briefly what had become of the fellow, then told himself he didn’t want to know.
The important point was, a lone man or even a group could walk right past the place and never see it. If not for the sunlight striking the windows, he certainly would have missed it.
Actually, he reminded himself, he had missed it. Miss Delafield had spotted the cottage. His normally sharp gaze had been focused elsewhere at the time.
On a rather lovely derriere.
He stalked around the corner of the cottage, frowning, annoyed by the way his mind kept circling back to that subject.
“Sunrise and sunset will be the most dangerous.” He spoke the thought aloud, trying to distract himself. “But I can cover the glass with something to keep the sun from reflecting off it. Once that’s done, and provided you keep quiet, I can go completely unnoticed here.”
“We,” she corrected absently, still eating.
He shrugged, then regretted it when his shoulder burned like the devil. At the rear of the cottage, he stopped, satisfied with his perusal. He—they—had a secure place to sleep for the night. That was all that mattered at the moment.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to rest here any longer than one night—not if he was going to arrive in York in time for a certain pressing appointment.
The waning daylight glinted off something metallic in the shadows behind the cottage and he stepped closer to investigate. It was an axe, left imbedded in a stump next to a stack of firewood.
“That might prove useful,” he murmured, grabbing the smooth handle. He jerked the axe loose and ran an appreciative hand along the blade. It was still sharp, despite having been left out in the elements for months. He glanced at his companion.
She had already finished half the jar of honey. Looking up, she blinked at him, as if only now realizing how oblivious she’d been to him and to everything for the last five minutes. “Useful?” she asked uneasily, her gaze sliding down to the axe in his hand. “Useful for what?”
He looked at the chain stretched between them. “Stand very still, Miss Delafield.”
He hefted the axe with a quick, forceful movement and struck the chain—and she jumped despite his warning.
But the glancing blow only earned him a jolt of agony across his shoulders. With a scrape of metal on metal, the axe blade bent. Though it wasn’t rusted, it wasn’t up to the job.
The accursed chain remained solid. Untouched. Unbreakable.
“Damn,” he growled. He really would need a blacksmith to get the blasted thing off. He tossed the axe into the woodpile. Turning, he started to lead the way back inside.
“Wait,” she protested, lagging behind. “I have to... I...”
He stopped and turned to face her. “What is it now?”
The day’s last light chose that moment to vanish, leaving them in the gray darkness of early evening.
“It’s... I... that is...” She sighed, made an uncomfortable little grumble, and he could hear her putting the lid back on the jar. Her tone abruptly became brisk. “We’ve been on the move all day and there hasn’t been time to... to... heed the call of nature.”
She said the last five words all in a rush, so quick it took him a minute to decipher what she had said.
“Oh.” He shook his head, not sure whether he was amused or annoyed. He wasn’t used to considering anyone else’s needs but his own. And he certainly had no experience in considering the delicate sensibilities of a woman.
It was damned inconvenient.
When he didn’t say anything more, she filled the silence with another rush of words. “There’s a deep thicket right there.” If she was pointing, he couldn’t see. “And a rain barrel in the corner where I could wash off some of this grime and mud. I thought if you could... I mean... perhaps give me a bit of privacy.”
Her maidenly nervousness and innocence kept taking him by surprise. Perhaps because they seemed so at odds with everything else about her. “That’s going to be rather difficult.” He moved his foot, rattling the chain just as she had done earlier.
He could practically hear her turning scarlet. “Well, you don’t have to make this any more difficult than it already is. We need to... to face certain facts here. I’ve waited as long as I can, and at least it’s dark out now and—”
“Enough, your ladyship.” He held up a hand, willing to do anything at the moment to stop her from arguing. All he wanted was to go back inside, fall