Braden squirmed at the memory. "You know, I still have scars on my body from it."

To this day, he had a thin spot on his crown where one of the girls had pulled a handful of hair from his scalp. "When I first ran into you that day, I thought you were in with them."

"I know," she said, smiling. "I'll never forget the terrified look on your face when you ran me over. 'Tis the only time I've ever seen you panicked."

"And I was too. I had no idea how to get away without hurting one of them."

Then Braden recalled how he had escaped the l.u.s.t-crazed la.s.ses.

Looking at Maggie, he smiled. "And I'll never forget how you shoved me into the hollow of that oak tree, then sent them off in the opposite direction."

"I was shaking," she confessed, "terrified they would learn I'd lied to them and set upon me with a vengeance."

That wasn't the way he recalled it. Barely ten-and-three, she had appeared out of nowhere to save him.

He didn't remember her looking afraid. "You looked poised and calm to me."

Braden stared in awe of her as memories played through his mind. Memories of Maggie sneaking him out of the tree, then the two of them literally crawling through the bushes to reach her house undetected by the girls.

And later, Maggie bandaging the cuts and bruises the la.s.ses had inflicted upon him. She had even hummed a gentle tune as she smoothed the salve across his skin. Her touch had been so light and soothing. Her voice pleasant.

He couldn't remember whether or not he had thanked her that day. But right now, with the sunlight on her face and the fire in her eyes, he wanted nothing more than to kiss her until eternity came and went.

Impulsively, Braden reached out and ran his fingertip over the freckles covering her cheekbone. "I've always wondered why you saved me that day."

She didn't pull away. Instead, she looked up at him with a strange emotion in her eyes. "I was but returning the favor."

"What favor?"

She drew her brows together. "Don't you recall it?"

"I don't think so."

Maggie's frown deepened. "You truly don't recall saving my life?"

As he toyed with the delicate, soft skin, Braden searched his memory, but for his life, he couldn't remember ever saving her from anything except one of her brothers, and none of them would ever have truly hurt her. "Nay."

"I was but seven when you came to my rescue."

"I would have been ten."

"Aye. My father had gone to the castle to deliver wool. Ian and I were supposed to stay in the wagon, but I snuck his toy horse from his side and when he realized what I had done, he started after me."

Braden smiled as he finally recalled the event. The two of them had been quite a sight. "You were running through the great hall, screaming for help."

"Aye, and I thought he was going to kill me for sure."

"You ran straight into me and sent us careening into my mother's best tapestry."

They both cringed at that part of the memory.

Maggie bit her lip. "She wasn't overly angry, was she?"

His mother's wrath had been immeasurable, and she had given him quite a thrashing over it. Why, even to this day, she brought it up every time he displeased her.

Braden started to make a quip about it, but then caught the look of concern and guilt in Maggie's eyes.

And for some reason he couldn't fathom, he wanted to soothe her. "Nay, she wasn't overly angry."

Relief settled across her face. "I'm still sorry I kicked you while I was trying to get up. But you know what I remember most?"

This time, he couldn't resist teasing her. "The knee to my groin you gave me when you sat up?"

She flushed and bent her head down.

Braden ran his hand through her hair, caressing the shiny locks.

"Nay," she said. "It was after my father had scolded us and returned us to the wagon. I felt so terrible, and then all of a sudden there you were with your painted horse."

"Connor," Braden added, remembering the toys his uncle had carved for him. He'd loved those horses.

But the dark brown stallion he had given her had been his favorite. To this day, he didn't know what had possessed him to give it up to her.

It had been another impulsive act his mother had taken him to task over.

Still, he recalled the happiness he'd seen on her tear-streaked face as she had cradled the tiny horse to her chest. "You looked as if I had just given you a king's treasure."

"You had," she said softly. And in that instant Braden felt in his chest a very strange tenderness toward her. One he couldn't define.

Never had he felt anything like it.

And when the edges of her lips turned up ever so slightly, it was as if lightning struck him.

"I still have it."

Her confession amazed him. He would have thought she'd have tossed it out years ago. "Do you?"

She nodded.

"Why?"

She shrugged sheepishly. "It was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for me," she said. "I couldn't believe you gave me such a valuable gift."

It touched him that even at so young an age, she had known the true value of the horse. Then again, Maggie had always been wiser, more insightful than most girls her age.

"Well, I felt badly for the way your father shouted at you. It wasn't your fault."

"Nay," she said, her eyes dancing as she wrinkled her nose. " 'Twas Ian's for wanting to kill me."

Laughing, Braden stared in wonder of her as foreign emotions swept through him. She was so different from most women he'd known. So giving and kind, yet fierce and independent.

"We've known each other a long time, haven't we?" Braden asked.

"Aye, we have."

"It's strange where life takes us," he said, thinking aloud. "I remember the first time I ever saw you. You had just started walking. Your head was as bald as it could be and you had the biggest eyes I'd ever seen."

"Far from a flattering image."

"True," he said as he traced the outline of her cheek with his forefinger. "But for a baby, you were pa.s.sable enough."

Too easily, he could recall the day he'd first seen her pulling herself up to stand by his side. She'd looked up at him with a big, sweet grin that had warmed his heart. She had cooed at him, then laid her head down on his knee. At first he had ahhed the gesture until she had laughed, then bitten a piece from his thigh.

He had yelped, and she had cried, and his leg had worn that bruise for days. After the experience, he had approached wee bairns with much more caution.

"Is that all you remember?" she asked him.

"Nay," he said, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "I remember the way you laughed at me.

You had such a happy laugh and most every time I went to your cottage you had a smile on your face.

Until your mother died."

Maggie nodded, her eyes turning sad at the memory. "My da expected me to care for the boys."

He hated to see her sad. For some reason, it made his own heart ache and so he decided to lighten the conversation. "Aye, and from that day on, you were always so serious. Especially on the days when you were trying to kill me."

Maggie dropped her jaw at his words, offended that he would think such a thing. "I never tried to kill you."

"What about the night you set my bed on fire?"

"I never..." Maggie's voice trailed off as she recalled the event. It had been the night she had snuck into Anghus's room to see Braden sleeping.

What she had never expected to see was him lying spread out on the bed with no shirt. The covers had been pushed all the way down to his waist, where they gathered just below the tiny hairs that ran below his navel. He'd held on to the covers with one clenched fist, while his other arm had been curved above his head.

To this day, she remembered the sight of his tawny, flawless chest gleaming in the candlelight, rising and falling with his deep even breaths.

So intent on him, she had forgotten the candle in her hand. One minute she had been admiring him, and in the next the candle had slipped from her hand and set fire to his mattress.

She had tried to stamp it out, but it had spread quickly. Braden had jerked awake an instant before she grabbed the pail of wash water from the floor and doused the fire, and him with it.

He had come up sputtering, his brow puzzled as he glared at her.

To this day, she was mortified by the event.

"It was an accident," she told him.

" 'Tis glad I am to know you weren't really trying to kill me."

Maggie diverted her gaze to her feet. Oh, the things she had done to him over the years. All in all, it was amazing he still spoke to her.

"You know, Maggie, I never noticed before just how beautiful you are."

She looked up at him doubtfully. "You're only saying that because I'm the only woman you've been around for the last two days."

"I'm saying it because I know it."

How she wished she could believe that. But she knew the rogue too well. His heart only belonged to his lady of the moment.

So, then, be his lady of the moment, her heart whispered. Tisbetter than never having him at all .

If only it were that easy. As much as it hurt for her to see him pursue other women now, she couldn't imagine how much worse it would be to give herself to him and then watch him leave her behind.

Her heart couldn't take such a thing.

Maggie reached up and touched his face. "I wish I could believe it, but you've said it yourself many times. You were put on this earth to love women. Notice that is plural and not singular."

"Is that what it would take to win you?"

"Aye. I want a man who will never stray from my side."

"You ask a lot."

"Too much, I've been told by my brothers."

"And so you're content to grow old alone?"

Maggie watched the way the light danced in his eyes, entranced by it. "I'll hardly be alone. My brothers have enough children to keep me occupied."

He frowned at her. "Do you not want your own?"

"More than anything. But I don't need a husband for that, now, do I?"

The shocked look on his face made her laugh. "I dinna hear what I think I did."

"You misunderstood me," she added quickly. "There are children aplenty with no one to love them.

Your brother was one. When I am ready, I am quite certain I'll be able to find a child who needs a mother's love."

Braden shook his head. "Do you depend on anyone for anything?"

"Do you?"

"That is different. I am a man. It would be remiss of me if I depended on others."

"And it would be remiss of me to burden another for my welfare. I have always stood on my own, and I will continue to do so."

Braden stared aghast at her. "You're a strange la.s.s, Maggie ingen Blar."