Chapter 11
Eleven
“Nora,” Ewan breathed, shaking her awake.
She woke up slowly. “Aye?”
“Someone’s coming.”
She jerked up instantly. “Where?”
Ewan indicated the direction with a tilt of his head. He pushed himself to his feet, then hid her behind a shrub.
He grabbed a limb from the ground and waited in the early dawn light for whoever it was to show himself.
The footsteps drew closer.
Closer...
He lifted the branch.
Someone sounded as if they stumbled and then a curse rang out. “Oh bloody hell, that hurt!”
Laughing at the words, Ewan breathed a sigh of relief as he heard Viktor’s voice.
“Sh, Viktor, you’d wake the dead,” Cat said, but he still couldn’t see either one of them.
“Catarina?” Ewan called.
The gypsies broke through the forest into the small clearing in front of him.
Catarina smiled triumphantly. “See. I told you he would head north. Only a fool would head back to the village knowing someone was after them. And Ewan is anything but a fool.”
Ewan tossed the limb aside as Nora came out of her hiding spot.
Catarina rushed to Nora and gave her a hug while Viktor stood back, his face showing the relief Ewan felt.
“What are you two doing here?” Nora asked. “Not that we’re not thrilled to see you. But how did you find us?”
“The finding was easy. The MacKaids left a large trail to follow,” Catarina said.
“We found them not long after the two of you had escaped them. They were plotting a way to retake you once they reached the village. Since we were coming from the village and hadn’t seen you, I knew you had to be going north to avoid them. ”
“I then had Lysander and Bavel backtrack so that they could pretend to be you to lead the MacKaids away from your trail while Viktor and I continued to search for you.”
“Pretend to be us?” Nora asked.
Catarina laughed. “We shall have to make it up to Bavel that he’s wearing a gown and your brat.”
Viktor agreed. “I’m sure the MacKaids won’t get close enough to realize they’re not you. They were to bribe the villagers to verify they were you and, knowing Lysander as I do, I’m sure he can accomplish this.”
Ewan held his tied hands out to Viktor, “May I borrow a dagger?”
Viktor pulled the dagger from his waist and sliced through the ropes.
Ewan winced as his wrists stung even more from their release. Still, it was good to be free again.
Nora gasped as she looked at his arms. “Oh, Ewan. First your side and now this. I honestly can’t imagine how you can stand the pain of it.”
She looked to Catarina. “Cat, have you anything we can put on his wrists? And I’ll be needing a needle and thread to stitch his side.”
“Are you hurt?” Viktor asked.
“Graham stabbed him,” Nora said. “And it hasn’t been properly tended.”
Catarina motioned for them to follow her. “Come, I should have something in the wagon.”
They walked through the woods until they reached the wagon that had been left behind once the woods became too dense for it to pass easily.
Ewan paused as he caught sight of the short, lean man sitting on the back of the wagon in the open doorway. His blood ran cold.
It was Ryan.
Personally, he’d have rather seen Graham or one of his brothers waiting for them.
“Ryan!” Nora gasped, rushing toward him.
She pulled Ryan into a tight hug.
The sight of it cut through Ewan.
“I thought you were dead!” she said excitedly before she kissed him on the cheek. “Oh thank the Lord for His mercy.”
Ewan felt as though someone had dealt him a staggering blow. He hadn’t wanted the man dead, but...
“Careful,” Ryan snapped, pushing her back. “They damn near did kill me, and I fear my stomach shall never be the same again.”
Nora disregarded him and his surly warning. “I’m just so happy I didn’t kill you.”
“As am I,” Ryan concurred.
Catarina fetched a pot of salve and brought it over to Ewan. Angry and hurt, he spread the salve over his bleeding and torn wrists that throbbed and ached.
Nora seemed to have forgotten all about him.
And why shouldn’t she?
Ryan was her betrothed.
Ryan would be her husband.
By the way she was acting, it was what she wanted. Nothing like a near-death to make a woman realize where her affections truly lay...
Nora paused in her fussing over Ryan. She looked back to see Ewan with Catarina.
There was a pinched look to his features. A pain in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.
She left Ryan to check on him. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.”
She looked down at his raw wrists that were now covered in white salve. “Do they hurt overmuch?”
He shook his head.
Nora reached for Catarina’s sewing basket. “Here, you go lie down and I’ll—”
“I think it best that we get moving,” Ewan said, interrupting her. “Viktor, hand me your sword. I’ll take the seat on the wagon since I know this area best.”
Viktor nodded and unstrapped his sword from his hips, then handed it over.
“Ewan,” Nora said, her voice thick with warning. “You are wounded.”
His tone was curt and cold. “I’ll live.”
Whatever was wrong with him?
She glanced back to where Ryan was glaring at Ewan.
Surely, Ewan didn’t think...
Nay. Ewan had to have more sense than that. He couldn’t be jealous over Ryan the Toad. Surely he realized the only reason she’d gone to Ryan was the fact that she was relieved he hadn’t died.
Nora started toward the front of the wagon.
“You need to be in the back, Nora,” Ewan said sharply. “We’ll move quicker that way.”
“How so?”
“Just get in the back.” His gruff tone offended her. She hadn’t seen him like this since the first day they’d been together.
Where was her gentle bear?
Her feelings hurt, she did as he said.
Fine. If he wanted to go off and sulk, so be it. They’d have to stop soon and eat. By then he should be more level headed and she would check and clean his wound.
If he wanted to be a baby until then, so be it.
Viktor went to ride with Ewan while she, Catarina and Ryan rode in the back.
As soon as they were settled inside, Ewan clicked at the team of horses and got them into motion.
“How did you find Ryan?” Nora asked Catarina as they rode in the back.
“He came out of the woods wounded and was babbling for someone to help him get to you.”
Nora could imagine what a spectacle Ryan must have been.
The man hated to make a scene more than anything and yet he had made one for her.
It was probably the kindest thing Ryan had ever done for anyone.
She might not like him, but that went a long way in assuaging some of the nastier things he had done to her over the years.
“Thank you, Ryan.”
He inclined his head. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t more adept at protecting you to begin with. Believe me.”
“But at least you tried.”
Ryan was silent while Nora talked to Catarina about what they should do to avoid the MacKaids and every other topic.
Ryan lay back in the wagon, moaning every time they took a breath about how much pain he was in and how neither of them understood the grueling misery that was his stomach.
Nora didn’t comment. Instead, her thoughts were on the man who was driving the wagon. The one whose side was unstitched and whose wrists were still raw.
The man who said nothing at all about his pain.
Inside or out.
They rode for hours without stopping to break their fast. It was almost midday before Ewan finally reined the horses.
He helped Nora down, then left Catarina for Viktor.
Nora tried to speak to him, but Ewan refused.
Without a word or backward glance, he returned to the horses to care for them.
Angry at his behavior, Nora went to him. “Why are you being so cold to me?”
“I’m not being cold toward you.”
“Nay? Then why do I get a shiver every time you meet my gaze? Or should I say when you meet my gaze, which all of a sudden isn’t often.”
He glanced past her shoulder to where Ryan watched them with an arched, curious brow. “Ryan is wounded. You need to see to him.”
Understanding floored her. “You’re jealous?”
“I’m not jealous, Nora. Believe me.”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m angry.”
Ewan clenched his teeth unable to believe he’d allowed that to escape.
“What have you to be angry over?”
Fate. Destiny.
Everything that kept him from being able to claim her for his own.
Everything that made Ryan more appealing to her than he was.
“Just leave me alone.”
She reached to touch him.
Ewan wanted that touch so badly that for a moment, he couldn’t move.
He waited for it. Desperate. Needful.
But he had no right to that either.
He moved away from her.
“Ewan, please speak to me. Don’t push me away.”
Though it ruptured his heart, Ewan ignored her plea. He had to.
If he didn’t...
He brushed past Ryan roughly, and went to tend private matters in the forest.
Nora watched Ewan leave and felt a profound urge to follow after him and beat him with a branch until he shaped up and talked to her.
“He loves you.”
She blinked at Ryan’s voice. “What did you say?”
“He loves you, doesn’t he?”
“What makes you think that?”
Ryan sighed. “The expression on his face when he looks at you and the hatred in his eyes when he walked past me just now. I half expected him to throttle me.”
Nora gazed at the forest where Ewan had vanished. How she wished she could see inside his heart for a minute to find out how he felt about anything. “I know not what he feels. I only know he is a stubborn, aggravating man.”
“A stubborn, aggravating man that you’re in love with as well.”
She frowned at Ryan.
“Don’t bother lying, Nora,” he said gently. “I’ve known you every day of your life. There’s something about you that brightens whenever he’s near you.”
She scoffed at the very idea. “There is not.”
“Aye, but there is. You fair glow with it.” A muscle worked in Ryan’s jaw. “You never glow around me unless it’s your face turning red because you’re angry.”
“Then will you forget our betrothal?”
Ryan’s face hardened and when he met her gaze, the steely, determined look made her heart ache.
“I can’t, Nora. I’m in debt too deeply. Some of these men will kill me if I don’t pay what I owe. I’m sorry.”
She looked away as her heart broke a little more. “So am I, Ryan. So am I.”