Ewan lay back while she used her lap as a place to break and blend the leaves together.
“Nay,” he said. “‘Tis too dense in the woods and too dark now. They’ll have to stop for the night. We should be safe until morning.”
Nora nodded as she fed him her greens. While he chewed his, she ate some for herself.
“It must be frustrating not to be able to get loose,” she said after she swallowed her mouthful.
“I have to say ‘tis not one of my more favorite situations.”
Nora took his hands into hers and was awed by the strength of the man before her. She’d never met anyone like him. “You were incredible back there. I can’t believe you pulled that ring from the wall.”
“There are times when being a bear is a benefit.”
“Aye, there are...”
Tears gathered in her eyes as she thought about what had happened this day. “Poor Ryan. I can’t believe he’s dead. Had he been larger...”
“Shhh,” Ewan whispered. “It’s not your fault he fought them.”
“Had I not been there?—”
“He’s the one who...” Ewan trailed off as he almost echoed the words she had said to him earlier about Kieran’s choice to kill himself.
She was no more responsible for what Ryan had done than he was for Kieran.
Kieran had been the fool who had walked into the loch.
And for what?
For a worthless whore who had destroyed every man she’d ever known?
Isobail had never cared for anyone other than herself and Kieran had been a fool to throw his life away over the likes of her.
Ewan had lived these last years in seclusion with guilt eating away at him. Blaming himself for the decision Kieran had made. He hadn’t forced his brother into the loch.
Kieran’s stupidity had done that. In the end, his brother hadn’t given a care to anyone other than himself. In his grief, he had destroyed not only his life, but Ewan’s as well.
And all because Ewan had allowed it. He had let his own grief, guilt and pain blind him.
Kieran should have been stronger.
Had Isobail meant so much to him, he should have gone after them and taken her back.
Kieran should have fought for what he wanted.
Ewan would have.
He would never allow someone to just take his Nora from him...
His blinked as he realized the significance of that thought. His Nora.
When had he started thinking of her that way?
And yet he did.
When he had thought Ryan had come back for her... It had damned near killed him. Now that he had her with him again, he didn’t want to let her go.
She was the world to him.
