mind obfuscation, wench, promise not to attack again and I’ll let you go.’
‘I promise,’ she spat and the fury in her voice reassured him she meant to honour her word, as she was so furious about giving it.
Cautiously they stood like disengaged duellists, trying to assess their new positions in virtual darkness.
‘This is ridiculous, you must have the means to produce a light of some sort to have lit a fire in the first place.’
‘And wasn’t that a big mistake?’ the girl mumbled irritably as she fumbled about in the darkness to find the dark lantern that should have made him even more suspicious of her.
While it would have been a gross exaggeration to say the hut was flooded with light, the glow of a single tallow candle revealed the grim details.
‘There’s nothing here,’ Marcus exclaimed in disappointment, visions of getting Nick settled comfortably out of the cold and damp of an English spring vanishing like his breath on the chill air.
‘Told yer,’ the girl told him gleefully, arms folded across her skinny body as she nodded her triumph.
‘Which means you have naught either,’ he pointed out with excusable exasperation.
‘True,’ she acknowledged cheerfully enough and nodded in the direction from which he had come. ‘Road’s that way.’
‘I have no intention of dragging a wounded man any further along it tonight, so either you tolerate us for the night or leave yourself.’
‘I was here first,’ she said sulkily, the wind apparently taken out of her sails by the thought of a night in the open.
‘And ordinarily I should gallantly leave you to your solitude. However I have more important things to worry about tonight than a sullen runaway maid without a feather to fly with.’
On the point of impulsively informing the hateful creature that she actually had two pounds and ninepence ha’penny to her name, Thea just managed to keep her tongue between her teeth. Since that was all she had left of the few guineas she had managed to hide from the Winfordes, she had better keep quiet about her available fortune. She bit down on the urge to spark back and eyed the intruder balefully through the gloom.
She should never have given in to temptation to light that fire in the first place. Although she had let it out once her scratch meal was eaten, the damage was done. Still, she could have brought far worse down on herself than an officer in search of a billet for the night. Come to think of it, she could yet if she wasn’t more careful.
‘Am I correct in assuming that the “we” you spoke of was a lie to see off the fainthearted?’ he asked and she shivered.
Nobody would come to her aid if this man proved rather less of a gentleman than he appeared.
‘Maybe,’ she replied cautiously.
‘Either way you are the only person who can help me, so hold that lantern a little higher to guide me to the horses, will you?’ Seeing that she did not move, he made a noise of acute impatience and informed her sharply, ‘You’ll have a man’s life on your conscience before morning if you don’t help.’
‘And who says I’ve such a luxury?’
He sighed and took a shilling from his pocket and held it so it caught the poor light. ‘This does,’ he informed her so wearily that Thea almost dropped her guard and did as he bid her out of fellow feeling.
After three weeks of running and hiding and walking until she could walk no more, she had a lot of sympathy with the weary. Reminding herself she must not drop her guard, she eyed the shiny coin as if it represented nigh-irresistible temptation. It should of course, for heaven alone knew when she would have a chance to earn another one, so she nodded as if coming to a purely mercenary decision and signalled him to follow.
Complete darkness had fallen while they had stood arguing, but as her eyes adjusted to the night she saw a shadow move at the edge of the woods. Nervous of what she could not clearly see, she fought the urge to run back inside the hut and hide in a dusty corner.
‘My horse is wondering where on earth I got off to,’ the soldier’s voice reassured her gruffly.
His presence reassured her more than words and she relaxed a little as she let him lead the way. While she would find it unbearable to be ordered and bullied like a raw recruit in his regiment for long, for now it was oddly appealing.
‘Ah, but he’s a beauty, ain’t he?’ she murmured and reached out a gentle hand to the great horse so patiently awaiting his master.
‘Reluctant though I am to interrupt such a touching scene, more light would help me judge my cousin’s condition better.’
‘There’s no need to be sarcastic,’ she murmured as she held the lantern aloft and saw the vibrancy of gold braid and dash that was a Hussar’s uniform, but which now only emphasised the thinness and pallor of the gentleman wearing it.
‘There’s a lean-to round the back of the hut where the charcoal burners kept their beasts,’ she volunteered and would have taken the bay’s reins, if the first soldier had not put out a hand to stop her.
‘Light the way while I lead them.’
Knowing he thought she would ride off with his horse, she flounced along the overgrown track to the hovel, where the few ancient bundles of hay might serve to bed the animals for the night, even if they could hardly eat it. The officer hitched the black’s reins to the sturdiest post he could see and untied the ropes that held his friend in the saddle. Thea forgot her anger at being so mistrusted and hung the lamp on a nail driven in for the purpose.
‘I can manage his feet if you hold his arms,’ she offered, only to step back in awe when he hefted the unconscious man out of the saddle, setting him gently on the nearest pile of hay.
She shook her head in astonishment at such mighty strength united with gentleness. It flew in the face of all her experience and she didn’t want to soften toward his sex, unless some miracle led her to sanctuary. Even then she would probably do well to avoid this abrupt gentleman. Silently she moved to soothe the restless black until he calmed down enough to let her rub him down with a wisp of hay.
‘You have a way with horses,’ the man said, and if he was expecting her to fall at his feet in delight at his compliment, he would be disappointed.
‘I like them,’ she told him, wishing she could hate him.
‘He must be able to tell. I’ve often seen the bad-tempered brute lash out when he has a mind to be awkward.’
‘Shame I can’t be a groom then, ain’t it?’ she replied lightly and went back to reassuring the restless stallion.
‘Yes, it’s a lot safer for a boy to wander about unprotected than a girl.’
‘I don’t need nobody’s protection,’ she lied as he lifted the packs the horses had carried and took out nosebags and a good supply of oats.
‘Soon as we get your friend bedded down we’ll water them,’ she observed. ‘He looks about to wake.’
‘The
