Nicholas started to ask her what she meant, but then he felt it. There was a sudden sharp sensation against his cheek, and then another, and then another. He looked down at his sleeve and was startled to see tiny white balls of ice clinging to the fabric.
“Hail,” Ava said grimly. “Come on. I'll be fast, and then we'll get out of here.”
Nicholas wanted to tell Ava that it would be all right, that there was no need to worry at all, but it simply took him too much effort to do that and to stay upright in the saddle. He thought about it, and thinking seemed to take more time and effort than it should have. He finally decided that staying in the saddle was better than trying to tell Ava something she already knew.
The darkness edged around his vision as she took Cobie by the reins, and then she was leading him forward on the road.
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chapter 11
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As a matter of fact, Ava had no idea if it was going to be all right or not. Hail in this part of the world could be deadly, and April was the season where it was the worst. A man who had traveled up to trade with Clan Blair had once talked about a storm so vicious it killed off an entire flock of sheep, including the shepherd and his dog, and the image had stayed with her for a very long time.
There was no way to get back to Riordan Hall. Even if Kait let them in, Ava wasn't sure she could lead Cobie and a silent and sweating Nicholas along the ravine without sending all three of them toppling down it.
In fact, the only thing to be pleased about, as far as she was concerned, was the fact that she was no longer unarmed. One of the bandits had a sword that was of a decent quality, and the other had money. She had never cared much for robbing the dead, but since these men were likely murderers themselves, she resolved not to worry too much about it.
Right now, her far more pressing concern was making sure that she got Nicholas, Cobie, and herself to cover, and she only prayed that her memory was right when she took them off of the road.
Ava had traveled the length and breadth of Scotland and most of the northern parts of England as well. She had more reason to do so than a woman who was kept at home with a half-dozen children tugging at her skirts, and she had more freedom to explore than a soldier.
She had had plenty of reasons to be grateful for her knowledge, and as the hailstones started to come down more thickly and heavily, she thanked heaven for all the roaming she’d done in the area some few years before.
One hailstone caught Cobie particularly hard across the withers, making the placid horse snort and pull at the reins in her hand.
"Oh, no, please, please, don't do that!"
She took a tighter grip on the reins, painfully aware that if Cobie truly spooked, tearing off through the underbrush, there was precious little that she could really do about it, and that was even before getting into what it might do to Cobie's dazed rider.
As she was checking to make sure that Nicholas hadn't lost his seat at Cobie's start, she saw another piece of hail strike him on the shoulder, making him snort much like the horse had.
"Wha-what's going on? Ava?"
Ava made a brief exasperated noise, but inwardly, she was relieved.
"Come down if you can," she said. "This big beast would rather have you off rather than on, and together, maybe we have a brief chance of getting him out of all this without breaking a leg."
For a moment, it looked as if Nicholas had no idea what she was talking about, but then with a brief nod, he came down to walk beside her. Despite herself, Ava let out a breath of relief. She hadn't been aware of how tense she was, guiding the large horse with his tottering rider.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"
"Save it for later," Ava said shortly. "We need to get under cover now."
Nicholas fell into step next to her, and a short time thereafter, much to Ava's relief, she saw the triangular opening in the ground that she was looking for.
"Is that—?"
"A sleeping place for a bear? I hope not. It's warm enough that any honey thief should be well on her way."
"You hope."
"Aye, I do."
Ava started forward, but to her surprise, Nicholas caught her by the wrist and drew her back.
"Stay with Cobie. Be ready to flee if I shout."
"And what will you be doing?"
"Trying to give you enough time to flee," he said shortly.
Ava bit her lower lip as Nicholas drew his sword and approached the cave. She could hear a sharp note in his voice that she hadn't heard there before, and she could have cursed her sharp words to him earlier. She started to call to him, telling him that they didn't need to risk the cave, but then another bit of hail hit her on the bare hand, making her hiss with pain and draw closer to the tree close by. People had died in hailstorms like this one, and they needed shelter sooner rather than later.
Nicholas called into the cave, and then Ava watched with her heart in her throat as he entered. A brown bear was taller than a man, and one swipe of its enormous paws could knock a man's head off. She didn't think she breathed again until Nicholas came back out.
"It's empty, and it's sound."
"Thank heaven!" Ava called out, and she brought Cobie toward the cave. There was an outcropping in the rock, one that was just large enough to fit the large animal if he didn't move around too much, and once he was snugged in, he didn't look as if he wanted to move at all. Ava removed his tack, pulling the saddlebags aside to drag into the cave, and hobbled him. Impulsively, she leaned over to kiss his velvety nose.
"You've done your very best for us, so thank you," she murmured, and then she turned around to see Nicholas right behind her, the saddlebags slung over his shoulder.
"If I do my very best for us, do I get a kiss as well?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes and brushed past him.
"You're a human, not a horse. Your reward for doing your best is to go off at once and do something much harder."
The cave was low, and they both had to crouch down to enter. Once inside, however, it was blessedly dry with a bed of old fragrant pine needles lining the bottom. If it had been the winter den of a bear, it must have left early enough that it didn't even leave its scent.
"How did you know this place was here?" asked Nicholas, as he built a fire by the mouth of the cave. The fire would scare away any animals that had the same ideas that they did while also keeping them warm.
"I was in the area just a few years ago. We came across this place while we were lifting some cattle from the MacLeods."
Nicholas made a face at that, and Ava grinned at him.
"You might as well know who you are traveling with, Englishman. I'm not some polite army scout that you can depend upon to do the right thing."
"I think you must not have known all that many army scouts. No. It's just... don't you know how very dangerous raiding is?"
Ava spread out her cloak before sitting down on the ground, and she turned to Nicholas with an expression of wide-open interest.
"No, I have no idea how very dangerous cattle raiding in the Highlands might be. Why don't you tell me, Englishman?'
He rolled his eyes at her, tossing her a dry cloth so she could squeeze some of the water out of her hair.
"Forget I said anything," Nicholas said, but Ava realized that she was pleased.
She would rather have Nicholas irritated with her than looking as lost and blank as he had been on the road anyway.
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chapter 12
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Nicholas's thoughts preyed upon him as they ate, and finally, he turned to Ava, who was nibbling dubiously on a piece of journey bread that had admittedly seen better days.
"I want to apologize for what happened before."
"Do you?" she asked absently.
Nicholas scowled.
"I would like your full attention if I'm going to apologi
ze."
"Well, then, don't bother. I don't want to give something like that my full attention."
"What in all the blazes do you mean by that?"
She looked at him directly, and even in the low glow of the fire, he could see the sparks snapping from her bright eyes. Nicholas had always thought that he was drawn to women who were as soft as silk, with a welcome smile and eyes he could drown in. None of that described Ava, but he couldn't make himself look away from her, didn't want to do anything but drink her in even if she were sparking with a low fury.
"Are you going to apologize for saving our lives on the road? Or were you planning to be sorry for the neatest bit of swordplay I've seen in a while?"
"Not that. You know what I'm talking about. After—"
"After you exerted yourself like a ninny, and after you aggravated a wound that a holy man said was not healed yet, you mean?"
"Well, yes..."
"Oh, for the love of the standing stones, Englishman. I am not about to blame you for that. And you shouldn't either. You're ill. You cannot help it. It's no one's fault, so shut your mouth."
Ava dropped her eyes away from his, going back to her journey bread. He watched her for a few moments, and then he smiled.
"Are you trying to comfort me?"
"Do I look like a nursemaid?"
"You are, aren't you? You're trying to make me feel better."
He came to sit next to her by the fire, and for some reason, the way that she continued to ignore him was hilarious. It might have been the fact that he was finally warming up after having been in the cold for so long, or maybe it was just the way she seemed to think that the bread was the most fascinating thing in the world.
Nicholas burst into a deep laugh, and despite his quest, the battle today, and everything else that was wrong with the world, he couldn't stop.
"Oh, leave off with that!" Ava exclaimed. "Can't you just be quiet?"
That only made him laugh harder, and then harder than that when she punched him on the arm. It felt good to laugh, as if he were remembering to be someone he used to be. It turned out that the man he had been wasn't dead after all, and that was a fascinating discovery.
"Ugh, you're so loud," Ava said finally, giving him a great push. At the last minute, he wrapped his hand around her wrist, and she fell over with him.
Nicholas ended up on his back, still holding on to Ava's wrist, and then she was half-sprawled over his chest. Their faces were inches apart, and this close, her eyes looked black, and Nicholas was not sure he had ever seen as appetizing as her slightly-parted lips.
"Nicholas..."
The sound of his own name in her mouth sent a shiver through him, and his hand closed over her wrist more tightly. He knew that no true knight would force her to stay where she was if she wanted to get away, but the idea of her pulling away was physically painfully.
"I think that's the first time you've said my name."
"Surely not."
"I like it. Would you say it again?"
"No," she said, and he laughed at her stubbornness.
"Perhaps I could bribe you into it," he said softly.
"What in the world would you give me for something like that? I have seen what you carry in those saddlebags. I can't imagine that there's anything worth—"
He kissed her.
Nicholas's free hand came up to cup the back of her neck, drawing her down until her lips met his. He had thought that the kiss they shared when they first met was something impressive, something almost earth-shattering, but now he knew that was wrong. That was something that had happened between two strangers.
This was kissing Ava, brave, impossible, funny, and strangely kind Ava. He knew how quickly she could throw out a jibe meant to skewer him, and it was a wonder now when after a single frozen moment, she started to kiss him in return.
Nicholas groaned when she started to lap lightly and curiously at his lower lip, as if she wanted to see if he liked it as much as she did. She was tasting him as if he were something she wanted very much, wanted to savor. For a few short minutes, he was able to let her do as she liked, but then the urge to kiss her back, to have her in any way that he could, came up to overwhelm him.
Without a care for anything that he might be bringing down on his head, Nicholas deepened the kiss, drinking of her just as she drank of him. It felt so good, so terribly good. She tasted like everything he had ever wanted. The sharp edge of his teeth brushed against her tongue, and when she shivered, he held her tighter.
Her hair was short, but he could still comb his fingers through the thick dark strands. Her hair was sleek as otter fur, thick and lovely. Nicholas wound his fingers through her hair, putting just enough pressure on it to make her groan in surprise.
"Good," she murmured, and he laughed at how shocked she sounded.
"Good," he echoed. "I want to make you feel good, darling. I want to make you feel so very good..."
His eyes were just fluttering closed with the pleasure of it all, but then Ava coiled with all the tension of a striking snake and sank her teeth into his lower lip. She was fast and her teeth were sharp. When she let go just an instant later, Nicholas tasted blood.
He jerked, just stopping himself from pushing her away, and he sat up, his hand flying to his mouth.
"What in the—?"
"You said you wouldn't!" Ava snarled. She had retreated to the other side of the fire, glaring at him as if she wanted nothing more than to cut his throat. Given the knife she had and the sword she had taken, he knew that she was more than capable of doing so. Instead, however, she hunched her shoulders as if she were trying to ward off a blow.
"Ava?"
"Liar," Ava spat. "I should have known that you were like all the rest. I should have known—"
"I'm sorry."
For some reason, his words cut through Ava's tirade. She looked up at him as if she could read the truth in his face. Nicholas stayed as still as a statue, letting her look at him. He felt as if he were on trial, one where no matter what was found, he would be guilty. Still, he was quiet, and after what felt like a long eternity, Ava relaxed a little.
"Are you sorry?"
"I said I was. And yes. Well. I'm sorry for doing something that I said I would not do and abusing your trust."
She looked at him suspiciously.
"What aren't you sorry for?"
Nicholas took a deep breath. He knew that when he told her the truth, there was a chance she would simply walk out and leave him alone in his own mess. He wouldn't be able to blame her if she did.
"I'm not sorry for having kissed you. I could never be sorry for that. The way we are together... no. I'm not sorry for that."
Ava froze, and for a moment, he thought he would be continuing his quest on his own. Then, almost as if by a miracle, she relaxed until she was only glaring at him again.
He could take that glare. What he wasn't sure he could take was the look of terror he had seen flash across her face before. He could never bear seeing her look as if she were afraid of him, as if he were her enemy.
As if he had hurt her.
"All right," Ava said. "Just... Let's not talk about it any longer."
"All right," Nicholas said, but he knew that this wasn't the end of it.
Ava could have all the secrets she wished, but if he ever found out who had made her afraid, if that man was in striking distance, Nicholas knew that he couldn't be responsible for what came after that.
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chapter 13
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They ate in silence, and for a long while, they listened to the hail rattle down on their shelter. Nicholas got up to check on Cobie twice. When he got up a third time, Ava had to laugh a little.
“You're probably waking him up at this point. Just stay.”
Nicholas hesitated, and then sat back down. The fire was growing dim, and Ava could sense that something was shifting between them, something th
at she could not easily name or understand. She supposed someone who was cleverer than she was would simply glide over things until it felt normal again, but she knew she was not that kind of person. She was direct, without the pretense that other women had to use as a survival tactic. She had always felt lucky about her lot in life, and she wasn't about to let that change now.
“We should probably lie down and get some sleep,” she said at last. “This hail can't last all that long, and if we're moving by dawn, we can cover a lot of ground.”
Nicholas nodded, starting to stretch out his blanket. Deliberately, refusing to think twice about it, Ava came around the fire to take her place next to him.
Nicholas knelt next to her, looking down with an expression that was almost comical.
“Ava...”
“What?” she asked, her voice sharper than it should have been.
“I don't want to... upset you.”
She turned her head to glare at him.
“Nicholas Whitfield, are you a man or a beast?”
“A man.”
“Then sleeping next to someone like me shouldn't be a problem. I'm cold, now lie down.”
For a moment, she thought he wouldn't. She knew better than to trust into anything like the chivalry of an English knight, but Nicholas was different from most. He might actually go and sleep with Cobie if his conscience were pricked enough. She told herself she didn't care. It was only that the night was so cold.
Finally, Nicholas sighed and lay down behind her. His body pressed against hers with the warmth that she had grown so familiar with. She just barely stopped herself from purring when she could feel his breath against her ear.
“Better,” she said.
He laughed.
“How in the world did you get to be you, Ava Fitzpatrick?”
“A man tumbled a lass when his wife was away one day and kept her instead of sending her out to foster.”
“Ava!”
“What? It’s true.”
“I wasn't talking about the nature of your birth—”
The Highlander’s Promise (The Highlands Warring Scottish Romance) (A Medieval Historical Romance Book) Page 6