Now that the excitement of escape had passed, she felt tired to her very bones. For weeks, she’d been overseeing the wedding preparations and planning the estate’s schedule and expenses for the coming year. She’d wanted to try some new methods in the land near the river, and she’d left Sam her plans all neatly written out. Sam had promised he would report how her plans were progressing.
Suddenly she realized her escape separated her entirely from her lands. If she told Sam where to send his reports, and Colin found out, he would feel obligated to find her. The realization felt like a stab to her side. She pushed the thought away and the sorrow that came with it. No. She would be back . . . and soon. Colin would realize he loved Lucy, the two would marry, and then Em could come home. But by abandoning Colin, she had forfeited his friendship and that of his family. The consequences of running cut deep.
She tucked the shawl around her and leaned back against the oak.
The light declined in the sky. Soon the rattle and shriek of the barn owls would announce the arrival of night.
Adam still hadn’t returned.
Surely he would come to her soon.
She closed her eyes, intending only to rest.
* * *
Emmeline was woken abruptly by the scrabble of approaching feet. Then suddenly her lips were wet, and her chin, and her cheeks.
“Bess! Stop.” She held her arms up to fend off the big dog’s happy greeting.
Bess sat, but kept leaning forward to nuzzle Em’s face.
“I’d keep my voice low, my lady. As you know, sound travels well from this clearing.”
It was Adam. He’d come.
Relief made her wish to throw herself in his arms, but doing so required getting up. Her hands and feet were stiff with cold, and her knee ached from remaining in a single position too long. She would have to be careful when she rose. But her walking stick was by the table rock.
Relief quickly mixed with annoyance. The winter sun, which set midafternoon, was drawing near the horizon. And her stomach insisted she needed food. All of it together made her petulant.
“The duke appears to have successfully discouraged your betrothed from searching for you.” Adam dropped an overstuffed leather pack beside her walking stick. “But one never knows how quickly a wounded lover’s disposition might change.”
She petted Bess, keeping her voice cool. “I’d expected you sooner.”
“If to disappear you only needed to walk out the door, you would have done it long before today. And you wouldn’t have needed a scoundrel’s help.”
Bess looked from one to the other, as if their conversation were a bouncing ball.
Adam’s eyes, dark as sin, watched her warily, as he held out his hand to help her up.
She didn’t want to touch him, didn’t want to discover that his touch could still melt her defenses. But accepting his help would be better than crying out in pain or stumbling when her knee gave way. At least they both wore gloves.
Bess watched them both, her big black eyes pools of affection.
Emmeline put her hand in Adam’s, and slowly, gently, he pulled her to her feet.
When Em was upright, though, Adam didn’t let go of her hand. Instead, arm outstretched as if they were partners in a country dance, he led her carefully across the oak’s spreading roots. As they approached the table rock, he raised her hand and turned her toward him, her partner in an imaginary waltz. In an instant she wondered how he might respond if she lifted her lips to his. But before she could do so, he stopped, having led her to her walking stick.
Removing her hand from his, she picked up the walking stick and stepped out of reach. She might still long for the touch of his hand on her bare skin or the press of his lips on hers, but she would not forget that by nature he was a chameleon. Like the daemon lovers in the old ballads, Adam was a charmer, able to make anyone believe in him, whether he was telling them the truth or a lie. No, if their lips met today, she would taste only regret.
“We have a little way to go before we reach tonight’s hiding place.” Adam seemed not to notice how quickly she’d stepped away from him, or perhaps he didn’t care. “How quickly can you walk? We haven’t much daylight left, and I hesitate to light a lamp.”
His observation seemed like a criticism. She almost snapped, Whose fault is it that so little light remains? But she caught herself. He had agreed to help her when he didn’t have to, and she didn’t know what troubles he might have encountered on her behalf at the house.
“Set the pace. I can keep up,” she said, testing her knee under her skirts to be sure. Bess, ever Em’s protector, took her place beside Em’s leg, offering comfort and reassurance.
Adam directed Emmeline to the far edge of the forest. “We’ll wait until the morning to travel from your estate. Tonight we’ll stay where we won’t be found.”
“There’s nothing in that direction but forest.” Em folded her arms over her chest. “And while you may be used to pitching a camp in any terrain, I’m hardly dressed for it.”
“Do you intend to be this difficult for the whole journey?” His voice sounded simultaneously amused and annoyed.
Bess tilted her head to one side, her eyebrows meeting as she watched the pair spar.
“If my asking questions strikes you as my being difficult, then I suppose I will be.” Emmeline stared at him intently.
Bess lay on the ground and covered her ears with her paws.
Em ignored the dog’s commentary. “I intend to ask as many questions as I wish.” Though she’d meant to be gracious, her nerves were exhausted. She raised her chin in defiance. “I trusted you once, until I learned that trusting you is a fool’s game. This time I intend to be more circumspect.”
He faced her, his chin set taut in frustration. “It’s not going to be a quick business to avoid Lord Colin’s men. We’ll be traveling together for weeks, perhaps even months, depending on our destination and the weather. If we fight at every step, we’ll only make ourselves miserable.”
“There you are, being reasonable.” But she felt her annoyance fade as quickly as it had flared.
“Emmeline, I owe you this.” He picked up the pack and threw it over his shoulder. “I will help you because you asked me. But if you continue to berate me for the past, I’ll find another way for you to escape Lord Colin.” He paused. “I never meant to hurt you, and if I could change the past, for you, I would.”
She said nothing.
He sighed. “There’s an old folly farther into the woods from here. We can spend the night there, out of sight.”
She looked at him suspiciously. “Where?” But she began to make her way in that direction.
“You curve around those trees there, then . . .” He paused. “Can you simply trust me?”
“I believe I know the place you mean, but it’s a ruin. No walls, no roof.” She looked up into the sky, ever darkening. “And we can’t light a fire, or everyone for miles will know where we are.”
“It didn’t take much to make it habitable.”
“All that time you were living on my estate.” She felt as if he’d hit her in the belly. “Isn’t it time to tell me the truth?”
“I wouldn’t call it living so much as visiting.” He gave the last word a light tone. “I thought it would be safer to remain close . . . in case you needed me.”
“Why would I have needed you?” she asked