root deep within her. She would have his child.
The mattress shifted. Aidan rose, moving in the dark to dress.
Anne came up on one arm, her hair hanging over her shoulder. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
He placed a finger to his lips, warning her to silence while he checked out the window. Satisfied, he crossed to the bed and started molding the bedcovers and feather pillows into a wall beside her.
She sat up. “Aidan—” His lips closed over her mouth.
“No questions, Anne,” he said, when at last he broke the kiss.
“Where will you be?”
“I’m going to save Robbie.”
“Aidan, you can’t.” She reached for him. “Please, stay here.”
He sat on the bed and put his arms around her. “I must try. Lambert will take me to London no matter what unless I can outwit him.”
Anne started to climb out of the bed. “I will go with you. I can help.”
“You are helping right here. You are the decoy. If someone should come in, pretend to be asleep. They will assume I am on your other side.” He came to his feet.
“Aidan—?”
He pressed his fingers to her lips. “Take care, Anne. Be brave.” With those words, he crossed to the window, opened it, and slipped out before she could protest.
Anne jumped from the bed, wrapped a sheet around her, and hurried to the window. The wind blew the curtains. She knelt to avoid being seen by any guards on the ground. But the only one she saw was a soldier guarding the cellar.
Meanwhile, in spite of his size, her husband moved quietly as a cat along the slippery shingled roof. Again clouds covered the full moon. He stayed close to the shadows and she didn’t think she would have noticed him if she had not known he was there.
Even as she worried, the guard appeared to look in the direction of her window. Anne pulled back quickly, ducking to avoid being seen.
Her heart pounded in her ears as she waited for the soldier to call an alarm; but no such warning came. When at last she dared to look out the window again, Aidan was gone. It was as if he’d disappeared into the night.
She closed the window.
The room seemed empty without his presence. Numbly she walked to the bed and lay down, pulling his pillow to her. It smelled of him.
She rested her hand on her belly and flattened her palm. She imagined a tiny pulse already beating there. A piece of the man she loved.
So she did the only thing she could do—she prayed.
Chapter 15
Aidan didn’t dare tell Anne the details of his plan. He wanted her completely innocent of what he was doing in case he was captured…and also, because it was almost too fantastic to work.
His practical wife would recognize immediately his foolishness and not believe it could succeed. He wasn’t certain, either.
Swinging down to a portico on the first floor, he allowed his body to hang over the edge a moment before releasing his hold. His feet hit the damp, spongy spring earth. His left ankle buckled, reminding him he was growing too old for such tricks.
He wished he could have stayed beside his warm, willing wife. Who could have imagined Anne was such a passionate creature? His reason to succeed this night was driven by his desire to return to her bed—forever.
Stepping back into the shadows, he glanced up at the window where he’d left her. She’d shut it. Good.
He ran along the line of the house, moving with the stealth of a hunter. One soldier guarded Robbie’s cellar, but Aidan knew Lambert had posted others.
Light came from the first floor dining room. People were seated at the table eating and drinking. Aidan knelt below the window casement and listened to Lambert entertain his superior officer, Colonel Witherspoon. From the sound of it, they’d had a good deal to drink, and Lambert was doing everything in his power to promote his suspicion of an impending Scottish rebellion. He mentioned Aidan’s name, pounding the table so hard the china and silver rattled. Aidan couldn’t catch Witherspoon’s low-voiced reply.
Fortunately, it appeared Lambert’s men did not share his vigilance. The two guards who were supposed to be walking the perimeters stood in the shadow of a tree, gossiping. As Aidan moved around the house and across the yard, he caught another asleep against the rustic stone barn.
Aidan skirted him and the outbuildings. Lambert’s dislike of dogs served Aidan’s purpose. There wasn’t one on the property to bark an alarm.