He was a dead man should her father ever learn what they’d done.
“She said she was Eleanor’s niece.”
“She is. Her mother is sister to Eleanor.”
Ewan cursed again as he remembered Alexander had married a French lady. It had never dawned on him that she would be sister to one of the most powerful women in Christendom.
Anymore than he would have ever believed Nora to be Alexander’s daughter. No wonder she had failed to tell him her clan’s status or her father’s name. No man in his right mind would dare lead her out of the country and risk her father’s wrath.
Sweet, Holy Mary, he’d slept with the niece and cousin of two kings!
Lochlan would kill him for this and God only knew what her father would do to him...
How could this have happened?
Well, he knew how it had happened, but why?
Aye, he was a fool. One destined for an ugly castration.
With a blunted instrument.
As his mind played through the horror of his situation, Ewan realized Catarina seemed to know a lot about this whole affair and he wondered what other information she was withholding.
“You knew Ryan was the one who hired you to abduct me?”
This time she didn’t even try to hide from him. “Aye, I knew it. Viktor and Bavel didn’t. They had never seen Ryan before, but I had.”
“When?”
“A few times at Alex’s castle.”
Ewan scowled. “You seem rather familiar with Alexander Canmore.”
“He and my mother are friends. They were very close in their youths.”
Something in her tone made him wonder if she might be one of Alexander’s illegitimate children. But that was none of his business.
He had more pressing worries at hand.
“So why did you bring me here to meet Ryan then if you knew what he wanted?”
“To be honest, I didn’t think Ryan would have the audacity to be here when we arrived with you, and her father wanted me to keep the two of you together for as long as possible. When I told him Ryan had tried to hire Viktor to kidnap you, he thought it would be a good way to give you two more time together. He was certain you would grow to love Nora if you were around her.”
Ewan let out a long, deep breath. Suddenly everything made sense.
Well, not everything, but many things were a lot clearer.
Her guard abandoning her at his cave.
Some of the odder comments the gypsies had made over the last few days.
But one thing still didn’t make sense.
“Why would he entrust her to me?” Ewan asked. “How did he know I wouldn’t hurt her?”
Catarina looked as if he’d just asked her the dumbest question on earth. “Because you’re a MacAllister and your family honor is the law you all live by. At the end of the day, he knew you would never let her come to harm.”
Ewan snorted at that. “The man is still a fool. I would never have taken such a chance with my daughter’s life and I find it hard to believe that he would be so careless with hers.”
