Aenos's face and demeanor lightened immediately.
"Ewan!" He laughed, clapping him on the back. "Finished off my ale so soon, eh? Well, come in, my lord. I've plenty more to keep you happy."
Ewan had started to step inside when he realized Nora was not beside him. He turned around to find her still on her horse, looking down at the ground skeptically.
Growling low in his throat, he excused himself from Aenos and walked over to her. "Jumping wouldn't kill you."
"Nay, but it might break my leg. Sprain my ankle. At the very least, soil my gown. Are you always so discourteous as to leave a lady to her own means?"
"I'm not used to being in a lady's company without my brothers being present." Ewan clenched his teeth as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He couldn't believe he'd said that to her.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"Nothing." He helped her down from her horse and did his best not to notice just how pleasant she felt in his arms.
How good her body felt sliding down along his…
It was all he could do to not lean forward and breathe in the sweet, feminine scent of her. To let that pleasant smell wash over him and make him drunk all over again.
He'd no sooner set her down before him than old Sorcha, Aenos's wife, came over to greet them. Part of him hated to see her joining them, but the rational side of him was grateful for the distraction.
Her long gray hair fell in braids down the sides of her face as she clutched a plaid shawl about her shoulders. Her gray eyes were happy and bright, just like the woman herself.
Ewan had known her all his life and ofttimes thought of her as another mother. He loved the old woman dearly.
"My lord." The older woman beamed. "Aenos didn't tell me you brought company with you this time, and a lady no less. Have you finally gone and settled down?"
"Nay, Sorcha. I'm only taking her to my brother."
He left Nora to Sorcha's care and led the horses around the cottage to deliver them up to Aenos's apprentice, who also doubled as a stable hand.
Nora watched him leave and shook her head. "His manners are appalling," she said under her breath. She turned back to the older woman. "I'm called Nora."
The woman gave her a chiding smile. "Don't be so hard on the lad, my lady. He's a bit gruff, but he has a good heart."
"He keeps it well hidden."
The woman took her arm as if she'd known her all her life, and led her inside the small cottage. "Shall I answer your question for you?"
"What question?"
"The one you posed to him just now about what he meant by not being around a lady without his brothers."
"Aye, please."
"Have you ever met any of his brothers?"
"Nay."
"Well, I've met them all. Wiped both ends of most of them back when I was a maid for his mother. They are a spirited bunch of lads to be sure. But Lord Ewan was always quieter than the others, and whenever a lady came near, his brothers would fair knock each other down in an effort to win the lady's notice. I can't tell you the times I saw him attempt to speak to a woman only to have Braden or Kieran elbow him aside. After a time, he quit trying to compete with them and simply ambled off to tend his own needs and ignore the others."
That was interesting.
"Are his brothers as handsome as he?"
"Some think they are more so. But I think each one is handsome in his own way. The youngest, Braden, holds many of the same features as Ewan and is unearthly handsome, but is rather arrogant about it. Lochlan reminds me of a golden angel, all fair, graceful and refined. The eldest of them, Sin, is like a fallen angel, dark in his ways and yet extremely compelling. And Kieran, God rest his soul, was what every woman dreams of, I think. He had black hair and eyes so pale they looked almost colorless."
Sorcha sighed wistfully. "Oh, those eyes of his. They smiled even when he was serious. He was a charming rogue who dallied with more women even than Braden. I tell you, the world is not as happy a place as it was when he was in it."
Sorcha glanced behind them as if looking for Ewan, then leaned forward and whispered to her. "You do know what day today is, do you not?"
"Tuesday?"
Sorcha shook her head. "Nay, my lady. 'Tis the anniversary of Kieran's death. This is the very day his brother Lochlan went out to find the lad and found his sword and plaid lying on the banks of the loch."
Nora went cold at her words. "Ewan drowned his brother?"
Sorcha pulled back with a scowl. "Whatever makes you say that?"
"I've heard rumors that Ewan killed his brother."
"Nay, my lady. Kieran killed himself because Ewan ran off with the lady they both loved. I was there that very day when Kieran had learned Ewan and Isobail were gone. He couldn't believe that he had lost his lady to his brother. Heartsick, he'd told his family that he needed some time alone. Ewan was probably halfway to London by the time Kieran took his own life."
Nora frowned at that last bit. "Halfway to London?"
"Aye, they were going to the lady's aunt. She was supposed to shelter them. Only 'twas a lie the lady told Ewan so that he would take her off to England to meet with her lover. The poor wee lad was devastated when she left him."
Nora felt ill at the news. No wonder the man had looked so angry when she had posed her suggestion to him.
"Oh, Sorcha, I am such a fool."
"How so?"
"I asked Ewan to take me to London so that I could stay with my aunt and avoid marrying a man I loathe."
Sorcha gaped.
"I didn't know," she hastened to assure the woman. Oh, but she felt terrible over this. "I can't believe I said it today of all days, no less. At least now I know why he looked as if he wanted to strangle me."
No wonder the poor man had been lying drunk in his bed. He'd probably been doing his best to forget the pain he had caused his brother.
Nora wished she could undo what she'd done. She wished she could take back this day and have plotted her course on any day save this one.
If only she'd known…
Sorcha cleared her throat as Ewan headed back toward them. His eyes were still rimmed in red, but clearer than they'd been when he'd first started this trip.
He walked with his shoulders back, a proud man. Still, the sad torment in his eyes betrayed the inner pain he felt.
Pain she had unknowingly added to.
He'd started past them when Nora called out to him. "Ewan?"
He paused to look at her.
"Might I have a word with you?"
Sorcha excused herself as Ewan came to stand beside her.
"Do you need something?" he asked gruffly.
"I…" Nora swallowed as she tried to think of what she should say to him.
I'm sorry seemed somehow paltry given what she'd done to him this day, the memories she'd unknowingly dredged up.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "I really appreciate your doing this favor for me even though you didn't have to. It was very kind of you."
She raised up on her tiptoes and laid a quick kiss on his cheek before heading toward the cottage.
Ewan was dumbstruck by her actions.
She'd thanked him?
She'd kissed him.
He didn't know which one stunned him more, and for his life he couldn't understand what had prompted either action.
The lass was an odd one to be sure. Peculiar and strange. And yet on some level she was rather charming, especially when her mouth was closed.
Bemused by her, he followed the women inside the cottage.
Aenos was already seated at the wooden table in the middle of the main room, pouring large goblets of ale.
Without taking a seat in one of the five chairs, Ewan grabbed his goblet and downed it in one gulp, then belched loudly.
As he set the goblet down to be refilled, he caught Nora's horrified face as she sat herself in the chair next to Aenos.
"Why, I don't think I've ever seen a man swall
ow the whole of his cup with one breath," she said, her tone chiding. "If you keep that up, you'll be drunk in a matter of minutes."
He scoffed at her warning as he pulled a chair out for himself and sat down. "Trust me, it'll take more than a few minutes."
He nodded to Aenos, who poured the goblet full.
Sorcha made them trenchers of roasted ham with leeks and onions.
As was his custom, Ewan ignored the food and continued to drink. He also did his best to ignore the lady who sat across from him.
Something that proved to be impossible. All he could see was the firelight playing in the golden highlights of her hair. The way the shadows played across her creamy skin.
The delicate grace of her hands as she used them to cut her food and eat.
Nora was pure elegance.
And it made him ache with desire for her.
She didn't say anything else about his drinking, but chattered with Sorcha.
" 'Tis so kind of you to feed us, good wife. I'm sorry we arrived unannounced."
Sorcha waved her words away. "We're used to it. Ewan comes to us all the time like this."
Nora looked at him expectantly. "Then why did you pass by the village?"
"I wanted to get you to Lochlan as soon as possible."
"Then why did you double back?"
Because a lady so fine deserves better than to sleep on soggy ground with me for company.
That was something he had no intention of explaining to her. "Because I wanted to."
Ewan poured more ale and downed it, then poured more. He took the goblet and pitcher and made for the door.
Frowning, Nora watched him leave.
"Aenos, go after him," Sorcha said. "I don't want him sleeping in the barn again. He caught a cold and was sick for days the last time he did that."
Aenos nodded and got up to follow him.
After Aenos left, Nora turned to Sorcha. "Sorcha, why is Lord Ewan so—"
"Gruff?"
"Surly and drunken was what I wanted to say, but gruff works as well."
"Guilt, my lady, is hard on a man. Every day he lives that his brother doesn't is a day he feels he owes to Kieran."
"What do you mean?"
Sorcha traced a circle on the table for a minute as if debating whether she should answer. When she spoke, her voice was scarce more than a whisper, as if she were imparting a secret to her. "Well, one night when the lad was drunk, he said something that has stuck in my mind. He said that he didn't deserve comfort while his brother was lying at the bottom of a cold loch because he was a fool."
Nora frowned at that. "But his cave is furnished in luxury."
"Aye, the doing of his mother once she saw how he was living up there in the hills with nothing at all for comfort. Not even a blanket to warm him. The lady couldn't stand the thought of him in such misery, so she led an army of helpers and threatened to come every day if he removed any of it."
Nora smiled at his mother's kindness. "So he intends to waste away his life because his brother is dead?"
"It appears so."
Nora sat back as she thought that over. Why would he throw away his life because his brother was weak?
"Well, what foolishness is that?" she asked.
"My lady, you don't understand how close they were."
"Perhaps not, but does he honestly think that his drinking and such would make his brother happy?"
It didn't make any sense at all that he would think that or act the way he did.
Before Nora could think better of it, she got up and went outside to find Ewan.
He was sitting on a log at the rear of the cottage drinking with Aenos.
The instant he saw her, he cursed. "Why are you out here?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she took the goblet from his hand and poured it out.
His face flushed with anger. "What are you doing?"
The answer was so obvious that she didn't bother explaining. Instead, she grabbed the pitcher and headed back toward the house.
Nora didn't get far before Ewan caught her.
"Give me that," he said, trying to take it from her hands.
"Nay," she said firmly.
His face was aghast. "Nay?"
"Nay."
Ewan reached for it again.
Nora twisted and tried to get past him, but somehow in the process she ended up dousing both of them and stumbling.
So intent on regaining his ale, Ewan didn't think to catch either one of them. They landed on the ground, limbs entwined with Nora on top of him.
His body reacted instantly to the feel of her softness squirming against him.
For a moment, he couldn't move. All he could do was feel her breasts against his chest, her legs against his, her breath falling on his face.
It had been so long since he last held a woman, so long since he had seen a woman as fair as this one who didn't belong to one of his brothers.
Longing pierced him as he focused his gaze on her parted lips.
Taste her.
It was all he could do not to yield to the anguished need he felt for her. To the heated fury of his groin that begged for a wee taste of her body.
Aye, she was all fire and beauty. And he wanted her in a way most mad.
Nora couldn't breathe as she stared down into Ewan's perfect blue eyes. Never in her life had she been this close to a man.
Who knew one would be so hard, so… well, masculine.
She felt a peculiar urge to rub herself against him, to feel his hardness with the whole of her body.
His eyes were dark, dangerous as he watched her in silence.
"Here, my lady," Aenos said as he joined them. "Let me help you up."
Ewan cursed again, and as Aenos helped her up she saw their clothes, and she realized why he'd done that. They were both drenched by ale.
Aenos snorted. "Have no fear, lad. There be plenty more of that to be sure."
Ewan got up slowly.
"He doesn't need to be drinking any more ale," Nora said, turning to Aenos. "He needs a good bath and a night of rest."
"And who are you to be lecturing me on what I can and canna drink?"
She thought about that for a moment, then seized on the one thing he couldn't argue with. "Your responsibility."
Ewan's face went from anger to shock in the span of a heartbeat. "Beg pardon?"
"I'm your responsibility," she told him, "and you can't be watching after me while you're knee-deep into your cups. I happen to be quite a handful and could get into any number of fixes while you're off unconscious. So you see, it is my place to lecture you on how much ale you consume."
She watched as the muscle in his jaw worked furiously.
He glanced to the old man beside him. "Aenos, fetch me an ax."
Aenos headed off at his command.
Those words made her nervous. Especially since they were said with a mixture of anger and determination. "An ax? Why do you need an ax?"
His eyes blazed. "I'm going to take care of my responsibility so that it plagues me no more."
She gulped audibly. "Take care of me how?"
"I'm going to cut your head off and bury your body in the back."
She stepped away from him, unsure whether he meant that. His face was stern and serious enough.
"That is a jest, correct?"
"Mayhap. But if you don't leave me be, woman, you're going to find out firsthand why I choose to live alone."
Aenos returned with the ax.
Ewan grabbed it from him, cast her a menacing glare and handed Aenos the empty pitcher. "Take her inside to finish her meal, Aenos. I'll be back later."
"Where are you going?" Nora asked.
He didn't answer. He merely headed off into the woods.
"Leave him be for a bit," Aenos whispered. "He's only going to work out some of his anger."
"How?"
"He chops wood. I've enough of it now to fuel the whole village through the harshest of winters. But it calms him
down, so I never say anything. Come, my lady, let's get you inside so that you can get dried off."
Nora followed him back to Sorcha inside their worn but cozy cottage.
"Where is Ewan?" Sorcha asked while she was cleaning Ewan's trencher.
Aenos pulled his cap off and replaced it on the hook by the door. "The woodpile."
Sorcha sighed. "Poor lad. At the rate he's going we'll be able to build a castle."
Nora retook her seat. "Is he always so angry?"
"He's a man in pain, my lady," Sorcha said quietly as she returned to the table to keep Nora company. "He's forgotten how to live without it. Forgotten how to find joy of any sort."
"Remember when he was a boy?" Aenos asked, retaking his own seat.
"Aye." Sorcha smiled as she wiped a cleaning cloth over her area of the table. "He was such a happy lad. He used to get up and stagger down the stairs asking, 'Where's my Kieran?'"
She smiled at Nora and explained her comment, "He thought he owned his brother. And Kieran, bless his heart, very seldom ran out of patience with him. I don't think I ever saw one without the other."
"Until they fell in love with the same woman," Nora breathed.
"Aye. Isobail was an evil lass," Aenos said. "Turning them against each other so that she could get what she wanted. I know the devil's saving a special corner of hell for her."
"Aenos!" Sorcha gasped. "Watch your tongue before the lady."
"Sorry," he muttered. "But 'tis truth."
Nora ate in silence as she thought about the lonely man outside in the woods.
What would it be like to live with such guilt?
She couldn't imagine it.
Once she finished her meal and had changed her clothes, she left them and headed outside again to find Ewan. There was a small path that led from the back of the cottage into the woods.
It didn't take long to find him. She could hear his chopping even from a distance.
What she didn't expect was to find him shirtless. His body was covered in a fine sheen that fair glowed in the moonlight.
He was beautiful.
Manly.
Powerful.
And as soon as he saw her, he did what she expected. He cursed. It seemed to be the only greeting he could give her.
"Unless you come bearing more ale, I suggest you head back inside."
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