What follows is an excerpt from my fourth book, Stay With Me.

Aili turned to him with a frown. “Iain, yer mother would be spinning in her grave to hear ye refuse hospitality to someone in need.”

“I dinna think it a good idea for her to go to the village, anyway,” Kenneth said. Betrayed again, Iain turned to him with a thunderous expression.

“Then why dinna ye take in the fairy,” he ground out in a low voice. Kenneth held up his hands in surrender.

“Please!” Emma shouted. “I can tell I’m unwelcome. Please just tell me where else I can go.” Guilt swarmed him, which only fed his anger. Why did everyone think this girl was a real fairy? Looking at her, though, it was easy to tell that she wasn’t of their world—not an ordinary Scotswoman, that is. He just didn’t want to believe it. He refused to believe it. In fact, he was going to prove them wrong.

Pinning Emma with his eyes, he marched toward her. It would be obvious upon closer inspection that she was merely painted to look like a fairy. He had no idea how she had shaded her hair but the substance would surely rub off into his hand. Her eyes widened as he strode forward and she took a step back.

“Did I say something wrong?” she asked.

At the same time, Kenneth said, “Iain, ye’re scaring the girl.”

“Ye’re too trusting,” he rebuked.

The girl held up her free hand palm out, as if that would stop him and continued to back up. “Wait, please don’t—” When he reached out to grab her, she shrieked and ran. He didn’t know what came over him but he pursued her.

“Ye foolish—” Aili yelled. Puck launched into frantic barking.

“Iain!” Kenneth called. Even Beth was yelling.

Emma hurdled over the wall, leaping from the top into the paddock and then tore off across the open grass toward the other boundary of the enclosure. He hadn’t been that far behind her when she had first run but he realized with surprise that she was faster than him. He couldn’t give up the chase now, though. Lengthening his stride and quickening his pace, he regained the ground he had lost. Each stride jarred his right knee and he hissed as pain shot up his leg.

Her butterfly wings were folded back toward him, pushed together by the wind and they were the first thing he grabbed for when he was close enough. Grasping both, he growled for her to stop but his pace had slowed too suddenly and the wings ripped off into his hands.

Emma tripped, crying out. His feet became caught up with hers and he lost his balance, twisting just in time to avoid landing on her. The bulk of his weight hit hard next to her and his calves landed on the back of her thighs.

For several seconds, he was too winded to move and instead sucked in new air as his body tried to comprehend being flat on the ground. He had dropped her wings nearby and raised his head to look for them. Kenneth, Beth and Aili were just now entering the paddock from the gate. Kenneth was keeping up with his daughter’s tiny strides and Aili was upset enough to be walking as fast as Beth was running. Next to him, the fairy girl moaned. Turning himself about and taking his legs off hers, he lay alongside her.

“Don’t—hurt me,” she panted, shifting to lie on her side. Her mane of pink hair was tangled about her face. The fright in her eyes filled him with even more guilt. Unable to say anything, he reached for her more slowly this time and picked up a lock of her hair. Rubbing it between his fingers, he marveled as its smooth, soft texture. He had never touched hair so fine. Studying his finger pads, he saw nothing there.

Her hair was really pink.

“It’ll fade,” she said. Despite his better judgment, he looked into her eyes and wondered if she had heard his thoughts. “The pink color will fade in a few days.” Her breath held a cool, light, clean fragrance. Watching her painted lips move with that strange accent, he couldn’t stop himself when he reached to touch those lips. At first, her eyes tracked his hand but when he gently wiped his fingers across her mouth, she looked up at him. The ripe raspberry color didn’t come off, though.

“It’ll fade too,” she explained. Reaching up to her cheeks, he drew his index finger across her sparkly skin. She was so soft. Smooth. So goddamn lovely.

Some of the glittering dust came off onto the pad of his finger, as fine as the multi-colored powder on butterfly wings. Worry gnawed at his gut as he reached behind her to touch the spot where her wings had sat. She hissed softly and he brought his hand up to see blood smeared across his fingertips.

“I am sorry,” he whispered.

“Uncle Iain,” Beth called, almost upon them. “Dinna hurt the fairy. She’s bonny.” As if that was the only necessary reason.

“Iain, ye…ye great fool!” Aili gasped out, more winded than either he or Emma.

“He killed her!” Beth wailed, wiping at her eyes. Kenneth patted her back, shushing her tears as he squatted down to her height.

“No, I’m all right,” Emma then said, rolling onto her back. “Don’t worry. I’m fine.” The little girl couldn’t stop crying as easily as she could start but she smiled.

Feeling silly lying there on the ground, Iain got to his knees and took Emma’s hand to help her sit up. He tried to resist the urge to caress it but he couldn’t stop his thumb from stroking the back of her hand…just once.

“Well, I’m…glad ye’re…not hurt,” Aili wheezed, arriving last. “Iain, I would…turn yer hide red…if I could breathe. Such foolishness.”

“See? She’s all right. No need to cry, baby,” his brother-in-law said, patting Beth’s head. Emma grabbed for the ornament dangling from her neck but relaxed upon finding it.

“Will ye keep her, Uncle?” Beth gazed up at Iain with her large, shimmering eyes, deep pools of sad blue. The same eyes as when her father told her that her mother had died. “Will ye?”

Iain clenched his hands and jaw as his walls of resistance crumbled. His niece was always his undoing.