile light, but he tamped down the longing. “Did Alban come to ye?”

She nodded and his stomach dropped.

“Did he…?” Niall could not force the question out. It was his own cowardice that stayed his tongue. He had been avoiding Leila for fear of her having bewitched him. He had not been there to protect her.

“He tried.” Leila folded her arms over her chest. “He will try again.”

“Ye thought I was him.”

Leila nodded. “I peeled a bit of wood from the trunk because nothing on the bed would give way. It was only a sliver, but I’d hoped it would be enough. Apparently, it was not.”

He glanced down at his chest and found flecks of splintered wood remaining. It had not even pierced his leine. “Alban willna bother ye again,” he vowed.

She nodded but did not appear convinced. Not nearly as much as Niall. For when he was done with Alban, the man would never think of laying a hand on another woman again.