“Well, what package?” the guard insisted.
Och, if this were his guard at Balla Dorcha, Ian would have slapped him for being so dense. Then again, nothing ever happened at his holding on the Orkney Isles, which was why he’d spent so much damn time away from there, doing odd jobs like this one to feel a little blood running through his veins. A warrior like him was not meant to be wasted on an isle without a battle, which was why he crossed the sea to the mainland where conflict was rife.
“Ah, let me see. A lass. Tall, reddish-gold hair, blue eyes.” He ticked off each of her qualities on his fingers.
Rhiannon’s eyes started to widen beside the guard, and she inched away from her guard at such a slow pace the lad didn’t seem to see her move.
“We’ve no one like that here,” the guard said, and Rhiannon cleared her throat.
Ian could have laughed. “Lady Douglass sends her regards, my lady. I am Ian Sinclair.”
Rhiannon laughed softly, the wicked glint in her eyes wiping away the caution she’d had there before. At least now she understood what was at stake here and wouldn’t fight him in leaving this moron behind.
The dolt, however, finally picked up on the exchange and held his arm out in front of Rhiannon, his eyes desperately glancing back and forth between them. It was painful how slowly his mind seemed to be working. “Oh, no, you heathen, you’ll not be taking his lordship’s sister.”
“It’s quite all right, sir,” Rhiannon said, pushing away the guard’s arm, which moved a little too easily as she did so. “I’m happy to go.” She started to edge to the right around the guard, her cat following, but the lad pulled out his sword in a show of eager bravado and leaped in front of her, waving it toward Ian.
In other circumstances that might have been as good as signing a death warrant. However, Ian preferred not to be the executioner today.
“Now, what are ye going to do with that?” Ian asked, pretending he was addressing a bairn who wished to be a warrior.
The guard thrust forward, and Ian easily dodged, not even bothering to pull out his own sword.
“None of that, lad,” Ian said. “Put your sword away, and I’ll let ye live.”
“What?” the guard sputtered, still waving the sword around as if it were a bug catcher, not a flesh-slicing weapon. “Let me live? You’ve not even got a weapon drawn. I have the upper hand.”
“Now see, that is where ye’re wrong, lad. I have no need to pull a weapon. I can beat ye bare-handed.”
“Why, you insolent savage.” The guard was growing rather purple in the face now.
Ian rolled his eyes at how worked up the wee lad was getting. Though he supposed wee wasn’t charitable. He was easily in his mid-twenties and fully grown of body. Just not his mind. The efforts he was making were really pathetic, and also unfair Ian supposed. Plus, the longer Ian toyed with him, the less time he had to get Rhiannon out before anyone at the castle noticed she was gone. Or they were marched by on rounds, though as he’d observed yesterday, no one was doing many rounds anyway.
“Shall I put ye out of your misery, pup?”
That made the guard sputter and lunge, and all it took was a sidestep and a hard hit to the back of the unfortunate sap’s neck to knock him out.
Ian nudged his prone body gently with his boot to make sure he was well and truly unconscious. When he didn’t move, Ian glanced up at Rhiannon and, with a raised brow, said, “Well, now that that’s done, shall we?”
A slightly horrified look graced her pretty face. That was another thing Douglass hadn’t mentioned, how fair her cousin was. Not that Ian needed to pay attention to such things—he wasn’t after a woman, just an adventure.
“You didn’t kill him, did you?” she asked.
“Nay. He’s merely asleep for now, but he’ll wake soon and alert the rest of the castle. We’ll need to get going—unless ye want to wait for your brother’s arrival. And then more fighting and the chance that I am no longer able to bring ye to Scotland?”
Rhiannon’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m ready. I think.” Her gaze turned skeptical. “How do I know Douglass sent you?”
Ian stared at her, confused. “I just told ye she did.”
“That is true, but how do I know you’re not lying?”
His brow narrowed. “Why would I lie about such a thing?”
“To get me to go with you.” She said it as if it made all the logical sense in the world. And perhaps it did. But he suspected few Highlanders were walking into England saying that her cousin Douglass had sent them.
“And ye think I’d have come all the way from the Highlands of Scotland to this godforsaken land full of idiots just to snare one lass? That I’d have caught a wee kitten as a show of good faith for anyone?” As beautiful as she was, he didn’t know anyone willing to come this far into the country alone for that. Scotland was full of beauties.
Rhiannon shrugged, then knelt daintily beside the felled knight, poking him in the shoulder. The lad didn’t budge. She put a finger under his nose as if checking for his breath and seemed satisfied that he was still alive. Her cat followed suit, with a bat of her paws at the guard’s slack chin.
