“How fare ye, my little man?” she asked, bouncing him lightly with each word.
He made a sound in his voice that sounded like no answer at all.
“And did ye enjoy that elephant ride?”
“Oh, it was so high up. Where did it come from again?”
Ethne laughed. He’d asked her three times, and three times she had told him she did not know. The man who cared for it and allowed Finn to take the ride knew, but she couldn’t remember. He had been a stout man with bushy black eyebrows, not handsome like the man who had played along with Finn.
She said, “Ye picked a fine man to hide behind. Tall as a tree.”
Finn laughed. “I told him he was as big as a whale.”
Gasping, Ethne stopped. “Ye did not. Tell me ye said no such thing.”
“What is wrong with a whale? They are good. They stay together as a family and they love each other.” Finn leaned his chin on her shoulder. “They are happy.”
His moping tone squeezed her heart.
“Who knows, Finn, if they are truly happy?”
“They blow the water up into the air!” He picked up his head, sounding quite put out by having to explain this to her. “That is how they show they are happy.”
“I am not convinced.” She hoped to prod him into more conversation, but he remained quiet for so long she became lost in her own thoughts, thinking again about the stranger with the broad shoulders and kind smile. She wished she could have spent more time with him. In her mind, they would talk about things. Him and her. They’d talk about this and that. He would ask her if she was well taken care of. She would tell him how miserable her life was and how much she wished to be away from the caves. And he would offer his assistance—
“Ethne?”
She shook herself. How silly to be wasting her thoughts on something that could never happen.
“Up ahead, Ethne.” Finn wiggled to get down, and she dropped to her knees so he could. When he grabbed at her leg, she flinched at how tight his hold was.
“What is amiss?” she asked.
Thumb shoved inside his mouth, he pointed with his other hand up the road.
Three men stood abreast, blocking the way.
“Ethne.”
Olaf called, and she couldn’t catch her breath. He said her name the way he had in the cave. Low and intimate.
Finn squeezed tighter.
“I’ve been waiting for ye.”
A squeak escaped her throat. Olaf confirmed her suspicions, and she clamped her jaw tight.
When Ciaran came toward them and yanked the child away, Finn’s nails ripped through her clothes into her skin and she gasped in pain. He struggled against Ciaran so fiercely that the third man came to grab his feet. When he slapped the little boy, his body went limp. Ethne screamed. In the blink of an eye, Olaf had her mouth covered and an arm about her waist. He picked her up off the ground as if she weighed nothing. She continued kicking and flailing, and digging at his fingers to gain her release. His powerful arm squeezed tight. She couldn’t breathe.
His hands clawed at her, stopping only long enough to drop her behind the bushes that grew thick along the side of the road. He threw her down so hard she hit the back of her head against the ground. She winced. The pain shot all the way to her teeth.
“Tease me, will ye?”
“No.” She shook her head, scrambling back on her elbows to get away. He hauled her back by her ankles. Herléineballed around her hips, and he pulled her knees apart to settle on his knees between her legs.
The taking is easier if ye submit.
Aidan’s advice echoed in her head.
