By Grace Possessed Read Free Page A

I fail to see,” he added as if she had not spoken, “is why rescue was necessary. Had you stayed with the hunt as you should—”
    “What makes you think I left it of my own will?” she interrupted, meeting his gaze for the barest of moments before lowering her lashes again.
    “You dropped back and let it go on without you, for I saw you.” He allowed a corner of his mouth to curl. “The question is why. Were you about nature’s business, or did you expect to meet a lover in some thicket?”
    “As if I would do such a thing!”
    That was better. Hot rose color had returned to her cheekbones and her lips were not so pale. “Many English lasses would, or so I’ve found. And most men are glad to tarry if a woman is halfway presentable.”
    “If you followed me because…”
    “Nay,” Ross said in hard disavowal. He’d not have her think him as bad as the scum he had vanquished. Not that he wasn’t well and truly aware of her womanly charms; he could still feel the imprint of her curves along his side, had her scent of lavender, warm velvet and well-bathed, gently reared female in his nostrils.
    “Yet you are here,” she said with a small frown. “You must have a reason.”
    She was quick, in spite of the shock of what she’d been through; he had to give her that. He had indeed followed her. He’d been far too aware of where she was and what she was doing all this long day, though that was something he preferred to keep to himself. His main regretwas that he had not fallen back in time to prevent what had happened. Yes, and that she had been manhandled while he dispatched the boar that frightened her mare, and then paused long enough to discover exactly what he faced from her attackers.
    “’Twas diplomacy,” he answered in irony laced with self-protection. “To show up the king by killing his stag for him would be more than a thought unwise. Besides, I heard the boar that fair scared the wits out of your mare, and thought to add his tough hams to Henry’s larder.”
    She gave Ross a sharp look that showed more than a little doubt, but did not challenge his statement. It was a moment before she spoke again. “Now Rosie is gone. You might give thought to how we are to return to the hunt without her or your mount.”
    She was right. His hunter had disappeared in company with the outlaws, and there was no sign of her palfrey.
    Ross cursed in blistering Gaelic phrases as he turned in a circle to scan the encroaching wood. He would not have been laggard in noticing their loss if not distracted by the lady. Still, that was no excuse. He should have noticed, should have prevented it.
    He considered plunging after his own beast, chasing down those who had taken him. His reason for not doing so was unchanged, however. He could not drag Lady Catherine with him any more than he could before, nor could he leave her alone in case the outlaws circled back.
    The hunter was as fine a piece of horseflesh as Ross had ever straddled, and he hated to see him go. At least he need not mourn the poor beast too much, as he had been borrowed from Henry’s stables.
    Lady Catherine sighed and then drew away from him, turning toward the track along which they had come. “I suppose we had best start walking.”
    “Nay,” he said with a slow frown. “I think not.”
    “No? But surely…”
    He lifted a shoulder, readjusted his plaid, which had slipped from it. “It will soon be full dark. To find our way back through the wood in broad daylight and on horseback would be hard enough, but afoot in the night is too great a risk.”
    She stared at him as if he had gone mad. “We can’t stay here!”
    “It’s better than wandering in circles until we’re lost, or freezing to death while we’re at it.” He did not think her able to make the long trek just now, though he would not say so.
    “Oh, but—”
    “Besides, the king should have sent out searchers for you. We have wood here for a beacon fire that will surely bring