Page 427 of Wicked Highland Heroes

“Nay,” she said. “I have offended you. How?”

“How did you know I was to marry Iain

MacPherson?”

“I never said I knew that.” She glanced at Victoria. “This is what bothers you—you think I knew?” Aurari smiled as she deftly shaped a portion of the dough into a small ball. “True, I could have, or at least if the knowledge so chose, it could have come to me. But in this case, I used the same methods you might.” She smiled. “I asked your husband who you were.”

Victoria blinked. “You…asked?”

“He told me. Though it was clear he considered it none of my business. He answered the question for the benefit of my male companions.”

“What was that answer?”

“That you were an English noblewoman sent by King Henry to marry him.” Victoria gasped, and Aurari’s head swiveled in her direction. She raised a brow. “A lie?”

“Surely you knew?”

“I did not.” Aurari returned her attention to the dough. “But you did marry him.”

“But I had no intention of doing so,” Victoria replied.

“Why were you sent to him, then?”

Victoria reached into the bowl and began shaping dough in a haphazard manner.

Aurari’s brows lifted as she surveyed the biscuit Victoria nearly flung onto the pan. “My people are sure to wonder how the English eat supper.”

Victoria looked down at the misshapen dough.

“And I would not blame them one wit.”

* * *

Red and yellow blended throughout the leaves of the trees, deceiving the eye as to where one color began and the other ended. Yet the early autumn colors only served to remind Victoria they were in the sixth day of their journey.

“Something is wrong?” Aurari asked.

The wagon bumped over a rut in the road.

“We are on MacPherson land,” Victoria motioned with her head at the countryside. “We should reach

Fauldun Castle today.”

“You do not seem pleased.”

Victoria looked at her. In the short time they had been together she had learned to read the Gypsy woman’s intense gaze. “There is much to consider. I have been away almost a week.”

Aurari’s expression turned uncharacteristically sober. “Perhaps you should have ridden on ahead as I first suggested.”

“Nay,” Victoria replied, remembering Evan’s consternation at Aurari having recommended they break up the small band. “Evan is right. It was unsafe for me to be with the two men he felt could be spared.”

Aurari’s gaze pinned Victoria. “I expect, mistress, it was more your belief that you could protect us, than it was the idea we could not protect you.”

Before further comment could be given, the wagons were surrounded by MacPherson men. “It seems that theory is about to be tested,” Aurari whispered as the lead man urged his mount forward and stopped in front of Evan.

“Oh ho! What have we here?” he said.

“Egyptians,” one of the men behind him said.