The wagon lurched as Viktor climbed up on it. She heard the others mounting and tying her mare and Ewan"s stallion to the wagon.
Kidnapped. The word rang in her head as she turned back toward Ewan.
Her irritable companion would be even more so once he awoke and learned of this new fix.
It was all her fault, she was sure of it. No doubt the group had recognized her as the niece of the queen of England and had sought to use her for ransom.
Nowwhat was she going to do?
Chapter 5.
Ewan came awake to a pounding in his skull so fierce that for a moment he wondered if he"d been kicked by his own horse. But as he tried to move and realized his hands and legs were tied, he began to suspect something much worse than that.
Blinking his eyes open, he found Nora sitting beside him. Her face pale in the dim light of the wagon, she was staring at the door as if wis.h.i.+ng she could splinter it with her thoughts.
The wagon lurched, slamming his ribs hard into the floor. Ewan ground his teeth against the pain.
"Where are we?" he growled.
His question startled her. She jumped and turned around to face him. Relief was etched into her delicate features as she met his heated gaze. "You"re awake."
"Aye. Why am I tied? Did you do this?" he asked, even though he knew the very idea was preposterous.
Then again, with her, almost anything was possible.
She looked offended by that. "It was our friends. I think they drugged you during the meal, then they brought you inside and trussed you up."
"And what were you doing while they did this to me?"
"I thought you were ill." He noted the way she avoided answering his question.
"Didn"t you find it strange that they sought to tie an ill man?"
She s.h.i.+fted about as if agitated. "I didn"t know about that until I got inside the wagon myself and saw you lying on the floor of it."
"Then what did you do?"
"I tried to leave."
"Then?"
She held up a small piece of cloth that had been lying beside him. "I ungagged you."
That was not what he wanted to hear. Surely she had done something other than blithely submit to their capture.
"How wonderfully considerate of you. Did you not think to remove the rest of my bindings?"
"Aye, but they are too tight. I would need a dagger to loosen them."
Ewan took a deep breath and tried not to be angry at her. After all, there were four men out there, and had she fought them, she most likely would have been hurt. At least this way, she was unharmed and able to help.
It was his own fault he"d let his guard down and been duped. There was no need to take his anger out on Nora.
"Look inside my right boot."
She arched a brow at that. "You have a dagger on you?"
"Aye. Always."
She reached for his knee and felt along his s.h.i.+n.
"The inside of my leg, Nora."
She hesitated as if dreading to touch him in so personal a manner. Her face blus.h.i.+ng, she did as he told her.
Ewan held his breath as her cool hand brushed against his inner calf. Her fingers felt wonderful as they carefully slid inside the leather, seeking his dagger that was hidden in a specially designed sheath.
Her touch was like silk against his skin, and it raised chills all over him.
Not to mention other things.
"Pull it out slowly," he cautioned as she found it. "I"ve no wish to be maimed."
She did, and her slow, careful movements only made him harden more as desire burned through him. It was all he could do not to moan at the sensation.
What he wouldn"t give to have her soft, delicate hands on his back while he held her beneath him.
She bit her lip, making his body jerk with pleasure.
Once she had the dagger free, she cut the ropes that bound his hands.
Ewan let out a deep breath as he relaxed a degree and fought the urge to touch himself to help alleviate some of the discomfort from his erection. At the rate he was going, he was beginning to feel like Priapus, and if he didn"t find a way to ease his body, he was sure his health would be compromised by his unspent l.u.s.t.
He took the dagger from her hand, cut the bonds on his feet, then returned it to his boot. "How long have I been unconscious?"
"It"s hard to say, but it feels like quite a few hours. We"ve been traveling at a steady pace the whole time."
"Any idea why we"ve been taken?"
She s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably.
His stomach drew tight. "What did you do, Nora?"
"Nothing," she said defensively. "I can"t help being who I am anymore than you can."
"What do you mean?"
She sighed and stared down at her hands as she wrung them in her lap. "I think they must have recognized me. They did say they had been through Aquitaine and England. ""Tis quite possible they ran across Eleanor and-"
His temper exploded. "Would you stop with the Eleanor nonsense? I need you to be sane for a moment."
She stiffened and glared at him. "I beg your pardon? What makes you think I would lie about something like that?"
"Because my brother is an advisor to King Henry, and if his niece was here in Scotland, Sin would have mentioned it."
She looked even haughtier than she had before and pinned him with a disbelieving stare of her own.
"Well, if your brother is so close to Henry, then why has he not heard ofme ?"
He was baffled by her logic. "What?"
"Mayhap your brother is not as close to Henry as he would lead you to believe. After all, what Scotsman would Henry trust near him? He has a very strong disliking for anyone born north of Hadrian"s Wall."
This was ridiculous. Why would she not see reality? He needed her sane if they were to escape.
"That"s utter nonsense," he snapped in his brother"s defense. "I have seen Henry embrace Sin myself."
She made a rude noise at him. "I don"t believe you," she said, her eyes narrowing to sharp amber points.
"I know my uncle well. He embraces no one. Not even his sons."
Ewan ran his hands over his face. The woman was beyond sanity. For whatever reason, she firmly believed herself related to Eleanor.
Arguing with her would get him nowhere.
Which left him with the one burning question. Why had they really been abducted?
What did the gypsies hope to get out of this?
Lochlan would sooner die than ever part with coin for Ewan"s life. His brother would expect him to get himself out of this mess, and well he would.
There was no other reason to abduct him.
Mayhap Nora was the reason for it, after all. Like as not, her father was someone important, and he would probably pay a king"s ransom for his daughter"s return. Any decent father would, and though the la.s.s was delusional, she was rather endearing at times.
"Where do you think they are taking us?" she asked.
"I have no idea. Did they say anything to you?"
"They said they would take us to Lochlan"s castle. But I don"t think that"s where we"re headed."
"Truly now?"
She stiffened at his sarcasm. "You don"t have to mock me."
Ewan leaned his head back against the wagon"s wall behind him and closed his eyes. How had he gotten himself into this? All he"d wanted was to drown out his pain with some ale.
He should be at home in his bed, oblivious to the world. Instead he was trapped in a rickety wagon with a woman who had no comprehension of the virtue of silence.
"Where do you think they"ll take us?" Nora asked. "You think they have a cell waiting for us? Perhaps it"s some n.o.ble"s castle. But who would dare to keep a MacAllister in their lair? I wonder if they"ll cut off your ear or mine as proof that they have us. My father oft tells the story of his grandfather whose hand was taken as proof of his capture by his enemies when they held him for ransom."
She held her hand up and studied it in the dim light. "I should hate to lose my hand. I"m sure you feel the same way. A man"s hand is a necessary thing. I wonder what else they might take..."
"Mayhap they"ll take your tongue as proof."
She frowned at him. "My tongue? How would that prove anything? I should imagine one tongue would look the same as any other."
"Aye, but the mere fact they cut it out would tell him that they did indeed hold you and not some other."
She glared at him, but at least it bought him a small reprieve.
Unfortunately, it didn"t last long before she started in again asking him all manner of questions about where they were headed and what awaited them.
As the minutes ticked by slowly, Ewan began to hope it was his ears they took after all.
He wanted to listen to the people outside the wagon for clues, but all he heard was Nora"s endless conjectures.
She"d been right. She did make enough chatter for a whole family of people.
And even though it should anger him, he found himself conversing with her a bit. She was a creative and intelligent la.s.s whose imagination knew no bounds as she ran through various scenarios of what could happen to them.
"You know," she said as she picked at her brat. "They say there are dragons in the hills. Mayhap they"ll take us there to feed one. I never really believed in dragons, but this peddler came once to our home and he had a bite wound. It was this big." She held her arms out to a good size. "And he had it on his arm. He said a dragon had bitten him as a young man."
"How old were you when he told this story?"
"Ten and two."
"Perhaps he made it up to entertain you."
"Perhaps, but he looked terribly sincere about it. Do you think there are dragons? I should like to meet one if there are..."
Ewan shook his head at her while she continued on with her stories. The lady loved to talk as much as he loathed it.
At last the wagon stopped and so did Nora"s prattle. She c.o.c.ked her head to listen.
Ewan heard the m.u.f.fled voices from outside.
"Think he be awake by now?" Ewan wasn"t sure which of the men spoke.
"He should be," Catarina answered. "I only gave him a bit of the root, and considering his size, it should have worn off a while back."
"Poor man," another one said. "Imagine being locked in the back with the woman"s tongue. No doubt he"ll be wanting all our heads for it."