A Scot to the Heart (Desperately Seeking Duke #2) - Caroline Linden Page 0,106

to Drew now. Without a word Ilsa took the lead, choosing the road leading southwest.

They rode for an hour before speaking. “What of our things?” she finally asked.

“I left a note and some coin for the chaise driver, asking that he return your trunk to your aunt in Edinburgh. I explained we would go the rest of the way by horseback.” He lifted one shoulder. “One less person who can tell anyone where you’re bound.”

She nodded, feeling as if she were in a play on the stage, wholly unreal and fantastical. They were wanted criminals on the run now. Merciful heavens, how her life had changed in a few short weeks. Had it really been little more than a month since she’d run through the maze at Stormont Palace with him and spent the night in his bed, her greatest worry being how to sneak back to her own room unseen?

“I take it you know where we’re heading,” he said, breaking the silence.

“Yes.” She hadn’t meant to tell him, but there was no longer any doubt that they were in this together, for better and for worse. “Glasgow.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

They kept well clear of Edinburgh, running south as far as Melrose before turning west. The Lowlands were far easier traveling than the rocky crags of the Highland Cairngorms he had so recently raced through. Vastly relieved to be on a more maneuverable horse than boxed in a carriage, Drew kept a keen eye out for any more followers.

There would be hell to pay for what he’d done in Dunbar. Neither Williamson nor Hay would suffer any lasting harm, but Drew had burnt his authority and respectability to ash by assaulting them and fleeing with the woman they sought.

Williamson had told him in no uncertain terms that Ilsa must return to Edinburgh. Drew had been trying to convince him otherwise when Hay shoved her to the ground, having already locked one manacle around her wrist.

Well. There was no going back now. Ilsa rode ahead of him, her back straight, as at home astride the hastily acquired horse as she had been on Duncan’s long-legged gelding. They didn’t talk much, but there was no need. She no longer avoided his eyes, and that alone eased the tension in his heart.

Of where they were headed and what they would do there, he thought very little. It didn’t matter. He had bound himself to her, like a liege knight to his queen, and where she led he would follow.

The first night they stopped on the edge of a quiet little wood, where the grass was thick and soft and a stream ran nearby. Ilsa nibbled her lip at the prospect of sleeping in the open, her eyes flitting up and down the road behind them.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her, unsaddling the horses and setting them to graze. “I’ll keep watch.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to find an inn? We’ll be defenseless out here . . .”

He put his hand on his sword. “Cold words, lass. I’ve been an army officer for a decade, and ye fear for yer life in my hands?” He shook his head, and she smiled reluctantly, as intended.

Later, when they had a small fire going and the horses were snuffling quietly nearby, Ilsa crept close to him. “Thank you,” she said, drawing up her knees under her chin.

“For what?” He watched her, his arms folded across his chest as he leaned against a sapling.

The fire flickered on her unbound hair, blue-black in the dark. “For following me. I was cruel to you in the carriage.”

“You were wary.”

She looked at him, her eyes midnight pools. “I was wrong. I’m sorry for the things I said.”

“We’re all wrong at times. No sin in making certain of someone.”

She touched the knuckles of his right hand. They would be sore tomorrow; the officer was a big fellow, and Drew had hit him hard. “You struck the sheriff-clerk’s officer. Two of them.” Her fingers ran over his. “If you hadn’t been there, they would have arrested me and made me go back to Edinburgh.”

He flipped his hand and grasped hers. “It didn’t happen. Don’t dwell on it.”

“No,” she whispered, staring at their clasped hands. There was an ugly bruise circling her wrist from the manacle. “Because you didn’t let it.” She raised her eyes. “I know where Papa’s gone.”

Drew’s stomach clenched.

“I did not know before I spoke to Cousin Mary,” she went on, staring at their little fire. She made no effort to pull her hand from