He chuckled and she tried not to smile, even if he couldn’t see her.
‘I thought not. Bring my pack along like a good girl, will you?’
She scowled and tried not to show the slightest awe when he hauled his lanky comrade into his arms and bore him as if he weighed little more than a child.
Chapter Two
‘Light the fire again,’ the tall rifleman ordered, when they were inside the hut with the door safely shut behind them.
‘It’ll give us away.’
‘I have a rifle, four pistols, a sword and a cavalry officer’s sabre at my disposal, so I think we can deal with any intruders, don’t you?’
‘I dare say Boney’s too busy to call tonight, so likely we can.’
‘A wench with a sense of humour, how refreshing,’ he said drily and Thea subsided into mutinous sulks once more.
As she reached for the precious kindling she had gathered in case she could not get through the night without the comfort of a fire, she wondered just what the pampered girl of a few months ago would have made of this ridiculous situation. In all likelihood silly Miss Hardy would have thought a dark stranger in rifleman’s green deliciously overwhelming, and fallen headlong in love with him at first sight.
‘Silly clunch,’ she murmured at the very thought.
‘Who is?’
‘Who is what?’
‘I may be a clunch, but I’m not a deaf one.’
‘I meant someone else,’ she said, surprised to find she didn’t want to hurt his feelings after all. ‘A young lady at the last house I was in. She insisted her fire must be lit three hours before she got up every morning, so there was no risk of her delicate little feet getting cold. The maids had to rise early in the winter just to do as she bid us.’
Ashamed of the memory of that unnecessary demand, Thea was glad the subdued light would hide her blush. What an inconsiderate, objectionable female she had been, before the Winfordes took a hand in her education.
‘Cold-hearted bitch,’ he growled, and, if it had not been her true self he was traducing, she might have been warmed by his partisanship.
‘I dare say she’s learnt her lesson now. They say she’s to be wed for the sake of her fortune.’
To her surprise she saw a blush fire his tanned cheeks as the fire caught properly and began to warm the room at last.
‘We need hot water. There’s probably a shaving mug somewhere in my pack if you can find nothing else to boil it in.’
‘Then you find it. I’m not putting my hands in there. They might come out without some fingers.’
His teeth flashed white in the firelight as he grinned at her maidenly refusal to search a soldier’s possessions, and for once did as he was bid.
‘You really are a most unusual female,’ he told her as he handed her the tin mug, almost as if he approved of her rather odd behaviour.
She filled it carefully from the handleless jug she had made sure was full to the brim earlier, so she would not need to venture outside until morning. A precaution she might just as easily have not bothered with, as it happened.
‘Because I like my fingers where they are?’
‘Because you don’t mind saying so.’
‘They always said I had a big mouth,’ she acknowledged with an answering grin, and for a moment felt a peculiar heat run through her like warm lightning as he laughed and his rather sombre personality was temporarily transfigured.
Suddenly she could picture him, light-hearted and welcoming as he bid guests welcome to his home. War and responsibility had made him serious, but she imagined him transformed—galloping that great horse of his through summer meadows just for the joy of it, as he laughed with the lucky female who rode at his side, matching him pace for pace. Putting herself into that very attractive picture, she knew her heart would be in the smile she returned, that earlier jag of fire that had spread through her growing ever sweeter….
‘There, and won’t you look at that!’ she exclaimed with every excuse for annoyance, as a spark flew out of the fire when she poked at it unwarily and scorched her disreputable skirts before she could slap it out. ‘They said I was clumsy as well.’
‘They?’ he asked companionably, glad of any diversion from the task of discovering the state of Nick’s wounds.
‘The folk at the Foundling,’ she improvised, fervently hoping he knew less about such charitable institutions than she did.
‘No doubt very worthy people, but not given to spoiling their charges, perhaps?’
His voice was gentle as he contemplated the privations of an orphan’s life, and Thea felt guilty once more as she considered her very privileged existence as one until just lately. Grandfather had given her everything she asked for, apart from stubbornly insisting she must wed a man with a title. He even specified it in his will, and of course Granby had a title. She shuddered at the very thought and moved closer to the warmth of the fire.
‘They didn’t hurt you, I hope?’
He had evidently seen that shiver. She felt the burden of untruth weigh heavy on her slender shoulders, but too much depended on her staying out of the Winfordes’ clutches to resort to the truth now.
‘No, but I had to run away from my last place.’
‘Considering you find this place preferable, I can only imagine that the alternative must have been dire indeed.’
‘It was,’ she replied and could not hold back another shudder as she recalled the repulsive feel of Granby’s damp hands roughly thrusting at the neck of her gown as she gagged from sheer horror.
‘Not all men are brutes, you know.’
‘No, some try honey before resorting to vinegar,’ she said cynically, recalling some of the titled suitors Grandfather had lured to Hardy House.
Those poor and desperate men had soon put her off becoming Lady This or the Marchioness of That.
‘You have been unfortunate. Somewhere there must be an honest young fellow just waiting to value your youth and wit.’
‘Yes, most of them can’t wait to stone me from any parish that might be burdened with the burying of me, after they let me starve to death within their bounds,’ she said bitterly.
‘With a chance of earning an honest living, you might meet someone.’
‘And, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, now what of this poor man you were supposed to be so concerned about?’
‘Is the water hot yet?’
‘Any hotter and it’ll do him more harm than good.’
‘Hold
