Page 24 of The Highlander's Captured Bride
A few hawthorn bushes dotted the land around them, with patches of golden wildflowers breaking up their somber look. He took the horse’s blanket off and laid it for Violet near a tree. While straightening it, he saw her pulling the short wig off and finger-combing her hair out. He felt grounded in his place.
With the wig forgone, her sable tresses spilled out over her shoulders. Her shirt was still bulky and shapeless, but her trousers fit her legs and hips like a second skin. The glossy fall of her curly hair set off her chocolate eyes and feminine features and made her into one unique picture. He doubted that there was a second woman in the kingdom who could pull off a getup like that.
Her eyes were down on the wig. “Next time, I’ll fashion ye out of lamb’s wool than goat hair.”
Spanning out of his reverie, Ethan took the sack of food, bread rolls, cheeses, some dried rabbit meat, oatcakes, and fruit from where he had placed it on the ground. “Let’s eat.”
Resting herself on the blanket, she then went to tug her boots off and flexed her toes. The roll in his hand nearly dropped. Never had he ever been drawn to a woman’s feet, but he shouldn’t be; he realized that nothing with Violet could be normal with him anymore.
“We have bread, cheese, rabbit, and fruits,” he said. “What dae ye want?”
She was rubbing the side of her neck while her eyes were closed, “A bit of all.”
With the piece of muslin that the cheese had been wrapped in, he piled some bits of each foodstuff on it and handed it to her. She reached for it and smiled. “We did well today.”
“Aye,” he breathed out, “We did. Thanks to ye. Yer insights to this ordeal are—,” he whistled smoothly. “I cannae even imagine the many lines it took for you to follow to come to those conclusions.”
“To anyone other than those who do me faither’s work, aye, it would be challenging, but after a while, being with someone who points out what to look for, yer mind just starts to work differently,” Violet said, picking at the bread. Her voice was distant and she was staring far off. “Ye begin to see things that most others would overlook and deduce things that most would say are far-fetched. Ye ken how ye can handle any sword after years of training, it’s like that. Something familiar to ye makes ye act on instinct.”
Swallowing the meat, although seasoned perfectly, tasted bland to Ethan. He dropped his bread to his lap and sighed, “Violet, I—”
Her head tilted and her smile was slight and forgiving, “Ye dinnae need to explain anything to me, Ethan. I kent today was hard for ye. I saw it in yer eyes. Ye dinnae ken me suspicions would work. Even I doubted meself at times.”
“Ye did?”
“Aye,” she said. “I feared I was leading ye on the wrong track, taking yer mind away from things that are much more important.”
“The Lairdship?” He shifted and reached out to hold her hands. “Violet, I have time to figure that out, now, me most important issue is to find who killed me brother and have them face justice.” He looked into her eyes, luminous pools of compassion and warmth, “And spending time with ye is very… eye-opening and delightful. Ye take me mind off me sorrow more times than I can count.”
“Eye-opening?” she asked, lips twitching. “Is that a polite way of saying I’m peculiar?”
“Nay, it means unique,” he said. “I’ve never seen a woman in breeches the way ye dae it.”
Going back to her food, she broke her bread. “Ye’ve seen women in breeches before?”
“Once or twice,” he said, pulling away to eat. “But they are mostly cases of a girl getting hand-me-downs from her older brother. And they are ill-fitted, large and very, er…unnatural.”
“And yer saying me in men’s clothes is…natural?” Violet prodded.
Sensing the uneasiness between them had passed, he began to eat his meal with gusto. “I dinnae ken there is a right answer for that.” He pinched off a crust of bread and flicked it into her cheek. “Ye are a lovely woman with a wonderful intuition, take the compliment.”
Swatting at him, she grinned. “Stop trying to butter me up. It’s nay working.”
“Eh,” he laughed, “I prefer fruit jams.”
“Ethan,” she said.
“Hm?”
With narrowed eyes, she smiled. “We’ve come to peace, be quiet before ye ruin it again.”
11
Unable to sleep, Violet rose and pushed the window open to allow the cool night’s wind to soothe her after the hours she had spent tossing in her bed. Placing a chair near it, she sat and looked out with unfocused eyes. When she had gone to bed after she and Ethan’s ride to Turren, the moment her eyes closed, Ethan’s face was behind her eyes.
Ethan, a lovely man with a kind soul, a humble mind and a loving heart. Hearing him praise her for her uniqueness felt miles away from the other men who would demean her while she aided her father on his cases.
Many times had she held back from giving him the tactical comfort she wanted to bestow on him, but feared he would never accept it. Ethan was still grieving for his brother and he was conflicted about taking up the Lairdship, and she did not want to burden him more.
