Page 40 of Bound to Her Highland Lord
“I told ye,” she answered, completely unaware of the state he was in. “I spent several weeks in these woods. I traveled to every village, every wee town between Kincaid Castle and Dudley’s estates.”
“For Taryn,” he finished for her, recalling the details.
“Aye. For Taryn.”
“Tell me,” Oliver prompted, riding up beside her to better study her face. “Do you often dash off into the woods in search of your friends? Is it a habit of yours to go roaring into grandadventures without so much as a plan or a pack of food with you?”
“I had food,” she argued. “I simply had to leave my things with my horse the night Dudley captured me. There is nay telling where the beast got off to.”
He smirked at her prickliness. Only a few hours ago, she had been soft and malleable, pressed against him in complete surrender to their kiss. She had been every bit a woman and no signs of the trained warrior she now looked to be. Oliver couldn’t decide which version of her he liked the most.
“You did not answer my question,” he pressed. “Is this merely a way of life for you? Roaming from one place to another, no concern of danger. Are you so at ease with your sword and your bow and your horse that you fear nothing and no one?”
Though he said it lightly, it was something he was desperate to know. He wanted to know everything about this enigmatic woman.
She merely shrugged.
“Life was nae always like this,” Sorcha admitted hesitantly.
“Aye. You said your father was a wealthy merchant. Did you grow up in luxury?”
“If ye mean, did I have a dozen bonny dresses and eat rich foods every night, then aye. But that was only because my parents would host elaborate parties and dinners nearly every night. They needed to impress the good and great if they were to make more sales. My siblings and I were trussed up as evidence of my parents’ success.”
“What was it like when you first left?”
Oliver had no desire to hear the details of her engagement again. He loathed the thought of another man having any claim on such a marvelous creature such as Sorcha.
“To be honest, I dinnae ken how I survived,” she laughed. “I was so helpless. For the first time in my life, I was hungry. I didnae ken how to start a fire or hunt for food. The money from the jewels I sold ran out quickly. I did nae think to stretch them far, so I spent the majority of them on rooms in inns and hot meals. It was pure luck that I didnae get my hand cut off for all the thieving I did. I am only thankful I had the sense to buy a weapon before I was well and truly out of money.”
When Oliver stayed silent for too long, Sorcha shot him a questioning look.
“What are ye thinking?”
“Oh,” he mused. “Just trying to picture it—you as a helpless lass, drifting from one place to the next. It is hard to imagine when I look at you now, and you are so capable, so sure of yourself. I cannot imagine a time when you were anything but what you are now.”
She let out a long sigh, one that spoke of days gone by that she had no wish to repeat but still longed for.
“I spent the entire first half of my life nae kenning who I truly was. For all their money, all the gowns and piano lessons and hours spent with a watercolor brush in my hand, my parents cared verra little about who any of us truly ever were.”
“Did all of your siblings feel the same way?”
“Och, nay. True to form, I was the only one to ever rebel against the way things were done. I think that was part of the reason my parents never kent what to do with me. Everyone else seemed content enough to live out the lives they had all set for us.”
“But you wanted more.” He paused, considering all the ways he had been content to let life play out in whatever way it might. “And did you find it?”
“I think I did,” she answered, a sheepish expression on her face. “For starters, finding Aila and Taryn gave me a family that I felt I could truly belong to. I never had to pretend to be anythingother than what I was with them. And the things I learned, I learned because I wanted to, or needed to in some cases.”
“Like your swordskill?”
She shook her head thoughtfully and shrugged at him, unapologetic in her answer.
“Nay. Aila had always managed to get by with her bow. And Taryn only uses a weapon when she is left with nay other choice, though she can outshoot all of us blindfolded. Nay, I learned how to wield a sword because I wanted to. Because I thought it would be fun. Aila and Taryn merely indulged me. Though, I will say, my interest in the sword has saved us all on more than one occasion.”
“It certainly saved me.”
The reminder of Dudley’s men attacking cast a rather gloomy shadow over their otherwise easy conversation. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been able to talk to someone else with such ease, such openness between them. It was refreshing as much as it was jarring to realize how alone he had become in the running of his estate.
“Aye, well,” Sorcha blushed, “I only did what ye would have done had the men nae attacked ye first.”
