Ewan glared at his older brother. He didn"t need this lecture and he hated being toyed with. Alexander"s plan had been ill laid, and now all he wanted was time alone to forget his part in the whole debacle. "I told you everything."
"You"ve told me nothing."
"Ewan?"
Ewan closed his eyes and clenched his teeth at the sound of his name on Nora"s lips. It tore through him.
He couldn"t face her now. Not here in this hall where he had once fought Kieran over possession of Isobail.
He picked up the pitcher of ale and headed toward the stairs. "I want to be alone."
He had barely taken a step before Nora rushed forward and planted herself firmly in his path.
He felt his jaw twitch at her actions. "Move, Nora."
She stood there unflinching with her hands on her hips. "Or what?"
"I"ll move you out of my way."
She lifted her chin defiantly as she obviously braced herself to face him. "You wouldn"t dare."
Tired, angry, heartbroken and filled with physical and mental agony, he was in no mood for her challenges.
Setting the ale aside, he faced her. He knew his mother, brothers and her parents were watching them, but he was past the point of caring.
d.a.m.n all of them.
And d.a.m.n anyone who got between him and those stairs...
Nora gasped as Ewan actually tossed her over his shoulder and headed away from the stairs.
"What are you doing?" her father demanded.
"I"m removing the obstacle from my path." Ewan sat her down in Lochlan"s padded chair by the hearth.
Nora sat stunned for a moment, unable to believe he had done this.
Granted, he had set her down easily, but still.
How dare he!
"You"re bleeding again," Nora gasped as he moved away from her, and headed back toward his ale.
"Aye, I know, and all I want is to lie down and drink."
She stiffened. "You can"t drink while lying down."
He cast her a feral glare over his shoulder, grabbed the pitcher and headed for the stairs.
This time it was Lochlan who blocked his way.
Ewan sighed disgustedly. "Will I have to move you one by one?"
"Why are you bleeding?"
"Graham stabbed him," Nora explained as she rejoined them by the stairs. "Ewan has refused to let anyone tend the wound for days."
"I don"t need your coddling," Ewan snarled.
He shoved Lochlan aside roughly.
Lochlan caught his arm and pulled him away from the stairs.
Ewan swung at him, but the pain from his arm was such that he staggered back from it.
The next thing he knew, Lochlan had his hand on his forehead. "You"re burning with fever."
Ewan struggled to breathe. He just wanted to lie down and forget the past week with Nora.
He wanted the pain inside him to stop.
All he felt was agony. Bitter and aching, it tore through him.
Nora was lost to him.
Honestly, he just wanted to die.
Knocking Lochlan"s hand away, he took a step and felt the room spin out from under him.
Nora gasped as Ewan sank to the floor. The pitcher skittered across the cobblestones as he knelt down, and his mother rushed toward him.
He collapsed a moment later.
Nora joined them at his side, only to find him completely unconscious.
"Ewan!" Lochlan shouted, trying to shake his brother awake.
Ewan didn"t respond at all.
Nora pushed Ewan"s s.h.i.+rt up to see the wound in his side. It was red and swollen with infection.
"You stubborn man," she snarled at him. "You couldn"t stand to let me help you, and now look what you"ve done. I swear, Ewan MacAllister, if you don"t die from your stupidity I shall kill you for it."
"Out of the way, woman," Sin MacAllister said rudely, pus.h.i.+ng her aside.
He and Lochlan carried Ewan upstairs.
Without thought, Nora followed after them while her parents stayed below.
Sin and Lochlan took Ewan into a room at the top of the stairs and laid him gently on the bed.
Their mother came forward, her brow worried. "Why wasn"t the wound st.i.tched?"
Nora"s throat tightened at her innocent question. "I had nothing to st.i.tch it with the first night and after that, he wouldn"t allow me to even see it, let alone tend it."
Sin cut Ewan"s s.h.i.+rt off while Lochlan turned toward her. "You need to be leaving now, la.s.s. It"s not proper for you to be here when we disrobe him."
"But..." Nora caught herself before she told them that she had seen him bare. No doubt Ewan was in enough trouble; she wouldn"t make it any worse on him. "I shall wait outside."
She found herself quickly ousted.
Both her parents were waiting in the hallway.
"How does he?" her father asked.
Nora chewed her fingernail in fearful worry. "I know not. He"s not spoken of the wound since it happened."
"He didn"t act wounded when he arrived," her mother said.
"Aye," Nora agreed. "He handles his pain well."
Her heart heavy, she looked up at her father. "How could you do this to us, Father? How could you have manipulated me into running to him?"
He opened his mouth, snapped it shut, then sighed. "You"re a lovely la.s.s, Nora. I wanted a good match for you and thought that if I could get the two of you together, Ewan would see what a fine wife you"d make."
"And Ryan?"
"I thought that once you ran off with another man, Ryan would recant his offer. I had no idea how much he really loved you."
She duplicated Ewan"s feral growl at that. If she heard those words one more time she was going to seriously hurt someone.
"Ryan doesn"t love me!"
"Not true," her mother said. "While you spoke to your father outside he told me how much he feared for you and that the whole reason he paid the gypsies to abduct Ewan was so that he could return you home before he harmed you. He was worried about you, Nora."
Nora started to tell them what a liar Ryan was, but she bit the words back. At the end of the day, her parents looked on him as a son. She wouldn"t destroy that for them or for Ryan.
Yet.
But if she were forced to this, she would decry him from the tallest tree.
"I don"t want to marry Ryan."
Her mother glanced to the door. "Would you rather have Ewan?"
Tears gathered in her eyes as she nodded. "More than anything."
Her father smiled. "Then I shall see what needs be done."
"If he"ll have me, you mean."
Her father looked offended by that. "And why wouldn"t he?"
Nora bit her lip as she thought about Ryan below. Ewan would never agree to marriage with her as long as he believed Ryan loved her.
She knew that.
The question was, could she ever make Ryan tell the truth?
Chapter 12.
Nora spent days sitting by Ewan"s bed. He lay in delirium, his body ravaged by fever. They bathed him repeatedly, trying to bring the fever down, but it was of little use.
It seemed he would never come back to them. And every day that pa.s.sed without his eyes opening, Nora despaired more.
He had to wake up. She couldn"t bear the thought of losing him over this.
His brothers took turns helping her and his mother watch over him, but as the days went by she began to fear he would never awaken again.
Her nervousness made her chatter more to him.
Coaxing him to eat and drink. Begging him to wake up and look at her.
Bellow at her even.
She would give anything to hear one of his bearish growls.
Only when they were alone did she dare speak to him of her love. Tell him how much she needed him to come back to her.
"He whispers your name."
She looked up from her sewing to see Lochlan watching her from his seat by the window as she sat by Ewan"s side.
Lochlan had relieved Sin barely five minutes ago, and she had been grateful. There was something very sinister and dark about Sin MacAllister. If not for his endearing love of his wife and small baby, she would have been terrified of him. But since her arrival she had seen enough of his tenderness with them to know he wasn"t as fierce as he appeared.
Braden she liked a great deal. He was ever charming a smile or laugh from her while they watched over Ewan. And he had told her numerous stories of youthful pranks he had pulled on Ewan.
But when it came to Lochlan...
There was something very stern and sad about this particular MacAllister, and he made her terribly uncomfortable.