Page 16 of Highland Ruse

While there were no villages nearby to threaten discovery, wandering men could be just as dangerous.

The maid had long since fallen asleep on her mistress’s shoulder, but Elizabeth had remained awake, her gaze alert. Her hand, he noticed, had continued to hold her maid’s, even after the other woman had long since faded into sleep.

The coach rocked hard to the right and then teetered to the left.

Leasa bounced forward and then knocked back, smacking her head on the wooden wall. Her eyes flew open, and she clapped her palm over the injury.

Elizabeth shot him an accusatory glare, as if he had personally rocked the coach.

“We’re going off the path to set up camp for the night,” Kaid explained.

Elizabeth turned Leasa’s face to the side and examined what was most likely a large knot on the woman’s scalp. “It would have been nice to have had some form of warning.”

The coach swayed and bounced in earnest now, and they all braced themselves in the small cabin, their bodies stiffly jerking and fighting the momentum. Ages seemed to pass before they finally rolled to a stop.

Leasa bolted out of her seat and lurched toward the door with her hand over her mouth.

Kaid jumped up to stop her, but she moved more quickly than he. She stumbled out of the coach, fell to her knees and retched.

“Does yer maid ever actually care for ye?” he asked Elizabeth sardonically.

She threw him a dark look and rose from her seat.

But Donnan beat her to her maid’s side. He bent over her and offered a square of linen. The wet sound of her blowing her nose soon followed.

Kaid disembarked from the coach and aided Elizabeth onto the soggy ground. The evening summer air graced his skin with a chilled breeze. Donnan’s murmured voice hummed quietly as he spoke to Leasa in gentle tones.

Elizabeth watched the two as well. “That was kind of him to help.”

The gentleness with which she spoke and the softness in her brown gaze as she regarded Donnan and Leasa made a flicker of jealousy prickle through Kaid.

He’d received little more than the sharp side of her tongue when he knew she was capable of far more. No sooner had the thought entered his mind, he steeled himself against the absurdity of it. She was his captive.

In the end, she was his bargaining tool to return to MacKenzie for peace. She would be married, and he would never see her again.

“We’ll eat after we set up camp.” His voice came out gruff with his determination.

If she noticed it, she did not chastise him for it. Perhaps she was as tired as he.

“We have no food,” she reminded him. “Our main stores were ruined when our bags fell from the coach.”

“We’ll make do.” Though he tried to sound optimistic, there wasn’t enough food for all of them. The scant amount of meat remaining wouldn’t be enough to fill any of them.

He surveyed the area, letting his gaze skim over the tree line, straining his vision against the darkening sky until he saw several puffs of smoke in the distance. A town or a village, far enough away not to be a threat, but close enough that they would arrive by midmorning.

Once he and Donnan had set up camp and Leasa appeared recovered enough to not lose what she ate, Kaid distributed the remaining food.

Elizabeth accepted the meager hunk of salted ham with a quiet note of thanks. It wasn’t until they began to eat that she regarded him with a shrewd glint in her eye. “Where’s your food?”

“We already ate,” Donnan answered.

She nodded to Kaid. “He didn’t. Only you did.”

Donnan slid a questioning gaze to Kaid, who offered a nonchalant shrug in reply.

In truth, he’d given Donnan his quarter of the share and hadn’t expected the women to notice he hadn’t given himself one. Apparently Lady Elizabeth was more observant than he’d given her credit for.

“What will you eat?” Her voice was gentle.