The Harlot (Taskill Witches 1)

Meanwhile, Master Wallace had raised his voice to his wife. “I will do as I please.”

Mistress Wallace had left the door to the hallway open, and Mistress Gilroy appeared there a moment later. Her eyebrows gathered when she heard the discussion, and then she glanced at Jessie and beckoned to her. Jessie lifted her tools and quickly joined her in the hall.

When the housekeeper shut the door behind them, the voices inside the room became even louder and more heated.

Mistress Gilroy pinched Jessie’s chin between her thumb and finger and turned her face from side to side, examining her as she did so. “You look flushed, Jessie. Is it the master? Has he hurt you?”

Jessie saw her chance. “Begging your pardon, Mistress Gilroy, but the master…he makes me afraid.” She pouted. “I know my place and I will do my best, but sometimes I would rather flee than have him touch me.”

She was preparing the ground for when she did leave. If the housekeeper assumed it was because the master had frightened her off, so much the better. They would not think otherwise of her sudden departure.

“If you have somewhere else to go,” the woman remarked, “I would not blame you. I wish I had done so, many years ago.”

Somewhere else to go? Jessie considered the comment. The Highlands beckoned, as did the hunt for her sister and brother. Whether that was where her heart wanted to be was another question altogether.

That night Jessie made her way down the stairs from the attic rooms with even greater caution, remembering the master’s nocturnal wanderings and her encounter with Cormac the night before. Cormac had lurked around that day, watching her while she went about her chores. She was ready to use an enchantment against him, if need be. It was a risky business and she would rather avoid making a show of herself with someone as wily as he.

The steep staircase was treacherous for her, making her dizzy and ill in her belly, so it was with a grateful sigh that she reached the hall. As planned, she crept into the master’s parlor and located the papers he had been working on earlier. Cautiously she rolled them up, and with the bundle safely tucked under her shawl, she made her way through the hallway and kitchens, her heart beating ever faster.

If Gregor was out there, it meant he had not been angry or afraid during the course of the day. The night before, he had still wanted her, and there was tentative acceptance in the way he’d spoken to her afterward. Jessie knew how the harsh light of day could redirect a person’s thoughts, and when she opened the door and stepped outside, she peered into the gloomy shadows over by the stables, desperate for sight of him. She saw nothing. A feeling of dread came over her. If he was not here to meet her to

night, he had abandoned her because of her craft.

Closing the door as quietly as she could, she made her way quickly alongside the manor house until she reached the corner. Again she craned her neck for sight of him. She was about to dart over to the stables when her skin prickled with awareness, and she found herself grabbed and drawn into the shadows. Her heart thundered when a hand closed over her mouth. For a moment she thought she may have been captured by Cormac. Then she felt tenderness in the embrace of the man who held her, tenderness and more.

“Ah, but you feel good,” Gregor whispered against her ear, and then ran his lips along her earlobe, kissing its outline and making her dizzy with the rush from his hot breath on her sensitive skin.

The touch of his mouth was so intimate, so direct and so longed for that her whole body shivered with pleasure. Gregor had come despite what had been revealed the night before. First she melted against him, then twisted and turned in his arms to look at him.

He wore dark clothing and his head was bare. In the moonlight, she could see from his smile that he was happy. She clutched his shoulders through his frock coat, assuring herself that it was really him. When their eyes met she felt as if the stars grew brighter and the moon shone for them alone. He’d come back.

He stared at her for a moment longer, and then he claimed her mouth, kissing her long and hard, and shifting her up against the wall. She responded eagerly, her hands racing over him, her mouth opening under his. The thrust of his tongue against hers made her hips arch and her cunny melt.

“I thought you might not come,” she said when they drew apart.

“You think I scare easily?” He shook his head.

She was pleased, but nevertheless felt uneasy about their current location, so close to the big house. “I hoped that would not be the case,” she whispered.

He had her captured against him, with one arm locked around her back. He ran the fingers of his free hand through the loose tendrils of her hair. “How did you fare today?”

Jessie pulled the papers from beneath her shawl. “This will help you, I think, for I heard him discussing it and I swayed him somewhat while he made the list. I believe it shows the lands Ivor Wallace wishes to sell.”

Gregor took the pages from her hand and turned them so he could read what was written there in the light of the moon. She watched as he scanned them and then nodded to himself with a half smile. When he looked back at her she knew she’d done the right thing. “This is most useful. You have done well.”

Pride blossomed in her. It wasn’t something that came her way often and certainly not through the genuine praise of others.

“Is this list for the auctioneer?”

She shook her head. “Wallace and his wife argued today. She said that he must show it to someone she called Forbes, but the master was angry about that.”

“Forbes is Wallace’s son. I understand that he attempts to have a say in the estate now, and that they are at odds.”

“That would make sense. I heard some of the servants speaking in the kitchens, and they spoke about the master’s son returning soon. Several of them grumbled about it. It seems he is even less well liked than his father.”

Gregor nodded at the list. “Forbes could change this list before it goes to the auctioneer.”

She shook her head. “No one can undo my influence there. Anyone who looks at the pages will want Strathbahn to be included.”