ALTHOUGH SHE HAD planned to return home, Catriona sent a messenger bird through the portal to Ennis and Senga that she would be remaining on the island. She felt a twinge of guilt when she added no explanation as to why, but she often extended her stays, so the delay would not trouble them. Hiding Gavin’s presence on the island seemed wiser than giving her family a new reason to worry.

It also gave Catriona a sense of having him all to herself, like a wonderful secret.

The day after the meal he’d cooked for her it rained from sunrise to dusk, but she took some cording to Gavin’s cottage to show him how to knot a base for the bed he would build. He in turn made a pottage with fish, brown crab and scallops, flavored with garlic and sorrel, to go with the herbed bannocks and smoked silver darlings she’d brought for him.

“No, I’ll surely burst,” she told him when he tried to refill her bowl.

“Seeing you eat well makes me feel less a glutton.” Reluctantly he added the last from the pot to his bowl. “Tell me, when do you leave for home?”

“As it happens I sent word to my family that I’d be staying a wee bit longer.” Feeling a little shy now, she nibbled on the last piece of her bannock until she thought of his work. “You’ll be for Hrossey on the morrow.”

“Aye. We’re for a far run this trip, so I’ll no’ return for two or threeday.” He eyed her. “I ken ’tis your island, Cat, but I cannae like leaving you alone here.”

Catriona chuckled. “I’ve been so twenty years, Gavin. I’ll come to no harm. ’Tis more likely you will when I go back.”

Her joke made him fall silent as he finished his pottage, but Catriona felt a tingle of pleasure. Gavin didn’t care for the prospect of her leaving the island. That was not the sentiment of a man who wished to be left alone.

But the next day, as he’d said, Gavin left on the dawn ferry for Hrossey. The prospect of threeday waiting for him did not please her, but neither did visiting Ennis and Senga so short a time. As she’d done before she busied herself, but this time with the garden. Nothing helped to lift a gloomy spirit more than spending time among the blooms and digging her fingers into the rich soil. Even so, she couldn’t help but look to the horizon. And to her delight, he returned that evening before dusk. When she saw him walking from the dock, she scooped up the angelica she had cut by the spring. She all but skipped down the path to meet him.

“Were there no fish to catch today?” she teased.

“No boat from which to fish. The Mollers sailed to Shetland to settle a family dispute. I’ve no work but here until midweek next.” He shouldered his pack and nodded at her gathering basket. “Is that hogweed?”

She shook her head. “Angelica. They look much alike, but you’ll no’ want to be eating the other. I’m making jam of these for my oatcakes. There’s still light enough to go foraging, if you’d want.”

“I’d want.” His moonstone eyes shifted over her. “Will you meet me at the forest trail?”

Catriona agreed, and they parted ways. Once she returned to her village and put the angelica to soak in cool water, she changed into her oldest gown, and retrieved her hand wraps and foraging sacks. She felt all aflutter with excitement that Gavin had returned early, and would not have to leave again for four or fiveday.

She would not push herself on him, of course. He wanted his healing time, and she had to respect that. She hoped by showing him the island’s many treasures it would help him forget the sorrows that had driven him here. Everbay had always done so for her.

Once he was happy again, then perhaps they might become more than friendly neighbors.

Catriona hurried along the barrier toward the forest, where she saw Gavin already standing in wait for her. He’d changed into older garments as well, and the soft old linen tunic clung to his broad shoulders like a second skin. The sun poured over him like liquid amber, making him seem almost god-like. For a moment she stood behind the barrier so she could admire him without his notice, and felt her body warm and soften as she did.

Gods, but he drew her like a bee to a bloom. Would he ever see her as the woman she was?

“I can feel you there,” he said, startling her. “Is something amiss?”

Her head, Catriona thought as she stepped through the spell wall. “I was thinking on where I might take you. To forage,” she added quickly as she handed him a sack and some of the wraps.

“I’d like mushrooms to stuff my next fish,” he said, watching her wind the strips of hemp weave around her palms. He did the same, but had difficulty folding in the ends.

“Dinnae scowl, for you’ll want these when we find nettle.” Catriona secured the wraps for him. “Even the young ones sting.”

He grunted. “Then why gather them?”

“Soaking them removes the bane. With their flowers they make a fine morning brew.” She stepped back to inspect him. “The fibers can too be retted and woven into cloth, if you’ve a loom.”

“A weaver I’m no’,” he admitted.

She laughed. “’Tis less work to make the tea.”

From there she led him along the older, partially-overgrown path to the sunnier side of his forest, where the rowans and willows hemmed each side of the burbling stream. There she showed him how to search fallen limbs and logs for the morels, goldies and other fungi that were safe to eat.

“Where you find pink millers, you should also see ceps,” she told him, pointing to the two different growths. “Ceps like to hide, but they peep a bit of white underside, so you must kneel to spot them.”

He learned quickly, and noticed that goldies favored growing on birch trunks while ceps preferred to sprout in the rotting leaf beds carpeting the trees’ roots. He knew enough not to pick every mushroom, leaving plenty behind to shed their spores. He was also quick to spot which poisonous growths closely resembled those safe to eat.

“If you cannae tell, dinnae take it,” Catriona said once they had collected enough to eat and dry without waste. “Or bring it to me. I ken everything that grows here.” The shift in his expression made her frown. “I dinnae boast, Gavin. I’ve roamed the forests and slopes and shores all of my life.”

“But to come here, alone, as just a wee lass.” He shook his head. “You might have fallen from a cliff, or drowned in the spring.”

Catriona smiled a little as she recalled some of the scrapes she’d gotten herself into, those first years. “Each time I visited, the island taught me a new way to look after myself. ’Twas no’ always pleasant, but those lessons made me stronger, and smarter.”

“Your family shouldnae have allowed it,” Gavin said, his tone stern. “’Tis unforgiveable.”

Unforgiveable? If only he knew.

Run to the falls, Catriona. Dinnae let your uncle see you. Hurry, lass.

He saw her reaction and frowned. “I spoke without thought. My people protect the young from harm.”

The memory of her mother’s final words made bile rise in her throat. “So did my family.” She pushed back the sick feeling and regarded him. “Come, and I’ll show you where you will find more goldies than you may eat in a year.”