The Hawk (Highland Guard #2)(71)

More or less.

Randolph looked at him as though he didn’t know whether to believe him. “Then you do intend to return her?”

“Of course. You didn’t think I’d keep her, did you?” He made it sound as if it was the most ludicrous suggestion ever.

“I wasn’t sure,” Randolph admitted uncomfortably. “I’ve never seen you so focused on a lass before.”

Erik forced himself to laugh, ignoring the building pressure in his chest. It was ridiculous. He wasn’t focused.

He liked his life the way it was, blast it. It didn’t matter that he’d never been able to talk to anyone the way he talked to Ellie, that he couldn’t stop thinking about her, that she had the softest skin he’d ever touched and the sweetest lips he’d ever tasted, that the faint lavender scent of her skin was about the most incredible thing he’d ever smelled, or that her smile made him feel as if he’d just slain a thousand dragons. He liked her, but she wasn’t the woman for him.

Even were he to consider marriage—which he wasn’t—he needed someone to enhance the power and prestige of his clan. A nursemaid didn’t qualify. Nor was he currently in any position to take a wife, not when he had a rather substantial price on his head.

“Time and circumstance, Tommy. You can’t honestly see me tying myself to one woman?”

Randolph finally cracked a smile. “Nay, perhaps you’re right.” Erik hoped he’d move off, but Randolph didn’t appear done. “When will you take her back?”

Erik shrugged as if it wasn’t important, as if he didn’t care that in less than forty-eight hours he would likely never see her again. He didn’t care. “On our way to meet the Irish,” he said.

“You don’t think she heard anything?”

He shook his head. “Nay, but even if she did, by then it will be too late.”

“So you will let her be until we leave?” Randolph pressed.

Erik was damned if he’d be taken to task by some overzealous Sir Galahad intent on saving maidens who didn’t need to be saved. “You’ve nothing to worry about, Tommy lad. I know what I’m doing.”

He always knew what he was doing.

It was dark when Erik and Domnall headed back to camp after a scouting trip to the south side of the island. With the time of their departure approaching, Erik wanted to keep a close eye on the English patrols and attempt to get some sense of their pattern.

He’d expected to see the number of galleys diminish by now, but if anything they’d seemed to increase the past few days. The cook had been right: something unusual was going on. Fortunately, the English had not returned to search Spoon Island again, but perhaps it was a good thing they were leaving soon. Even if it meant having to say goodbye to Ellie.

“Something wrong, Captain?”

Erik realized he was frowning and shook his head. “Nay, I was just thinking that it’s a good thing we are leaving soon.”

Domnall nodded. “It’s not like the English curs to be so tenacious.” He gave him a look. “I thought you might be thinking about the lass.”

“I’m always thinking about lasses.”

Domnall wasn’t fooled. “You like her.”

First Randolph and now Domnall? “That’s hardly unusual; I like most women.”

His henchman had known him too long to be put off so easily. “But not like this one.” Domnall went on as if he were talking to himself. “At first I though it was the novelty of not having someone fall down at your feet, but then I began to think that it was more than that. The lass is good for you. She doesn’t put up with any of your shite.”

Erik pushed aside a limb in the pathway, letting it snap back on his second in command. “Assuming I had any shite to put up with, that’s hardly a point in her favor.”

Domnall ignored him and scratched his whiskers. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never looked at a woman like that.”

“With irritation?”

The older man snorted. “Call it what you want. But what are you going to do about it?”

His jaw hardened. “Return her to her family as I promised.”

“So you’re just going to let her go?”

Erik didn’t like to be questioned, especially when the answers made him feel so angry. “What else would you have me do? I stole the lass from her home and family; I need to take her back. And I’m hardly in a position to be offering her anything else right now.”

“You could give the lass a choice. You could tell her you care for her. Maybe she’d wait for you.”

“For what?” Erik snapped back, irritated with the turn of conversation. “To be my leman? You don’t seriously think I’d marry a nursemaid, do you?”

“Why not?” his old friend challenged. “You do whatever the hell you want the rest of the time. Your mother and sisters would never object, not if you were happy.”

He was already happy, damn it. He sure as hell didn’t need a wife to make him so. “This is ridiculous. I’m not getting married. I’ve known the lass for barely ten days, and in ten more I’ll have forgotten all about her.”

He was certain of it.

Domnall gave him a pitying look, which, as they were nearing the camp, Erik promptly ignored. Everyone was making too much of this.