Page 14 of Kilty Plea
Chuckling, he murmured something she couldn’t quite make out, and continued to move her.
She’d been half-expecting him to toss her to the ground, but instead, he pulled one of her legs over the saddle, until she was… Well, there was no other word for it; she was sitting in his lap.
His arm was still at her back, holding the reins, but he paid no attention to the road ahead. Instead, he reached for one of her feet, and pulled it toward him.
This meant she had to either willingly toss herself from his lap, or lean heavily into his chest, while risking knee dislocation.
“Ow!”
Obviously, she chose the knee dislocation.
“Shush.” She could hear the smile in his voice, which was…strange. Nice? “Ye’ve seriously been without shoes for almost a year?”
Flora would’ve answered, except at that moment, he pressed the pad of his thumb into the arch of her foot, and the sensation—
—pain—
—relief—
—fear—
—Was so great that she gasped, tears coming to her eyes.
“Och, well, I suppose ‘tis a good thing ye can still feel pain there. Ye’re no’ in immediate danger of losing a foot to the cold.”
Pain?
Pain?
Now his thumb was rubbing her foot, his large fingers cradling the top, and Flora had to turn her head away to hide the tears in her eyes.
Poop on a stick.
He was…caring for her.
She bit down on her lower lip, hard.
The sensation his fingers caused was torture—pain radiated as the blood began to flow back into the limb, aye. But worse was the way he murmured soothingly under his breath, as if she were a skittish horse or a frightened child, making her chest tighten.
“There,” he finally said, as he lowered her foot gently and reached for his saddlebags. “If I pass ye a length of cloth, could ye tear it in half and wrap yer feet?”
“A-aye,” she managed, reaching for the undyed wool he offered. She cleared her throat while she busied herself with the project. “’Twas what I was using for most of the winter, ye ken. One of the men pitied me and offered me some cloth to wrap my calves and feet—son of a biscuit, ‘twas much better.”
Something rumbled in Payton’s chest. “I see why ye were so desperate to be away from that place, lass.”
Flora didn’t bother answering, but kept her attention on her task. Her eyes had filled with tears, and she blinked furiously, praying he wouldn’t see them.
“Dinnae fash,” he said quietly. “I have ye now.”
A single tear fell onto her lap as she leaned forward, and ‘twas all she could do to keep from falling apart at his soft vow.
Tears of yearning, aye, but also anger.Shewanted to be the useful one.
The way things were going, with his touches and caring heart, she’d be half in love with him by the time they reached the next village, and that wouldn’t do. ‘Twas her mission to makehimneedher, even if that meant making use of her body the way the Abbot had intended her to do.
Which is why, hours later when they finally stopped for the night, she had a plan in place.
If they’d be in the next village by tomorrow evening, then this was her only chance to convince him to take her farther.
