Nora waited for almost a minute.
He didn’t acknowledge her in the least. He acted as if she didn’t exist at all.
“Excuse me,” she said irritably. “I asked you a question, Ewan MacAllister.”
Again, he didn’t respond.
Nora was appalled. “Do you always make it a habit to ignore questions?”
He expelled a long-suffering sigh. “My lady, if you will travel in silence, I will give you anything you ask.”
“Will you take me to London?”
“Nay.”
“Then you have conditions on your bargain.” She clenched her teeth. So be it. If he wouldn’t do as she requested, then she wouldn’t do as he requested.
“Fine weather out, is it not?” Nora looked about the forest. She spurred her horse forward so that she could ride apace of Ewan. “Quite refreshing and warm. I rather like this time of year. It was always my favorite. Why, I remember being a young girl. My mother and I would...”
Ewan groaned as he realized the woman intended to chatter until he either killed her or gave into her wishes.
His ears fair buzzed with her words and though her voice was quite dulcet and beguiling, it would be even more so if heard sparingly.
His head throbbed from the ale he had consumed. The bright sunlight made his eyes burn and his stomach sour. He’d planned on spending the rest of this wretched day in blissful stupor, lying abed until it passed.
Now he was off to Lochlan’s castle where he would have to face his mother and brother. See their own grief over the death he had caused.
To this day, he found it hard to look his mother in the eye. Though she had never said a single word against him, he knew as she did, where the blame for Kieran’s death lay.
Squarely on his shoulders.
His gut tightened. It seemed like only yesterday he and Kieran had played at battle. That the two of them had dreamt and bragged of the men they would someday be.
“Are you all right?” Nora’s question intruded on his thoughts.
“I am fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look sad and upset. Is my company truly so distasteful to you?”
It was on his tongue to tell her aye, but the lie lodged in his throat. There was no need in being deliberately cruel to her. She couldn’t help it if she wasn’t entirely sane. Mayhap there was some cruelty in her past that had caused her delusions.
Having lost his dreams so painfully, he would never rip them away from another.
“Nay, my lady. I don’t find you distasteful.”
“Just irritating.”
“Your words, not mine.”
She smiled at him then. It was a warm, soft smile that made her amber eyes glow. “So you find me charming?”
He felt a strange urge to whimper at her insistence. “Are you incapable of silence?”
“Are you incapable of speech?”
“Aye. Completely and utterly.”
“Well, then you speak incredibly well for a mute. I once knew a mute. He lived in the local village and used to make the most divine shoes. They were so soft that you felt as if your feet were cushioned by pillows.”
