Adam awoke as dawn crested the horizon. He tended to wake up exactly when he needed to, no matter how tired he was. It took him a moment to orient himself and remember why he was still holding a mostly naked woman—correction, his wife—in his arms. Her chemise was scrunched up around her waist, her lovely breasts on full display.
Adam pushed the covers off as he sat up and dragged his hands through his hair. Letty’s virgin blood was on his shaft and thighs. He winced. He should have been tender and slow with her, not like a rutting stag. He had lost himself in her last night in a way he never had before. Deep down he had known it would be like this, that first moment he met her. It was as though part of him had recognized its other half, the part that would make him whole once more. Ever since he’d lost John, he hadn’t been himself. Being with Letty was allowing him to recapture that joyous part of himself, the part that thrilled at being alive, and being in love.
She didn’t know yet that what they had shared last night was extraordinary. It was truly a gift. Thoughts of their incredible joining soon led to thoughts of its possible consequences, such as a child. He had to find whoever was after Letty and put an end to the threat by any means necessary. He would not have any child of theirs put in danger.
With great reluctance, he dressed and woke his wife. She rubbed her eyes, stretched, and blinked against the pale morning light.
“Adam? Where . . . ? Oh.” She realized then that she was naked and pulled the covers up over her breasts, her cheeks deepening to a rosy hue.
“Good morning.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and cupped her cheek, unable to stop grinning. “How do you feel? Are you sore?”
“Sore?” She tensed and then nodded. “A little. Oh heavens, I’m so embarrassed.” She tried to pull the covers over her head like a child. Adam laughed as he pulled them back down to see her face.
“You were magnificent last night. The best I’ve ever had,” he promised her.
Her eyes grew round. “Truly? The best?”
“Most certainly.” Adam wanted to tell her that the previous night had been more than he had ever dreamed, that it had been magical, but he was afraid such words would make him sound like a foppish schoolboy. “You’ll have time to rest in the coach today. We have a long journey ahead of us.”
Thankfully, a coach wasn’t the best place to make love. He had done it in the past, but it was far from comfortable. The jarring of the road and the sudden unexpected dips in the holes were quite disruptive to moments of passion. Besides, she needed time to heal before he made love to her again.
“I’ll see to the horses and check on our driver while you dress.”
Adam left her to give her time to adjust. He imagined it might be a little jarring for her to wake no longer a virgin, with the remnants of her blood upon her thighs. He should’ve cleaned her last night, but they had been too tired to do much else but collapse. Now she would have some time to herself to adjust and prepare for the day.
The horses and the driver were made ready, and he returned to find Letty finishing the buttons on a day gown that she needed no assistance to put on. It seemed Mina had packed her bags wisely, with gowns that left Letty able to care for herself. He had hated leaving Helms and Mina behind, but it was safer for the two of them to travel alone.
He leaned against the doorway, watching her finish the last button on her gown, lost for a moment simply relishing that this woman was his. Even though they had been brought together under terrible circumstances, he was content. No, more than content—he was happy.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes.” She gathered her long hair at the nape of her neck and tied it up with a rose-colored ribbon that matched her gown. She looked so much younger with her hair styled like that. More like a girl of sixteen than a married lady of twenty. It only increased his urge to protect her. She started to lift her valise, but he gently nudged her aside and carried it along with his own down to the coach.
The ride north took another two days as they left England behind. At night, they collapsed into bed at an inn, and despite Adam’s desire, he didn’t have the heart to stir Letty awake simply to satisfy his lust. Instead, he held her in his arms, whispering to her about his life, and she whispered back—sharing of themselves in matters of the heart and mind rather than their bodies. He grew closer to her, reveling in each moment that his wife opened her heart to him.
Letty was a woman who believed in love, the kind that made poets dream and lovers sigh. Yet she was not a silly girl with nonsense in her head. She was a true romantic, but he could tell she had tempered that longing for love some time ago, holding her deepest dreams within. He understood, in a way. The marriage mart was not always seen as a place for love. The very name announced the mercantile or even mercenary intentions some went into marriage with. It wasn’t a place where love matches came often. Perhaps that was why she had passed two seasons without a marriage proposal.
As he watched her sleep in his arms, he brushed his fingertips over the curve of her nose and the winged arches of her eyebrows.
“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”
She stirred at his recitation of Lord Byron’s words but didn’t wake. Adam continued.
“I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.”
“Adam?” she asked, her eyes still closed.
“Yes?”
“I do so like Byron. Do not stop.” She moved a hand to rest above his heart, and something sweet and pure caught his breath as he held still. “Please.”
“Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes. Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.”
She sighed dreamily. “I like that one. Tell me another.”
“You are you and I was I; we were two, before our time. I was yours, before I knew; and you have always been mine too.”
He thought back to the day when she’d first come to see him, to seek answers about Gillian. He had been struck by her then, and not simply for her beauty. There had been something else, as though she was a piece of him that had long ago been parted and had only just in that moment been brought together.
She had looked upon him with the same baffled recognition, but he had done nothing. He had been polite and kept his distance. Love and marriage did not belong upon a path to vengeance.
Adam settled back in the bed, resting his head upon the pillow as he watched the moonlight sweep over the room before the clouds covered it and drowned them in darkness.
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day.
His heart had been cloaked in a starless sky, but Letty shone through the heavy clouds, burning away at his harsh need for revenge. He could not hold on to his anger and hate, not when this woman held love out to him.
Someday he would face a choice—her or his duty.
By the third day, Letty was thoroughly sick of being in a coach.
“May we stop and stretch our legs soon, Adam? I am going mad being trapped for so long in here.”
Adam nodded. He opened the coach window and told their driver to stop at the next inn which wasn’t far. They were traveling roads that were familiar to him now, and Letty was grateful that he knew what stops they would be coming to soon.
“It won’t be long. We’ll have an early dinner at the Crown and Thistle.”
Letty laid her head back on Adam’s shoulder. She replayed the previous night in her mind, a small, secret smile hovering about her lips. To discover that her husband was a romantic at heart, that poetry moved his soul as it did her own, was a true joy. But it was possible he wasn’t a man who enjoyed reading. Most rakes memorized bits of poetry to impress ladies; perhaps Adam knew only a few artful lines, rather than being a devoted reader.
“Adam, are you a great reader, or a man who prefers only sports and activities out-of-doors?” She considered herself rather balanced, enjoying the physical pleasures of riding, walking, and even fishing, though certainly not the part of baiting hooks. She also enjoyed reading books on a great number of subjects. She was not quite a bluestocking, at least compared to some of her friends.
“I enjoy both,” Adam answered. “You did not have a chance to spend much time in Chilgrave’s library, but when we return, I will show you.”
“I would like that.”
“We will be at Tyburn’s home this night, and he has a decent library as well.”
Letty lost herself in daydreams of the wild Scottish wilderness, of her and Adam riding across the heather-covered hills.
The coach stopped at the Crown and Thistle just after dark.
“Let’s go inside and have a bit to eat.” Adam instructed their driver to rest the horses. “We can stay an hour or so and then continue on our way.”
They entered the small inn and found most of the tables were full of men and women, a few eating and drinking despite the early hour.
“Wait here. Let me see if I can arrange a private dining room for us.” Most coaching inns had several rooms strictly for married couples dining alone, since gentle-born people usually did not sit down to dine amongst the lower classes. Letty honestly did not mind either way, but Adam had strode away so quickly that she could not call him back without drawing attention to herself. She already felt a bit on edge once they’d entered Scotland, knowing that the English were unwelcome, especially this far north. The last thing she wanted to do was draw the focus of a roomful of burly Scots.
Adam leaned against the bar and spoke with the innkeeper while Letty stayed put close to the door. The door opened, and several men came in. Pressed against the wall as she was, the men did not see her. They scanned the large taproom before their focus halted on one person—her husband.
Every muscle tensed as she feared they would turn and see her next. These men were here for her and Adam—they had to be. The group of men, seven in total, began to speak softly with English accents rather than Scottish. They chose one of the few empty tables left in the room. Adam turned and came toward her, surprisingly relaxed. Surely he wouldn’t be that calm if he had seen them.
“This way, my darling. There’s a room at the back for us.” He escorted her past the table of men, with his arm around her shoulders. Letty kept her chin steady, her eyes straight ahead. The second she and Adam were alone, she would tell him what she had seen. They entered a small room with a table and two chairs, which would have been cozy if it weren’t for their current circumstances.
“Adam—” she began.
He held a finger to his lips as he locked the door. “Yes, this will be lovely, a nice quiet dinner,” Adam said as if everything was fine, but he lifted one of the chairs and wedged it back under the latch. “I know you must be tired from all our travels,” Adam continued as he went to the window and eased it open. Then he motioned for her to come over.
“This way,” he whispered urgently, just as someone knocked loudly at the door to their room. “I’ll boost you. Get outside and wait for me.” Adam paused, a sudden fear in his eyes. “If we become separated, steal a horse and ride north on this road. It will take you straight to my uncle’s land.”
“No!” Letty’s eyes burned. She was not going to leave him. The door thudded as something hard collided with it from the other side. Adam braced himself against the chair that held the door shut.
“There’s no time to debate this. Go, now!” Adam hissed.
“I cannot leave you.” Something inside her, something black and full of despair, feared that she might lose him forever.
“I’m not asking. I am ordering. You swore to me in that meadow by Chilgrave that you would do what I said when it matters. This is one of those times. Now go!” He nodded at the window as the door rumbled behind him with another resounding impact.
“And leave you to die? I made a vow too, not to part with you until death.”
“And what if you are carrying a life within you, a life we created? You must put that life above mine. Do you understand?”
Letty’s hands went to her abdomen. She didn’t know if she was pregnant or not, but he was right—if there was even a chance, that life had to come above all else. It was a choice she had never imagined making—Adam or the child she might be carrying.
“Please,” Adam begged as another impact against the door shook him.
She rushed to him, kissing him fast and hard as she whispered, “I love you.” Then she dashed to the window and scrambled through it, dropping to the ground. Almost instantly, hands seized her, one clamping over her mouth.
“Got her!” someone snarled in triumph. Letty screamed against the gloved hand before she was shoved facedown into the earth and the weight of a body crushed her back.
“Bind her hands,” someone snapped.
She felt rope wrap around her wrists, but rather than struggle, Letty stopped fighting and went still. Her sudden lack of movement momentarily confused the men who’d grabbed her.
“You crushed her, you fool. We need information first.”
The weight holding her body down vanished. The sound of men scuffling behind her told her that now was the time to run. She surged to her feet and dashed for the stables a few yards away. The door was open, and she rushed inside. The coach driver was sitting up in a corner, eyes closed as he rested with their horses.
“Mr. Marin?” She seized his shoulder and tried to rouse him, but Mr. Marin’s head fell back, exposing that his throat had been slit from ear to ear. The dark-blue cloth of his coat had hidden the blood that now coated her hand. His body slumped sideways and fell to the ground with a thud. Letty tripped as she backed up a step and fell on her backside. She stared at the lifeless body. An innocent man had died because of her and Adam.
“Check the stables!” a voice growled from nearby.
Letty leapt to her feet and searched for a hiding place. She climbed up the ladder to the loft, even though she was sure they would check there. One of the flat beams stretched across the middle of the barn just above the loft space. She hoisted herself up and scooted along the massive beam. She was just small enough that if she tucked her dress and cloak tight about her and pinned her arms on either side, she might go unseen from below. She closed her eyes as sounds warned her that the men were searching for her.
“She has to be here. She has nowhere else to go,” one of the men said.
“She’s not.”
“Check the loft and every stall.”
Horses huffed and shifted in their stalls as the men tore through the stables. The ladder leading up to the loft creaked, and Letty held her breath. Her heart pounded loud enough in her ears that she almost couldn’t hear any other sound beyond it.
Keeping her balance on the beam, she dared not open her eyes, lest they see them glimmering in the dark from below. Hay rustled and boards groaned beneath the weight of a man just a few feet below her. She could smell him, a hint of gunpowder and sweat. Her nose tingled, threatening a sneeze.
“Come on down from there, Jordan. She ain’t there. We’ve got him. He’ll know where she ran off to.”
Relief swamped Letty at these words. Adam was still alive. And as long as he was, she wouldn’t give up. She had to get down and steal a horse to find Uncle Tyburn and his sons.
I will save you, Adam. Hold on.
The two men searched the stables once more before leaving. Letty stayed still, counting until she felt several minutes had passed before she dared to move. It was far more difficult getting down from the beam than it had been getting up, but she managed to land on a pile of hay with only a small thump. She waited again, ears straining for any sounds of men nearby. She searched the shadows but saw only horses poking their heads out of the stalls.
She chose a small horse, one that looked young and fast. She stroked her hand down its nose. It flared its nostrils and eyed her with defiance before tossing its head.
“You won’t let them catch us, will you?” she asked.
The beast, a dark-brown horse with a white stripe down the length of his nose, huffed as though offended by the question. Letty retrieved a bridle from the peg on his stall and fitted it to the horse. Then she slipped inside and saddled him.
She guided the horse out of the stall and mounted him. The stable door was still wide open, and she didn’t want to take a chance of being grabbed if she walked the horse out before getting on its back.
She leaned over the horse’s neck and whispered, “Run, my darling, run!” She kicked his flanks, and the horse shot through the door and barreled into the woods skirting the road.