First Season / Bride to Be (38 page)

“Do you know where we are?” whispered Emily.

“We left the house going east,” he told her softly. “The stream flowed northeast. We are still on my land, I believe. My cousin's estate borders it on the north, so that is the direction we want. The difficulty will be keeping to it in this weather.”

“How far?”

“Six or seven miles.” In a straight line, he added to himself; not taking into account the mountainous nature of the country.

“That isn't far.” She attempted a cheerful smile. “And it will be hard for them to find us in the mist.”

“As long as we're quiet.”

They set off at the best pace they could manage and were soon struggling down slopes into narrow ravines and up the opposite sides. Now and then, one of them would send a stone rattling into the depths, making him wince. His only consolation was that their pursuers would have the same problem. At intervals, he stopped and listened intently, but the morning passed without any sign.

Around noon, the fog began to dissipate. Richard left Emily resting beside a trickle of water and climbed up to reconnoiter. He didn't stand on the peak this time, but crouched among some boulders to take bearings.

He could see the country spread out now, mist covering only the lowest places. Some of the hills would be landmarks to a native, but they told him next to nothing. All they could do was continue going north. When he judged that they had gone far enough, he would cast about for the Farrells' house. He made his way carefully back down. But when he reached the place where he had left Emily, it was empty.

Richard had to bite back a cry. His first instinct was race down the ravine shouting her name. It took him a long moment to control it, and to quell the panic surging up inside. Clenching his fists, he mastered his fear.

He knelt, searching the ground. It was stony and showed no footprints. However, the vegetation wasn't disturbed. There was no sign of a struggle. Nor was there evidence that anyone had forced his way through the bushes upstream. Setting his jaw, he walked down, all his senses straining.

He found her barely ten yards away. A curve of rock had hidden her, and she was standing still, making no sound. She turned as he approached and started to speak. “Look at this…”

Richard grabbed her upper arms and shook her. “Don't ever move from the place where I've left you,” he hissed.

She blinked, startled. “I only…”

“And keep your voice down!”

Emily took a breath, her eyes wide on his. “I only went a few steps,” she whispered.

He couldn't help shaking her again. “You are to stay exactly where I put you.”

“But it was…”

He started urging her upstream. “I chose a spot sheltered by an overhang and concealed by bushes. If I had been taken above, you might have stayed hidden.”

Emily looked uneasy. She struggled in his grasp. “I'm sorry. But I noticed this odd…”

“It doesn't matter what you noticed.”

She jerked away from him and took a step back. “My observations are worthless?”

Richard's anger was ebbing now that he knew she was safe. “No. But you shouldn't go off alone. If we were separated, I couldn't protect you…”

The stubborn look didn't entirely fade from her face, but it moderated. “All right. The next time I will wait until you come back.”

He nodded. His pulse had returned to normal. “We should move on.”

“Look at this first.” She led him back a bit and pointed to the wall of the ravine.

Richard looked, frowned, and moved closer. Reaching up, he broke off a loose piece and rubbed it in his hand.

“Isn't that coal?” Emily asked. Her reading had not been entirely in vain.

“It certainly looks like it.”

“It gets wider as it goes down the hill.” She pointed to the broadening seam of dark rock.

He walked a little way, seeing that she was right. Farther along, most of the cliff face was black—here, on his own land. He reached up again to verify the evidence of his eyes. Coal was the lifeblood of the inventions that so fascinated him.

“Do you…?”

A clatter of stones sounded in the distance, followed by the whinny of a frightened horse. All of Richard's faculties focused in an instant, calculating the direction of the noise, the terrain, the nearness of the threat. Demanding silence with a savage gesture, he scanned the stony ground. They had left no sign.

He moved quickly downstream, drawing Emily along with him. A man called out, too far away for Richard to catch the words. Using every ounce of skill he had gained as a castaway, Richard guided Emily north.

Emily tripped over a scatter of rocks and staggered. Richard caught her arm and urged her on. They had been moving fast and quietly down a series of gullies for what seemed like hours. There had been no further sounds behind them. They didn't even know if the one they'd heard was their attackers, Emily thought. But they couldn't afford to assume it wasn't. She was coming to the end of her strength, but didn't dare ask that they rest.

She watched Richard moving ahead of her like a wild creature. In the last few hours something about him had changed.

He turned to check on her. His hazel eyes seemed exultant as well as intent, lit with a kind of triumphant determination. He frightened her a little. Since they had fled his house together, his presence had seemed to guarantee safety. Until now.

“We must keep going,” he said.

When Emily nodded, he took off again with the loping stride that looked so effortless and was so hard to match. Emily followed as best she could. The sun was past noon, and the air had grown unseasonably warm as the last of the mist burned away. She had taken off the snug jacket of her riding habit, but even carrying it over her arm, she was hot. Her blouse clung to her back, and her still-damp boots were a penance.

Up ahead, Richard had stopped. He was listening again, she saw. She heard nothing but natural sounds—birds, the rustle of leaves. By the time she reached him, he was moving again. It had been that way all day. He drew ahead, waited for her to catch up, and then set off again, having had a rest, Emily thought resentfully, while she never got a moment's respite. A trickle of sweat ran down her neck. It was as if some other personality had taken over in him.

She stumbled again, this time knocking two rocks together with a sharp crack. Richard whirled, crouched for battle. His eyes took in every shadow. His lips were drawn back in something very like a snarl. Emily went dead still. For a moment, she was convinced that some terror menaced her from behind.

He straightened slowly, then he came back to where she stood. “I…I kicked a stone,” she admitted as he loomed over her.

He bent toward her. Emily swallowed. But it was the old familiar Richard who said, “You're tired, I know. I'm searching for a place where we can rest.” He gestured at the open valley around them. “This is too exposed.”

“I'll be more careful.” She got a glimpse of compassion in his face before he moved off again.

Emily trudged on, watching where she put her feet and taking particular care around stones. The sun started down the western sky. The emptiness in her midsection made her a bit dizzy. She had never been so hungry in her life.

At last, she had to stop. She would sit for just a few minutes. She looked ahead for Richard, to signal her intention, and saw nothing but empty landscape.

She rubbed her eyes. The valley was narrowing. There were walls of stone on either side, a few trees and brush ahead. But it wasn't so thick that she couldn't see clearly to the end of the declivity. Richard was gone!

Emily's heart began to pound. Her mouth went dry, and her legs trembled. She hadn't known what fear really was until now, she realized. Richard's presence had been sustaining her in ways she hadn't begun to understand.

How could she have lost him? She turned in a circle. There were no side trails. He couldn't have turned off without her noticing. Had he fallen? Was he hurt? Frantically, she ran forward, glancing left and right, watching for a hidden obstacle, something he might have fallen into or behind. There was nothing. Had he been captured? Were their pursuers waiting to pick her off as well?

Emily stopped and listened as she had seen Richard doing. She heard nothing helpful. Clasping her shaking hands together, she tried to think what to do. Keep searching, she thought. She had to find him.

Some sound made her look up. Richard was standing not five yards from her, gesturing for her to come along.

Emily gaped at him. One minute, she had been alone; the next he had reappeared like an apparition. She must be going mad. Relief and bewilderment overwhelmed her. Her legs gave way and she sank to the rocky ground, shaking.

Richard rushed over. “Have you hurt yourself?”

She managed to shake her head.

“I've found a place to rest.” He took her arm and pulled her up.

Leaning against him, Emily walked. This was how they had met, she thought fuzzily; only then she had supported him.

“It isn't far,” he assured her.

His arm was steady around her. Emily let herself relax.

They were heading straight for the wall of the valley. It towered over their heads at this point and was nearly sheer. Had he climbed that cliff, and then somehow jumped down when she wasn't looking?

“This way.” Richard guided her right up to the wall of rock, around a projecting bit, and
into
the cliff. “Turn sideways. It's narrow.”

There was a crack about two feet wide through the whole mass of stone, Emily realized. You couldn't see it unless you stood in exactly the right spot behind a thicket. The fissure seemed to go very far back. She couldn't see the end.

“How did you find this?” she murmured, astonished.

“An unlikely coincidence. A wren flew in just at the moment I was looking that way,” Richard told her. “No one will find us here.”

The opening was just wide enough to allow passage.

Stone scraped Emily's back.

“This is the narrowest part. You have to squeeze through.”

She wriggled a bit, and was through. Richard had more difficulty, but he was soon behind her again. Emily saw light ahead and walked faster. When she emerged from the dimness of the fissure, she gasped at the scene that opened before her.

The crack widened to form an oval the size of a ballroom. Trees grew thickly around the edges, shading a small pool in the center fed by a spring trickling over a slab of stone. Shafts of sunlight gilded the leaves and glowed in the water. The earth was cool and carpeted with ferns.

“Help me move this,” said Richard.

Turning, Emily saw that he was pushing a boulder toward the opening. She lent a hand, and it rolled into place, blocking the way. Richard picked up a smaller rock and set it on top. She helped him make a small pile, and soon they had the passageway effectively closed.

“The trees hide us from above,” he said. “But we must be very quiet. If we are heard, they can find their way here.”

She nodded, already walking under the trees toward the water. Cupping her hands, she drank from the spring. Then she splashed the clear liquid over her face and neck, sighing at the wonderful feel of it. She pulled off her boots and stockings and sat on a rock at the edge of the pool to dangle her feet in it. It was heavenly. But it wasn't enough. Emily turned to see what Richard was doing.

He was watching her with a smile. “Go ahead,” he said. “I'll sit here.” And he sat on a rock with his back turned, facing the blocked entry.

Emily hesitated, but the lure of the water was irresistible. With another look at Richard's back, Emily began to unbutton her blouse.

She shed her clothes quickly and slid into the pool. The water slid over her skin like silk, washing away the dirt of the journey and even, it seemed, some of the aches and bruises. It made her feel charged with energy, as if she could swim for miles, leap like a salmon, or flip like an otter.

She ducked under and shook out her hair under the surface. Coolness enveloped her head. She spread her arms and swooped back up, breaking the surface in a scatter of golden droplets. An even brighter glint drew her eye to Richard's ring on her finger. It was the only thing on her body at this moment.

She glanced quickly at him. He sat as before, turned away. Emily experienced an odd qualm of disappointment, immediately dismissed. She swam a few strokes to the edge of the pool, turned and swam back. It was as if they had entered another world through that narrow passage in the cliff.

Something touched her foot. Emily gave a startled cry and jumped onto a rock slanting into the pool. Gazing into the water, she saw a glint of tiny fish, and felt foolish.

“What is it?”

Emily looked up to find Richard on his feet, facing her, poised for rescue.

The universe seemed to stand still. Emily didn't feel the slight breeze on her body or the water dripping from her hair. She couldn't move. She was conscious only of Richard a few yards away.

The tension in his face and stance slowly drained away. His hands dropped to his sides. His eyes stayed on her as if he was helpless to shift them. She couldn't read the expression in them. She had never seen it before.

A bird called. Emily started and grabbed her skirt, holding it up before her like a curtain. “It was nothing,” she stammered. “A fish. It startled me.”

Richard turned his back. He stood there, rigid, giving no sign of what he felt.

She had spoken too loudly, Emily realized, not to mention standing there like a stick without anything on.

Richard folded his arms. Every ounce of his attention appeared to be focused on the pile of stones blocking the entrance. He was keeping watch, the pose seemed to say, not squeaking at shadows and possibly bringing their enemies down on them.

Emily yanked on her creased, stained riding habit. It had been a silly mistake, she acknowledged. But she wasn't accustomed to bathing outdoors. There was no call for him to be so superior about it.

She marched over to Richard. “Your turn,” she whispered. “I'll keep watch.” She would show him that she could be as responsible as he.

He stared down at her, his hazel eyes hot.

Emily took a step closer. He moved quickly back. “Go,” she murmured. Commandeering the rock, she sat down in his place, facing the cliff.

There was a period of silence. Emily was acutely aware of his gaze on her back. At last, she heard him walk away. There was another silence, which seemed very long, before she caught a quiet splash and knew that he had gone into the pool.

Emily felt a brief glow of satisfaction. He had succumbed to this small indulgence. He wasn't immune. She heard water ripple against rock, the sound of swimming. Unbidden, her imagination began to build a picture. It grew more and more detailed, filling her senses until she was conscious of nothing but the liquid sounds behind her and the images in her mind. Her cheeks reddened. Had he done this when she was in the water?

Without realizing it, she had inched around on the rock. She was perpendicular to the cliff now. Shocked, she started to turn back. But splashing stopped her. Emily bent her head, letting her damp hair hang down along her face. Twisting her head slightly, she sneaked a look at the pool.

Richard had just climbed out. He stood at the edge, shedding water like dripping gold. His body was dappled with shadow from the overhanging trees, and it was gloriously formed—broad shoulders, lean muscled arms and legs, a deep chest that narrowed to…

He raised his head and caught her looking.

Heat flooded Emily's face, washing down her neck to prickle over her whole body. She was transfixed by his unwavering stare. Even if she turned now, pretended she had been looking in quite another direction, it wouldn't matter. He knew. And she didn't want to turn away. She wanted to keep looking. She wanted to memorize the contours of his body. Remembering his kisses at the beginning of this journey—so long ago it seemed now—she realized she wanted even more.

Richard simply stood there. He didn't reach for his clothes. He didn't seem to breathe, though Emily's breath was rapid. It was as if he was waiting for a sign. She had the sudden sense that he would follow whatever lead she gave. This moment, full of portent, was in her hands.

She found herself on her feet, facing him, unclear how she had gotten there. Her body seemed to have made the decision on its own. She walked to the opposite side of the pool from where Richard was standing, following her with his eyes. Quickly, she slipped off her riding habit once again and stepped into the water. Her pulse was pounding. Part of her was silently shrieking at her temerity. With the water softly lapping about her shoulders, she looked at Richard again. A tremor of nervousness shook her. What if he…?

In one swift movement, he returned to the pool. In another instant, he had her in his arms, his lips warm and urgent on hers, nothing between them but a film of water.

The flood of sensation was dazzling. Emily felt him along every inch of her skin. His kiss made her dizzy as they floated together. His hands on her back made her shiver. Her arms crept around his neck as his mouth coaxed and enflamed hers. They sank slowly beneath the surface, hardly noticing the water close over their heads.

The kiss was endless. It took her breath away even more than the liquid atmosphere. It seemed that she had never experienced physical sensation before. Nothing that had happened to her body up to now had had this intensity, this irresistible demand.

With one kick of his powerful legs, Richard brought them up again. When they broke the surface, he pulled Emily toward the rocks at the edge of the pool. But she slipped out of his arms and dove, twisting around behind him, touching the back of his knee fleetingly before darting away.

He came after her at once. In the small pool, they circled and danced. He caught her once from the back, letting his hands slide up and cup her breasts, pulling her back against him so that she felt his arousal unmistakably. His fingers teased her into gasping before he let her go again and arced away through the water. She pursued him then, slipping up from below to brush along the length of him, evading his hands by an inch as hers moved featherlight over his skin.

At last, though, he caught her and crushed her to him in another shattering kiss. Emily gave herself up to it completely, and it carried her to a level where she ached for more. As if he knew, Richard lifted her out of the pool and carried her to a shaded bank of ferns. Sinking down beside her, he began to drop soft kisses over her whole body until she vibrated with longing.