Part 24 (1/2)
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.”
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 woman 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 a.s.sured 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.
”Have you ever made your own tarts?” Nora asked, then stopped herself. ”Nay, I guess not. You being a man and all. You probably never even picked berries, did you?”
”I did.”
She straightened to look at him. ”Truly?”
”Aye. My mother used to take me and my brothers into the woods to pick berries for her pies and jams.” He smiled wistfully at the memory. ”But we usually ate so many of them that she would shoo us away shortly after we begun.”
”Who ate most of them?” Nora asked as she led him through the foliage in search of her fare. ”You or one of your brothers?”
”Kieran. He was always hungry.”
”And you weren't?”
”Nay, not really.”
Nora started to climb over a fallen log.
Ewan picked her up easily and swung her over it.
”Thank you.”
He inclined his head and jumped over it with little effort.
Nora watched him in the dappled sunlight. His black hair was curling becomingly around his shoulders.
He was such a handsome man.
Before she could think better of it, she took his hand in hers. She half expected him to let go. He didn't.
Instead he squeezed her hand in his and offered her that hesitant smile that was such a part of him. It was one where the corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly, and if one wasn't paying attention, one might not realize it was a smile at all.
But she knew it.
Just as she was beginning to know the man who gifted her with it.