Relic - Jaid Black Page 0,13
sound asleep in his lap. It pleased Angus immensely that she trusted him already. She might not have understood this to be a fact yet, but he did.
What he didn’t know what to make heads or tails of was the wench’s death stick. He could see when she raised it that it wasn’t the wand of a sorcerer, but a contraption of some sort that allowed her to zero in on any part of the Englishmen’s bodies she’d wanted to. He was more than a little curious to ask her about the stick and knew that he would put the question to Doctor for him to translate as soon as time allowed.
Until then, Angus was enjoying the feel of this foreign woman in his arms. Her scent was clean, heady, and distinctly feminine without being overly perfumed. From the way he’d been obliged to hold her as she slept he could also tell she was lush of form. Full breasts, wide hips for bearing children, and a narrow waist. She was a might too skinny, but he’d see to it that she was better fed from now on.
“We’re out of the English-occupied part of the Lowlands,” Colban said as he brought his charge up to ride beside the laird. “What think you of making camp for the eve? My horse could use the rest.”
“Soon,” Angus muttered. “I want to get a wee bit further from the bluidy English and then we’ll stop.”
Colban inclined his head. He fell back into line behind his laird.
The Karrik kenned they were in friendly terrain, but he wanted to hold the wee wench a bit longer. Something told him her stubborn nature would be far less accommodating whilst awake than ‘twas whilst asleep.
Once their party had erected a makeshift camp, Octavia walked out the cramps she’d acquired from being in the saddle so long. She couldn’t recall having ever been this sore. Her ass, her legs, even her lower back…
She had a new respect for cowboys. And for certain medieval Highlanders who managed to ride for hours while brandishing their heavy swords. As she walked out those cramps, horseback riding became a skill she determined to learn and master. It took some of the dent out of her ego to see that Lieutenant Bellamy and the doctor were having as difficult a time adjusting to walking on their legs again as she was.
The two people who were having no trouble at all on the heels of the day’s journey were the Highlanders. In fact, they were so unbothered by it that they’d gone off and hunted a deer while the three who didn’t belong here hissed and moaned over their aching bodies. Even now the venison was being roasted over a fire. She had to admit it smelled quite good.
“We need to talk,” Octavia said to the doctor as she came to a halt. She removed her cloak—an action she could see in her peripheral vision which caused the Highlanders to still. She supposed they weren’t accustomed to seeing women in breeches, much less ones that were all but molded to a female’s skin. She ignored their stares as she busily rubbed out the ache in her lower back. “Now.”
“Forgive me, lass,” the Scottish doctor whimpered. “I’m having a bloody time of it, trying to get my circulation going again.”
“Shit, me too,” James commiserated. “Give me a second.”
Octavia inclined her head. “Five minutes. Not a moment longer.”
Angus was trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Judging by their similar dress, all three of the Outlanders came from the same place. Where was the question. In truth, he had many questions, not the least of which being why did women dress the same as men where they heralded from?
Not that the laird was complaining. Nay. The skin tight breeches and equally brazen tunic the wench wore made it easy to ascertain that she was as curvy as he’d suspected. Mayhap more so. Leastways, what he was seeing Colban was seeing too—the one part of this bizarre scene he hadn’t a care for.
Angus was a wee bit surprised the rest of his men hadn’t tracked him and Colban down yet. ‘Twas a state of affairs that had best be remedied the soonest.
“Who are they?” Colban asked. “Where think you that they came from?”
Angus had given the subject a great deal of thought. “I dinna ken.” Only Doctor was capable of conversing with the Karriks and the English alike. The other two could speak only in