MacAlister - Taming The Scotsman Part 15

"Why?" Ewan repeated.

Again they all shrugged. Except for Pagan, and Ewan had a feeling he knew more about this than he was telling.

But that could wait.

Ewan whistled at the women. "Ladies, please rest your weapons."

The women did.

Ewan turned back toward Viktor. "Now tell me again who paid you?"

"No one has paid us yet. We was just told to get you out and then go pick up our money."

Ewan was completely baffled by their unexpected words. "Who is going to pay you? Did you not see the man who hired you?"

"Well, aye. But we never saw him before," Bavel said. "He just showed up while we were visiting-"

Lysander cleared his throat and stepped on Bavel's foot.

Bavel cursed and pushed the man away from him. "I wasn't going to tell him that."

"Tell me what?"

"That we were visiting Cat's G.o.dmother."

"Bavel!" Viktor took his hat from his head and hit Bavel with it.

"Ow!" Bavel snapped. "That hurt."

Viktor hit him again.

Ewan moved to stand between them and to keep Viktor from any further a.s.saults. "Gentlemen, please.

Who you were visiting doesn't concern me. The man who hired you does. What exactly did he say to you?"

Catarina came forward and handed her sword back to Bavel. There was a calculating gleam in her eye that Ewan didn't quite trust. "He said he would pay us twenty silver marks if we were to grab you and ride you about for a while. Once we go to Drixel, he'll be waiting to pay us."

"I thought Viktor said it was to ride me and Nora around."

"Viktor was mistaken. We were paid to abductyou and you alone."

Ewan frowned at that. That wasn't what he'd heard while he and Nora had been inside the wagon.

The gypsies were lying to him, but he didn't know about which part.

Could they have another reason for abducting them?

"Do you know why he wanted you to kidnap me?" Ewan asked.

"He said he wasn't going to harm you," Viktor said. "I made a point of asking him that. I didn't want to take part in killing anyone. He just said that he needed for you to be gone for a short time, and that once we had you a few days away from your home, we could let you go."

"But you didn't abduct me from my home."

Viktor squirmed at that. "We were going to, but when we got there we saw the lady and her man and maid. So we waited until they left and then you left, and then we followed the two of you to the village, hoping to capture you last night."

He pa.s.sed a shamefaced look to Lysander and Bavel. "Since we weren't able to get you last night, it was Cat's idea that we head out a little early and wait for you in the meadow to capture you this afternoon."

Ewan's scowl deepened. How had he missed something as important as five people following them? It wasn't like him not to have a sixth sense for such things.

No one had ever caught him off-guard before.

Of course, he had been drunk and then hung over the entire way to Lenalor. Mayhap Nora was right; he needed to stay sober a little more often.

Ewan rubbed the back of his neck as he considered what he should do about the gypsies and the man who had ordered him taken.

Who would dare such a thing and why?

He needed to know if he had such an enemy.

"What did this man look like?" he asked.

"About this tall." Lysander held his hand up to indicate the man would be around five-six or so. Far too short to be one of his brothers.

Who then?

Who other than one of them would say such, let alone pay for it? It didn't make a bit of sense.

"Is he planning on meeting you in Drixel?"

Viktor nodded. "That was the plan."

Ewan turned to Nora. "Would you mind if we traveled with them for a bit longer?"

By her face, he could see she was torn. But when she spoke, her brave words surprised him. "I'm always up to a bit of adventure."

"Then you're not mad at us?" Bavel asked hopefully.

Ewan cast him a menacing eye. "I'm not particularly amused by the throbbing in my skull, but if the five of you can refrain from drugging me again, I think I can manage to forgive you."

Viktor clapped him on the back. "You're a good man, Ewan MacAllister. Bavel, get the ale."

Ewan shook his head as the three men went to the wagon to search out the ale and Pagan stayed behind with him, Catarina, and Nora.

"I can't believe I'm traveling with gypsies," Ewan said.

Pagan smirked. "I say that to myself every day and yet here I am."

Nora smiled at Ewan. "I can't believe you're not angry at them."

He turned to find Nora standing beside him, looking up at him with an appreciative glint in her amber eyes. The light on her face made her skin look even softer, more touchable. More delectable.

He fought the urge to smile at her. "Had they been more accomplished at the task, I might have been.

But all things considered, they seem rather harmless. I'll just make sure to drink no ale until they've sampled it first."

"You're a wise man," Pagan said under his breath.

Ewan arched a brow at Nora as he remembered her earlier urgency to leave the wagon. "I thought you had to attend to some personal business?"

"I do." She handed him the sword, then ambled off toward the trees.

Ewan watched her. She walked like some regal queen with the most delicate sway to her hips that made him ache to sample her. She was a fetching wench, and it was hard to believe a lady so refined was able to handle a sword almost as well as a man.

Nora was ever full of surprises, and to his deepest chagrin, ever appealing.

Why was he so amused by her?

For that matter, why was he amused by the gypsies?

Such a thing was not really in his nature. He'd always been the surly one. Always found the dark side in everything and happily wallowed in his moroseness.

He should be angry and vengeful. Instead he was actually looking forward to the two-day trip to the north.

"Are you sure the two of you aren't married?" Bavel asked as he returned with the ale.

Ewan was taken aback by the question. "Why do you ask?"

"You can barely stand to speak to each other, and yet when the lady walks off you look as if you can already taste her. Smacks of marriage to me."

"Aye," Viktor agreed as he brought the cups.

Ewan scratched his head at their logic. "Nay, not married." He was merely l.u.s.ting.

For him there would never be such a thing, and oddly enough, he began to wonder whom Nora would be married to. If this Ryan she was running from would be kind to her.

Would this unknown man see in her all the things Ewan saw, or would he lose patience with her and her incessant prattling?

She deserved a husband who could appreciate her unique charms. She was actually quite pleasing once a man got used to her ways...

Nora paused in the woods as she gathered a few flowers to make a garland and a sweet-smelling bouquet. She'd always had a fondness for fresh flowers. The colors and the smell of them...

It was so beautiful out here.

She lost track of time as she frolicked in the woods daydreaming and pretending to be a fairy queen who could banish Ryan out of existence and get her safely to Eleanor.

She was completely lost in her own thoughts.

Until she heard a loud bellow.

"Nora!"

She jumped at the fierce sound of Ewan's voice. It was loud enough to shake the earth. She had been wrong earlier. Even though his voice was deep and low, he was capable of quite a loud noise when the urge took him.

She could even hear him tromping through the woods like some big, lumbering bear.

"I'm over here," she said as she caught sight of his white s.h.i.+rt.

He turned and glared at her.

"What did I do now?" she asked.

"Have you any idea how long you've been gone?"

She smiled. "You were worried?"

His scowl deepened. "There are all sorts of wild animals and bandits in the woods. Any of them could have found you and done you any kind of harm."

"You were worried?" she repeated.

He looked about uncomfortably. "You shouldn't wander off," he snapped gruffly.

"Youwere worried."

He growled at her.

She smiled more widely. "You know, my lord, you're not nearly so fearsome when you'reworried ."

He scoffed at her. "Why is it so important to you that I admit that I'm concerned?"

"It's not. I just like to nettle you with it because the idea of it seems so distasteful to you. Perhaps I should be offended?"

To her surprise, he reached out with his large hand and brushed a strand of stray blond hair from her face. The gentle touch was so out of character for him that it raised chills on her body and made her heart ache in tenderness.

He was a decent man when he wanted to be.

"I was worried," he admitted finally.

She fought the urge to close her eyes and savor his light touch. How could a man so large be so gentle?

"It was nice of you to come after me."

He grunted and lowered his hand away from her cheek. "What kept you?"

"I was picking flowers." She showed him her collection.

He curled his lip. "And you think that handful of weeds was worth risking your life and well-being?"

She pouted as she ran her hand over the wild flowers that released their sweet scent into the air. She inhaled them and let the smell remind her of her childhood days when she and her mother had spent hours alone gathering them and tending her mother's garden.