Nora looked at him expectantly. “Then why did you pass by the village?”
“I wanted to get you to Lochlan as soon as possible.”
“Then why did you double back?”
Because a lady so fine deserves better than to sleep on a soggy ground with me for company.
That was something he had no intention of explaining to her. “Because I wanted to.”
Ewan poured more ale and downed it, then poured more. He took the goblet and pitcher and made for the door.
Frowning, Nora watched him leave.
“Aenos, go after him,” Sorcha said. “I don’t want him sleeping in the barn again. He caught a cold and was sick for days the last time he did that.”
Aenos nodded and got up to follow him.
After Aenos left, Nora turned toward her. “Sorcha, why is Lord Ewan so...”
“Gruff?”
“Surly and drunken was what I wanted to say, but gruff works as well.”
“Guilt, my lady, is hard on a man. Every day he lives that his brother doesn’t is a day he feels he owes to Kieran.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well one night when the lad was drunk, he said something that has stuck in my mind. He said that he didn’t deserve comfort while his brother was lying at the bottom of a cold loch because he was a fool.”
“But his cave is furnished in luxury.”
“Aye, the doing of his mother once she saw how he was living up there in the hills with nothing at all for comfort. Not even a blanket. The lady couldn’t stand the thought of him in such misery so she led an army of helpers and threatened to come every day if he removed any of it.”
Nora smiled at his mother’s kindness. “So he intends to waste away his life because his brother is dead?”
“It appears so.”
Nora sat back as she thought that over. Why would he throw away his life because his brother was weak? It made no sense, but then grief seldom did.
Poor Ewan.
“Does he honestly think that his drinking and such would make his brother happy?” Before Nora could think better of it, she got up and went outside to find Ewan.
He was sitting on a log at the rear of the cottage drinking with Aenos.
The instant he saw her, he cursed. “Why are you out here?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she took the goblet from his hand and poured it out.
His face went flush with anger. “What are you doing?”
The answer was so obvious that she didn’t bother explaining. Instead, she grabbed the pitcher up and headed back toward the house.
Nora didn’t get far before Ewan caught her.
“Give me that.” He tried to take it from her hands.
“Nay,” she said firmly.
