Page 24 of Highland Spy

There was a quiet grace to her, a gentleness contradicting her show of courage and fortitude. And under the layer of powerful determination, an innocence.

What the hell had Delilah said to her during their lesson?

Aye, Ariana needed instruction on how to use flirtation to escape situations and glean information, but he certainly hadn’t wanted her being taught too much. Especially when Ariana had already demonstrated a habit of not backing down from a challenge.

“What did Delilah say to ye today?” he asked.

A dagger clattered to the floor. The color rose high in her cheeks. “Gaelic.”

Clever girl. His mouth almost quirked into a smile. “I meant yer other lesson.” He set to work lowering the target to keep her from feeling as if she were being interrogated.

Her tongue flicked out between her lips and she kept those large green eyes of hers fixed on him. “Kissing.”

Kissing.

He almost laughed with relief. While he trusted Delilah’s gentleness, he’d still have a talk with her to have a care with Ariana.

“We call the lessons seduction.” He hefted the weight of the target into his hands. “But I want ye to know I dinna expect ye to seduce anyone. It’s tutelage on using yer beauty to get where ye need to go, to get out of situations, aye?”

She nodded and suddenly looked more uncertain than he’d seen her that day.

He carried the target across the room and propped it against the wall. It could be returned to the chest in the morning.

“Ye know how to use your beauty already.” Connor straightened and faced her. “I saw it the night I met ye.”

Ariana’s lips parted, as if to protest.

“Dinna try to lie and say ye dinna. Ye were quite good at it.” He winked. “And I think Delilah will make ye a force to be reckoned with.”

A small smile touched her lips. “Thank you,” she said in a soft voice. “Not just for the compliment, but for teaching me to throw a dagger. For bringing me here.”

A knot of discomfort lodged itself in his chest. “For bringing ye here?”

She nodded. “No one’s ever believed in me. No one’s taken a moment to look at me long enough to ever consider me as anything more than a mere nobleman’s daughter, a bargaining tool. Certainly never to assume I have potential for anything more. In all my life, you’re the only person who has ever thought more of me.” Her chin lifted a notch. “So, yes, thank you for bringing me here.”

He stared at her, unsure of what to say. He didn’t save women. He damned them. “I dinna think ye know what ye say.”

“I do.” She met his eyes with conviction. “We all are broken women. There is no place for us anywhere else.” Her hand gestured to the kitchen door. “Every woman here is strong. Life may have ruined us, but you’ve saved us.”

Then she jerked forward, pressed her lips to his cheek in a quick kiss, and swept from the room.

Chapter 6

May 1605

Connor’s breath billowed out in front of him in great white clouds, and frosted grass crunched beneath the fall of his boots.

His muscles glided through their motions with familiar ease, and he reveled in the heat warming them. God, how he loved the morning routine of going for a run.

The sky was clear, his body so wonderfully alive and powerful, and for one blissful moment while he ran, his thoughts were finally without burden.

A black-clad figure ran past him. Her long, dark braid bounced against her back with each sure step.

He bit back a grin and quickened his pace to keep up with Ariana.

She’d surprised him with how quickly she’d adapted to training in the last two months.

How damn fast she’d gotten when she ran.