Chapter 7 #3
Ewan forced himself not to glance over to Nora. “Quite well, thank you.”
They didn’t speak while they ate, cleaned their platters and then packed the wagon.
Nora found herself riding on the wagon at Ewan’s insistence.
“You don’t need to be riding a horse today, my lady,” he said under his breath to her. “It will only make you more sore.”
Then he had kissed her cheek quickly and set her up beside Viktor.
Nora was warmed by his thoughtfulness and so she spent the day chatting with Viktor as they rode north to meet the man who had paid the gypsies to abduct Ewan.
Ewan rode off to the side of the wagon and watched Nora, his heart aching for what he couldn’t have.
“Tell me,” Lysander said as he reined his horse to ride by Ewan’s side. “How did you manage to tolerate her chatter without stuffing a gag into her mouth?”
“I don’t mind her chatter.”
Lysander snorted at that. “Surely you jest. How can it not make your ears ring? I’m surprised poor Viktor hasn’t snapped at her.”
Ewan shrugged.
He kicked his horse forward so that he could speak with her. “Nora?”
She turned to face him. The breeze tugged at strands of her pale hair that had come free of her brat. Her cheeks were bright red and her lips moist.
How he ached to taste them again. To drink the delectable sweetness of her mouth until he was drunk from it.
“Aye?” she asked.
Ewan felt sucker-punched as he looked up at her. “Would you care to ride with me for a bit?”
He saw the relieved look on Viktor’s face as the man passed him a grateful nod.
“Would that be proper?” she asked.
“Aye, it would, my lady,” Viktor hastened to assure her. He stopped the wagon.
Ewan helped her from the wagon to his saddle. He pulled her across his lap so that she sat sideways before him.
Nora gave him a suspicious look as she adjusted her skirt. “Are you doing this because you wanted me to ride with you or to save poor Viktor’s hearing?”
“Both.”
She smiled. “So you’re not concerned about your own hearing then?”
“Better I lose my hearing than Viktor rings your neck.”
She laughed at that. “Then I shall have to torture him more if it means I get to sit in your lap. I rather like it here.”
So did he. More than he should. Nora felt good in his arms and even better spread out in his lap.
Already he could imagine her as she’d been last night. Hot and welcoming to his touch.
“How much farther do you think we’ll travel before we break to sup?” she asked.
“Are you hungry?”
“Nay, not at all. But I grow weary of riding. How do you stand to be in the saddle for so long? Don’t you wish to be free to walk?”
Before he could answer, she went off on her own. “I think if we could travel by foot, it would be better. The horse would like it better too, I imagine. It must be hard on your horse for both of us to ride astride him.”
“You scarce weigh enough to bother him.”
“Aye, but you weigh at least twice the amount of a normal man I would think.”
Ewan grimaced at her reminder.
“Did that bother you? I’m sorry, Ewan. I should think you’d be proud of the fact that you’re so large. My cousin, Sean, often laments that he is shorter than most men. Indeed, he’s a full head shorter than I am. Why would your size bother you?”
Catarina answered for him as she rode her horse beside them. “I imagine ‘tis as big a curse to be too tall as it is to be too short. I am sure Lord Ewan lives in a world where nothing fits. Chairs and beds are ever too small.”
“Aye,” he agreed, “I’m forever banging my head, arms or legs into things that are designed for men half my size. I even had to have my horse specially bred to be larger too, else my knees would be dragging the ground.”
“I like your height,” Nora confided. “There is nothing about your size that I would change.”
Ewan stared at her, amazed.
“Catarina?” Nora called out. “Do you think we will stop where there might be fresh berries to pick?”
Ewan rode in silence as the women talked to each other. He couldn’t fathom why Nora’s tireless conversation no longer bothered him.
“Would you?”
He realized Nora was speaking to him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. What were you asking?”
Nora laughed and looked completely unconcerned for the fact that his thoughts had trailed off from her conversation. “Catarina wanted to know if you’d pick berries with me. Will you?”
“I...” He frowned at the question. “Pick berries?”
“Nora will need protection,” Catarina said. “Else she might get lost or perhaps be mauled by some bear or other wild thing in the woods.”
Ewan frowned at her words and at the odd note in her voice as she spoke of bears mauling Nora.
He hadn’t picked a berry since he was a boy. But the
thought of being alone with Nora...
Well, he’d most definitely like to maul her himself.
“I would be happy to.”
Catarina nodded. “There you go then, Nora. We’ll have fresh berries for dinner then.”
The women talked until they stopped to eat. It was a little after noon. Ewan and the other men tended the horses while the ladies made a light meal of cold meat and cheese.
But it wasn’t food Ewan hungered for. It was the dainty women who sat with her back straight and whose manners were as perfect as a queen’s.
Whose laughter rang out while she talked to the men and Catarina.
As soon as they finished eating, Catarina handed Nora a small basket. “You fetch your berries while I clean up.”
The men started to protest, but the vicious scowl Catarina directed toward them, stopped them instantly.
“Take your time,” Viktor said.
“We won’t be overly long,” Nora assured them.
That’s what she thought.
If Ewan had his way, they would be gone for a while, at least.
They walked deep into the woods, until he could no longer hear the others and the gypsies could no longer hear them.
Ewan watched her stoop for the berries. His gaze was fastened on her bottom as she bent over.
He hardened instantly as he imagined lifting her skirt and burying himself deep inside her again.