good-looking man. She’d imagined a plain-faced, scrawny, bookish man like the priests, who were the only learned men she knew of. Instead, he had a pretty face and a strapping body, she noted, her gaze sliding down his wide, naked chest to his tapered waist. The rest of him was still submerged in water so Evina couldn’t look farther.
“M’lady?” Donnan said quietly, drawing her reluctant gaze. “Mayhap we’d best get moving. If one o’ his brothers come looking for him and finds him like this . . .”
“Aye.” Evina stood abruptly, ignoring the way her wet skirts dragged at her. She glanced quickly around the clearing, but once assured they were still alone, turned her attention to Gavin as his coughing fit ended and he spat in the dirt. “Are ye all right, Gav? Can ye ride?”
“Aye,” he growled, staggering to his feet.
Evina watched him with concern, but he appeared mostly recovered. At least he wasn’t swaying or coughing anymore and there was color in his cheeks. Nodding, she turned back to the water, a grimace claiming her lips when her skirts slapped cold and wet against her legs. Her mare still stood where she’d left her, and Evina waded back into the water to reclaim her reins and lead her back onto land.
“What do ye want us to do with the Buchanan?” Donnan asked as he watched her mount her mare.
Evina settled in the saddle, arranged her skirts the best she could sitting astride as she was and then glanced down to the naked, unconscious man on the ground. He really was a pretty man, a pleasure to look on, she thought, but said, “Bind him hand and foot, toss him over his horse’s back, and then tie him hand to foot to be sure he does no’ fall off.”
“Do I dress him first?” Donnan asked, not looking pleased at the thought, and Evina supposed pleating a plaid and dressing an unconscious fully grown male in it might be something of a task.
She shook her head. “Nay. Just throw his plaid over him once ye’ve ensured he’ll no’ fall off his mount as we ride. And mayhap tie it down somehow so it does no’ fall off him either.”
Donnan nodded and then glanced to Gavin. “Are ye well enough to fetch his mount?”
“O’ course,” Gavin said irritably, and headed away muttering, “Took in a bit o’ water, is all, but I’m fine now.”
They watched him go, and then both Evina and Donnan shared small smiles. Gavin was always a bit touchy at any suggestion that he may not be up to par. He was young yet, but determined to prove he was a man.
“The Buchanan’ll no’ be pleased at being knocked unconscious,” Donnan predicted solemnly as he shifted his attention back to the unconscious man.
“Nay,” Evina agreed on a sigh, her eyes wandering toward the still-submerged lower half of the unconscious man’s body before she caught herself and drew it back to his face. This hadn’t been how she’d hoped this task would go. She’d planned to have an amiable chat with the man, and convince him to come with them. Knocking him out and dragging him home with them had only been a last-resort possibility if he’d refused to accompany them willingly. However, things rarely went according to plan in her experience.
Shaking her head, she glanced warily around the clearing again before her gaze settled on her cousin leading the Buchanan’s mount to them.
“Thank ye,” Donnan said, taking the horse’s reins from Gavin. “Go fetch our beasts while I get him on his horse.”
Nodding, the younger man moved quickly away to retrieve their waiting horses.
Evina watched Donnan bind the Buchanan’s hands and feet and then frowned when he caught him by his tied hands and drew him into a sitting position.
“Can ye manage on yer own? Or do ye need me to help ye with . . .” Evina’s question died in her throat. Donnan already had the man over his shoulders and was carrying him the few feet to the Buchanan’s mount. She watched silently as he slung him over the beast and quickly attached a rope between his bound hands and his feet under the animal’s belly so that he wouldn’t slide off during the ride.
Evina supposed she shouldn’t be surprised at how easily Donnan had managed the task. It was why she’d brought him along on this journey. The man was huge and strong, his neck as big around as her thigh, his upper arms