“Here it is,” Isla said, going to gather the bundle of clothing she had concealed there earlier. However, she felt so weary she could hardly get out of the gown and into Harris’ garb.
“D’ye need some help with that?” Ewan asked after watching her fumble with the front lacing for a few moments.
“Aye, I think that willow-bark tea has made me sleepy,” she replied, yawning and going to stand in front of him. She waited docilely while he undid the fastenings for her. When they were undone, she held his hand again while he helped her step out of the gown. Feeling faintly ridiculous in nothing but her shift, woolen stockings, and boots, she laughed.
“What’s funny?” he asked, patiently holding her trousers out for her to put her legs in, like a parent dressing a child. She leaned a hand on his shoulder for balance, enjoying the tingling sensation his gentle touches left in their wake.
“I feel a bit ridiculous, standing here in me shift and naethin’ else but me stockin’s and boots.”
“Ye dinnae look at all ridiculous,” he told her, giving her one of the crooked smiles she had grown so used to and which always made her feel funny inside. He pulled up the trousers and fastened them at her waist. “Ye look… sweet, with yer plait and that wee bandage on yer head.”
She giggled. “Sweet?!” He held up her waistcoat, and she turned around to shrug into it.
“Aye, sweet little Annie, me would-be assassin. What would I dae without ye, eh?”
Before she could stop herself she said, “Luckily, ye dinnae havetae find out.”
There was a strange silence as Ewan assisted her into her uniform coat, tied her kerchief around her neck, and placed her old woolen cap on her head. Taking care not to hurt her, he pulled it down low and carefully tucked her thick golden plait out of sight.
“There. That’ll dae,” he said, patting her gently on the head.
Isla was genuinely touched by his tender ministrations. “Thank ye, Ewan. Ye’ve taken care of me so well tonight, I’m grateful. I’m sorry I’ve been such a nuisance, and ye didnae get the information ye wanted.”
“Who said I didnae?” he asked as he led her back along the track to the lane, to where the horse was nibbling on the grassy verge.
The closeness Isla had felt with him seconds ago evaporated, and she was instantly alert. “But I was with ye the whole time.” Frowning with worry, her head starting to ache again, she let him pull her up into the saddle front of him.
“Sometimes ’tis the things folks dinnae say that tell ye what ye wantae ken,” he said enigmatically.
All the way back to the camp, she was silent, wondering what on earth he meant by that, and whatever it was, what the consequences might be for Gregory and everyone else who was being held captive in the castle.
—
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
It was not very late when they reached the camp. The men were sitting around their firepits, talking, honing their weapons, playing cards, jacks, and knuckle bones. Music from a fiddle drifted to them on the gentle night breeze, along with the smell of cooking and the distinctive aroma of one-hundred-and-fifty men who were reluctant bathers.
Annie seemed to have woken up a bit as they walked back to the tent, though her face was still drawn and pale. She had been very quiet since changing back in the woods, but he put it down to the blow to her head and the effects of the willow bark tea. He was surprised by how frightened he had been for her when she was hurt, and how relieved he had been when the healer said she would be fine. When he had cradled her between his thighs on the way to the healer’s cottage, it was the first time he had admitted to himself how much he was starting to care for her.
Which he knew was crazy, because he still did not know who she really was, or even if she was secretly planning to try to kill him again. However, that seemed to matter less and less with eachmoment they spent together. Helping her to change in the woods had been a strangely tender moment for him. Her absolute trust in him not to hurt her was like a drug to him that he seemed to thrive on and craved more of. It was completely different to the lust he had felt for her at the pond. That was centered in his groin, while the tenderness, the urge to care for her and protect her came directly from his heart.
