He moved closer, intending to grab her arm. “I won’t have assassins near this house.”
“I’m not an assassin,” she said. “My companions are, but I met them only a few nights ago, and I bet them five sovereigns your lady would change her mind once she heard the details.”
He stopped. “What?”
She shrugged. “I saw her face when we first made arrangements, at a tavern in the village. To dream of murdering a rival is one thing; to hear the effects of poisons or drowning or strangulation is another. I knew she would change her mind.”
“A tavern?”
Then he remembered that Elizabeth had gone into the village for a while a few evenings ago. He’d stayed behind and sent a small contingent along as escort.
The gypsy girl was so close that even in the darkness he could see every detail of the lashes around her black eyes. Her close proximity made his chest ache, and he fought to keep his hands at his sides. Did she not fear being alone with him in the night?
“Why did you come back?” he whispered.
“For you.”
He didn’t move, and the sound—or perhaps the quality—of her voice changed.
“You long to leave this place,” she murmured. “To run and seek adventure, to travel, to see other sights and hear other sounds.”
As she spoke, the pain in his chest faded, replaced by excitement. Her words began to create pictures in his mind of the wonder of constant travel, living on the road with her, and she . . . she would never be at a loss for something new to explore. She was a fountain of ideas and adventure, always delighted by the joys of the journey.
She embodied everything he had ever wanted.
“Come with me,” she whispered, moving close enough to speak in his ear. “Come with me now. I’ve waited for you for a hundred years.”
A hundred years.
“Get us two horses,” she whispered. “The front gates are open. Your men are asleep. No one will see us.”
He didn’t even stop to think.
Less than half an hour later, they were riding out the open front gates.
Deep inside the forest, he watched her building a fire, and the reality of what he’d done began to sink in.
Had she put some kind of spell on him?
He’d abandoned his lord’s house with the front gates wide-open and left all his men asleep!
His hands were shaking by the time she finished the fire, and the small twigs crackled and burned.
“What did you do to me?” he demanded, wondering how fast he could get back and yet hating the thought at the same time.
“Nothing you didn’t want,” she answered. “My gift only works to that degree on a certain few . . . those who love the journey more than anything.”
Her voice had changed again, falling like music on his ears, and he began to forget the open gates. He forgot his men. He forgot his lady.
“Your gift?” he asked.
“Where do you wish to go first?” she asked. “Germany? The south of France? Italy?”
“Italy,” he repeated in wonder. He had always longed to see Italy. But her words offered more than travel. He could see pictures of her laughing on a foreign beach in the night air. He could see her offering idea after idea for the next place to explore, the next delight to uncover. For the first time in his life, he did not feel alone.
She held both hands out to him, and he walked over to grasp them. Her black hair smelled earthy and musty. Her face was lovely, exotic and delicate at the same time.
“I’ve looked for so long,” she said. “You are protection itself.”
He didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t care.
“But you have to agree,” she said.
“Agree?”
“If you come with me, we’ll live only by night, but we’ll live forever. You have to learn the laws and obey them. You won’t age and you won’t die, but not everyone wants this. You have to tell me that you agree, or I cannot go further.”
Live only by night? Forever?
He had no idea what she was saying, but again, he didn’t care. He only knew he could not live now without the perfect vision of traveling the continent with her at his side.
“I’ll agree to anything you want,” he whispered.
She smiled, exposing white even teeth. “I knew you would. I knew I had finally found you.”
She kissed him.
He grabbed the back of her head and pressed his tongue into her mouth. She drew him to the