Page 69 of Captured By the Highland Devil
“Oh!” Paige said. “How kind of ye.”
The woman’s belly jiggled as she chuckled, and as the corners of her eyes crinkled with her smile, Paige could see the woman’s kindness clear in her eyes. “Let me carry these with ye.”
“I’d appreciate that, me lady, but I am sure ye have more important things to do.”
“Nonsense,” Paige shook her head. “I want to, now, please show me where ye take this to.”
After depositing the linen to the closet, Mari took Paige down to another part of the herb garden. This time, they were transplanting young, tender shoots into long wooden trays filled with dirt.
She found herself enjoying the time doing something so simple but meaningful and passed the time meeting more of the healers. She realized there was a hierarchy to the healer.
Some of them were young and only treated the easier wounds while they learned the herbs and healing practices, the older healers dealt with children and women carrying children. Themost experienced did it all, women, children, men and the elderly.
Ruben found her there.
“I see ye’re havin’ yerself a lovely time,” he said, while walking into the open shed. He nodded to the women. “But I must take ye away for a while.”
Wiping her hands from the dirt, Paige smiled and excused herself. She headed up to their rooms as she chattered about the new things she knew about herbs.
“Considerin’ a new occupation as a healer, are we?” he asked.
“Nay,” she laughed, “I am just fascinated.”
“Well, it’s time for yer swimmin’ lesson,” Ruben said.
Nodding, Paige went to her room, but called over her shoulder, “I assume ye and ye men were searching for those mountains?”
“Aye.” She heard rustling behind her and imagined that he was gathering his clothes and towel as she was.
When she had her things in hand, she headed back to his rooms to find him twisting a dagger in his hand.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Yer daggers,” he said while handing it off to her. “Yer cousin certainly has a hand with blades.”
The dagger’s handle was wrapped in treated leather, the individual crisscrossing lines made it easier to grasp. The blade was steel with copper edges when she ran a finger over the raised fuller, jerked away.
“Ow,” she yelped as a line of blood trickled down her finger. “That’s sharp.”
“That’s why ye have it,” Ruben gave her the second one, then levelled a strict look to her. “If ye take a step away from this castle, ye will take them with ye. And daenae try to negotiate yer way out of this. Ye will carry them everywhere.”
Thinking of the rough grip of the man who had almost kidnapped her and his hard, wicked eyes, Paige did not make a fuss. “I will put them with me things right now.”
After slipping the daggers in her trunk, Paige followed him out of the castle to the waiting horse. This time, when he sat behind her, she allowed herself to lean into him, allowing herself the comfort of his possessive hold.
“Did ye ken that when the Romans came here, they found tribes ran by women? Fierce women who could wield a sword and shield as any man?”
“Nay,” Paige said. “But I am nae surprised.”
Ruben urged the horse onward to an open moorland. Coming to the crest of the hill she looked down on the scene below.
A beautiful loch spread before her, its dark waters surrounded by trees; in the sunshine it looked blue and inviting, and she imagined swimming there with Ruben in the summer—when she learned to swim, that was.
“It is beautiful isnae it?” Ruben said.
“Aye, it is,” she replied, mesmerized by the scene below.
“Good,” he said as the horse began to take the decline. “Because ye are going to learn to swim. Daenae worry, ye willnae drown on me watch.”
