She turned from him to replace the bag on its hook below the shelf, fully expecting a belligerent reply from the Scot.
“Very well, Eve. But you must tell me if you come over weary. I’ll assist you if you have a need. There’s nae shame in it.”
Evelyn paused, her back to MacKerrick. She had not been prepared for that response at all. She reached for her dagger and the bowl of moss from the shelf before her. Hearing slurping noises, she turned.
MacKerrick was once more crouched at the fire, this time over the crock which held the stew, and he was holding forth the long wooden spoon to Alinor, who licked it greedily.
The highlander glanced up at Evelyn. “She’s takin’ a fancy to me, though, I vow.” The sharp planes of his face softened into a boyish grin.
Evelyn couldn’t help the twitch of her own lips as she reached overhead to pull two lengths of cloth from the ceiling. “She fancies your stew is all.”
“Mayhap.” MacKerrick shrugged good-naturedly and returned the spoon to the crock to stir it. Alinor hedged closer to his side, sniffing longingly at the rich aroma. “I am a fine cook, so I canna fault her. We must begin somewhere.”
He replaced the lid on the crock and rested the spoon across it. “That’s all you get, beastie,” he said to Alinor and the wolf lay down meekly near him. MacKerrick looked up at Eve and she could see the remains of his smile in his sparkling eyes. “I reckon if I feed her, care for her long enough, perhaps she may become fond of me, as well.”
Evelyn looked at him for a long moment, trying to divine if MacKerrick’s neat speech did not have a double meaning. But a voice from somewhere in her mind warned her against dwelling upon such things and so Evelyn broke gaze with the highlander to sit upon the floor with her supplies.
“To me, Alinor.”
Conall wasted no time in dragging the low stool closer to where Eve sat before the great black wolf. He held her abandoned mug in both palms, his elbows on his knees, and sipped at the cooling brew. From his vantage point, to her side and slightly behind her, he could easily see Eve’s pale, graceful hands as they flitted over Alinor’s lumpy side, as well as the long curve of Eve’s neck, the bones and delicate cording in sharp relief when she turned her head a bit this way and that.
His last remarks had given her pause, and Conall cautioned himself to move slowly. But he’d never had need to woo a woman before. Nonna had been promised to him since her birth, and he now felt at a great disadvantage at having to learn the ways of seduction as he stumbled along.
The thought of his own romantic inexperience gave him an idea.
“Were you never married, Eve?”
Her fingers paused only for a moment as she considered his question. “Nay. Never married.” She continued her nursing of the wolf.
“I canna hardly believe that,” Conall said when she did not elaborate.
Eve dabbed at Alinor’s wound with a moistened rag. “Why not?”
“A titled lady, comely and learned—I would think some laird to have claimed you early on.”
The tips of her ears pinkened.Slowly, Conall, he reminded himself.Slowly…
“I…was betrothed.” She glanced over her shoulder, showing Conall a bit more of her flushed profile. “The wound looks much improved to me. Moss or nay?”
Conall was pleased that she had asked his opinion, and he leaned forward and looked at Alinor’s side thoughtfully.
“Why, it appears all but healed to me, lass. A fine job you’ve done.” He gave her a wide smile.
Eve frowned and her eyes narrowed a bit, so Conall dropped the grin from his face to replace it with what he hoped was a more suitably serious expression.
“Nae moss, I think,” he said. “But mayhap it should remain bandaged for a day or so, to be certain.”
Evelyn nodded curtly, the suspicion gone from her face. “I agree.” She reached for a long rag and folded it lengthwise.
“Did your betrothed die?”
“Nay. I—” She paused while she tied the bandage in a stiff knot around Alinor’s middle. “I joined the order before we were wed.”
Conall raised his eyebrows as a twinge plucked at his guts. “Most men wouldna take kindly to his intended running out on him before they are to take their vows.”
“He was…upset, yea.” Eve gathered her materials and rose from the floor with a soft hiss. “But he married another not long after I left. They are very happy.”
“Fickle man,” Conall remarked lightly.Idiot, more likely, he said to himself.
