Roderick's Purpose - Ellie St. Clair Page 0,13

fuming, as she took in the faces around her. McLaren wore the same expression as always, the other man looked somewhat amused, and Roderick — well, Roderick looked as angry as she. Clearly, he had not been particularly agreeable to this situation either.

“Fine,” she said, McLaren’s words of the noose somewhat scaring her, though she took comfort in the fact that Roderick would be equally as miserable as she on this journey. “You have a deal.”

Gwen spent a couple of hours with them, telling them what she knew — within reason — and providing details of the men they were looking for. As the seven gang members came to life through the fingers of the policeman, her heart began to beat faster, and she coaxed the man to sketch more quickly, as she was sensing an urgency to run far from the barracks and this town, where they might find her.

The police were suitably impressed with her memory, and after some time they began to make preparations to allow her to leave — though not alone, of course. No, the man she had thought she was done with, that she had wanted so desperately to be free from, was sitting in the front of the building, arms crossed as he waited for her.

He had a bag with him now, and she realized she had been here long enough that he likely had time to return to wherever he called home and prepare for their journey. Oh goodness, she thought suddenly — did he have a family? Was there a wife and children he would be leaving behind for this voyage with her? Not that it should matter to her — it was not as if she had asked him to accompany her. And yet, for some reason, the thought that he might have someone waiting for him seemed to rankle her.

“Are you ready?” he asked curtly, standing as she approached.

“As ready as I shall be,” she shrugged. “Was your wife upset that you are leaving?”

She cursed herself. What had made her ask such a question? She saw his lips curve into a knowing grin and she tried to appear as unaffected by his answer as she could, though her breath came quicker as she waited in anticipation for whatever it was he said.

“I have no wife,” he said, his eyes darkening as he looked at her more intensely than she would have liked. She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Well, I am happy to hear that,” she said, her nose in the air. “I would feel sorry for a woman who would have to spend each day with her ears on fire from your continual chatter.”

His eyes widened, and she at first braced herself for an angry onslaught, but instead, he surprised her by laughing. His laugh was a loud, throaty chuckle that came from deep inside of him, and he was clearly a man who laughed frequently and openly.

“Very clever, lass,” he said, shaking his head. “Very clever.”

Chapter 6

Roderick didn’t know what to think of the red-haired vixen standing in front of him. She was a thief and went afoul of his ideals — and yet he appreciated her quick wit, as well as the way she had felt against his body.

He knew he wasn’t the only one affected. As much as she tried to shield her feelings from him, he could see the internal war raging within her own eyes as she attempted not to look at him. And her question to him regarding a wife — well, as much as she tried to mask her curiosity, she had clearly been interested in his response.

And now he was going to spend at the least the next two weeks with her in confined spaces as they journeyed back to Scotland.

“Well,” she said, looking around her, and Roderick noted McLaren coming up behind her. “Where is my father?”

Roderick looked down at the ground. Let McLaren take this question, he thought. He was the man who had orchestrated this entire scheme.

“He is… not here,” McLaren said, and Gwen whipped around to face him.

“Pardon me?” she said. She did not raise her voice, but the steady, even, steely tone was almost more frightening than if she had railed at them with a shout full of rage.

“He is not here,” McLaren repeated.

“What do you mean he is not here?” she asked again in the same low tones that came out almost as a growl. “You mean you lied to me? I gave up all I