The pimply-faced youth that Ronan had called Liam shook his head and shrugged. “Me mam would be proud the chieftain entrusted me wif the getting of his wife. But it doesna really matter none—Mam has been dead a long time. She took sick right after they buried Da.”
Well, that tactic certainly backfired.Kenna shrugged aside her natural empathy as she hitched an awkward penguin walk forward with her loosely bound ankles. No more hopping until she had a chance to relieve herself.
There had to be another way to get to the boy. Granny always said she had the ability to charm a dog off a meat wagon—time to put that charisma into high gear. She wiggled across the dirt road faster after Liam. “Liam. I am very sorry about your parents. I understand completely. I lost my parents when I was just a little girl.” And she did feel bad about the boy’s loss. But that didn’t change the fact she had to find a way to escape and head back to MacKenna keep.
The lad didn’t bother answering—just plodded along. He hummed an off-pitch tune while going about his duties and didn’t seem overly upset by Kenna’s reminding him of his loss.
She raised her voice above his annoying song, determined to get through to him. “So do you think she’s looking down from heaven right now and smiling with pride that you just kidnapped an unwilling woman away from her home and her family?”
He hummed louder.
This kid had no idea how stubborn she was. She would make headway with him one way or another. While struggling not to scream at him, she spoke even louder. “Your mother would be proud of you for stealing a woman just so your chieftain could have a wife?”
“Oh, aye,” Liam said with a quick bob of his head. He gave her a shy grin as he untangled several yards of the rattling chain.
The boy’s sense of calm infuriated her. Liam obviously considered kidnapping a wife as normal as tending to the horses. Cattle-lifting was considered a fine art in the Highlands, but wife abduction? Seriously? She should’ve paid more attention to Granny’s advice about brushing up on Scotland’s history. At least then she would have had a faint idea of what to expect before she jumped smack dab into the middle of this rugged era.
She turned and shoved her bound hands under the nose of the much-shorter Ian. Maybe she could make some headway with this one. “What about your mother? I suppose she would be proud of you too?”
Ian frowned and shook his head as he pushed her hands aside. “Master said to chain ye first. Then cut free yer hands and feet—not afore. We are not daft, m’lady. Ye canna be trusted until ye accept master for what he is and accept his name as yer own.”
Liam rattled the lengths of chain wrapped in his hands and gave her a toothy smile when she turned back and faced him. “Ian there ain’t never had no mam. Cook found him squawling in a pile of rags in the gutter behind the kirk and brought him back to Draegonmare.” Liam threaded the chain through a loop of iron imbedded in the wooden block running the width of the wagon bed, then secured it with an odd-looking bit of twisted metal.
She turned back to Ian and studied the scowling lad. The solemn boy didn’t say a word. Just stood and waited, focused on the length of chain Liam had tossed to him.
Abandoned. Another twinge of guilt shot through Kenna. Well, crap on a cracker.She didn’t want to hurt these boys. Just escape. Ian’s expression was totally devoid of emotion. Kenna swallowed hard. What had the poor boy been through?
“I am sorry, Ian,” she said softly, feeling bad for both boys. She had lost her parents when she was just five years old, but at least she had never been abandoned. Granny had made certain the four Sinclair sisters always knew they were cherished and loved.
The dark-eyed lad looked up from the chains and shrugged. “Cook lets me sleep in the kitchen. Warm enough there. Get lots a scraps that way, too. I dinna need no mam telling me what to do or fretting after me when there ain’t no call for it.”
“And the chieftain says as long as we work hard and tell the truth, we can stay at Draegonmare long as we like. He says we are clan.” Liam shook the lightweight chain loose between the end of the wagon and Kenna. He caught his bottom lip between his oversized front teeth and stared uncomfortably at her waist.
So, the boy was shy. She lifted her chin and smiled. This could work to her advantage. And Draegonmare. The name of Ronan Sutherland’s keep made Kenna think of ancient wizards mumbling incantations and jagged lightning exploding from their hands.
She pressed her mouth into a tight line against an evil grin as the image of a terrifyingly beautiful dragon blossomed in her mind. It only took the wink of an eye to plant the lovely, winged monstrosity—awesome and mighty, with three horned heads and a body engulfed in blue-white flames—in the dead center of Liam’s mind.
The boy’s eyes went wide with fear. Kenna took a step toward him and concentrated, visualizing the frightening image of her own private making unfurling its great leathery wings and belching fire in the pupils of his eyes.
Ian stepped between them and snatched the chain out of Liam’s trembling hands. With an efficient flick of his wrist, he tossed it around Kenna’s waist and pulled it tight. “Dinna be trying yer tricks on me. Master tol’ me ye might try to put things in our heads. I ain’t a having it.”
Liam backed his way up the hillside. His trembling voice cracked with fear as he shouted back down to Ian. “I gots to go and get the firewood. Ye watch after that one. I be done with the likes of her. Her beasties are fiercer than master’s.”
Her beasties are fiercer than master’s?What did that mean?Kenna focused harder and attempted to latch another hold on Liam’s mind, but it was too late. The frightened lad had already scurried well out of range. Dammit.
Ian laced the hasp of an odd-looking lock through the chain around her waist and snapped it shut. Without looking her in the face, he pointed a grimy hand toward an outcropping of large rocks and thick bushes. “The chain should reach clear to the other side of that bit of wood. Ye might even get as far as the spring that starts higher up the hillside. When the master says, I’ll come back and move ye closer to the fire.”
“What did Liam mean when he said my beasties are fiercer than your master’s?”
Ian ignored her. The sullen lad just ran the lightweight chain through his calloused fingers, rechecking each and every link.
A heavy sigh escaped her. She would get nowhere with this one.Holding out her bound hands, she nodded at her tied ankles. “Now you can untie me.”
With one swift movement, Ian slid a short blade through the ropes and allowed the severed pieces to drop to the ground. He didn’t say a word as he finished, just turned and plodded back down the hill to help the others set up camp.
The solemn-faced boy had said he wouldn’t allow her to put images in his mind to scare him. Nor had she been able to achieve more than limited access to his most basic thoughts. Kenna blew out a frustrated huff. It was just as well. During her brief flicker through Ian’s mind, she had discovered that no monster—at lease none of her conjuring—was capable of frightening Ian. But while he had cut through the ropes, she had glimpsed the one thing the boy did fear. More than anything else, Ian was afraid to fail his chieftain: Ronan Sutherland.
CHAPTER22
