Viktor sighed. “Most likely not.”
“Get paid for what?” Ewan asked.
“We were hired to abduct you,” Bavel said.
“Why?”
They shrugged. “We were told to ride you and the lady about for a few days and then leave the two of you alone to find your way home.”
“Why?” Ewan repeated.
Again they shrugged.
Ewan whistled at the women. “Ladies, please rest your weapons.”
The women did.
Ewan turned back toward Viktor. “Now tell me again who paid you?”
“No one has paid us yet. We was just told to get you out and then go pick up our money.”
Ewan was completely baffled by their unexpected words. “Who is going to pay you? Did you not see the man who hired you?”
“Well, aye. But we never saw him before,” Bavel said. “He just showed up while we were visiting?—”
Lysander cleared his throat and stepped on Bavel’s foot.
Bavel cursed and pushed the man away from him. “I wasn’t going to tell him that.”
“Tell me what?”
“That were visiting Cat’s godmother.”
“Bavel!” Viktor took his hat from his head and hit Bavel with it.
“Ow!” Bavel snapped. “That hurt.”
Ewan moved to stand between them. “Gentlemen, please. Who you were visiting doesn’t concern me. The man who hired you does. What exactly did he say to you?”
Catarina came forward and handed her sword back to Bavel. There was a calculating gleam in her eye that Ewan didn’t quite trust. “He said he would pay us twenty silver marks if we were to grab you and then we’re to get twenty more if we get you to Drixel and then let you go.”
“I thought Viktor said it was to ride me and Nora around.”
“Viktor was mistaken. We were paid to abduct you.”
Ewan frowned at that. That wasn’t what he’d heard while he and Nora had been inside the wagon.
The gypsies were lying to him, but he didn’t know about which part.
Could they have another reason for abducting them?
“Do you know why he wanted you to kidnap me?” Ewan asked.
“He said he wasn’t going to harm you,” Viktor said. “I made a point of asking him that. I didn’t want to take part in killing anyone. He just said that he needed for you to be gone for a short time and that once we had you a few days away from your home, we could let you go.”
“But you didn’t abduct me from my home.”
Viktor squirmed at that. “We were going to, but when we got there, we saw the lady and her man and maid. So we waited until they left and then you left, and then we followed the two of you to the village. It was Cat’s idea that we head out a little early and wait for you in the meadow.”
