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.” She didn’t appreciate having to address his back either.She resisted the urge to prod him.Miles shrugged.“We have introduced ourselves, we are no longer strangers.”“Nevertheless, I think I’ll just stay here, someone will find me eventually, someone who’s prepared to take me straight home to Kirk Knowe.” She took a hurried step away, as he turned quickly and she found him a little too close for comfort.“You’re already found, I have found you.What more do you want? This is not a well beaten path.There will be no more travellers this winter.If you wait here alone you will perish and no one will benefit from your ransom.” He raised one brow and smiled his crooked smile.“Seems a waste, don’t you agree?”She hesitated, reluctant to go with this unknown man, to a destination, far from her home.Similarly, she had no wish to remain alone and injured in this remote place.He was cocky and arrogant, but was he dangerous she wondered, did he mean her harm? He was smiling now, a rather charming smile, but she hesitated nevertheless.“I want to go home,” she stated flatly.“And I want to go on,” he replied.“I have neither the time nor inclination, to retrace our steps through the storm.”“I don’t care what you want.”He narrowed his eyes and smiled a little slyly.“A foolish move, Mademoiselle, I would also suggest rather reckless to admit indifference to the wants of your captor.Better by far to feign interest until you are more favourably placed.”Grace squared up to him, hands on hips, lips pursed indignantly.“Oh, so now you’re admitting you’re not actually helping me.You’re kidnapping me.Well, you can forget that; it’s not going to happen.”“How do you propose to stop me?”“I’ll think of something,” she replied haughtily.“We need to make haste, you can think on the way.”He offered his hand, the skin was tanned, the knuckles scuffed.Had he been fighting, she wondered? Or suffered injury digging the grave of his last victim?She felt control of the situation slipping away and couldn’t think of a way to recover it.He was waiting and the horses stamped their hooves impatiently.She briefly considered the option of escaping, of evading his outstretched hand and starting to run.But the desolate moor stretched endlessly in all directions and she’d no idea where she was or how to get back.She tried to get her bearings, looked in vain for the unmistakable shape of Simonside, or the more distant Cheviot, but the low cloud obscured her view.Even with two good legs it would have been a foolhardy venture to set out into the unknown in this weather.Incapacitated as she was it was simply ridiculous.Even the short walk to the horses had brought tears to her eyes.She accepted reluctantly that for the time being she was tied by necessity to her battle-scarred captor.Perhaps she was overdramatizing.Maybe when they reached Wildewood, wherever that was, she would be able to get help; someone from the village would no doubt come and get her.Until then she would just bide her time, feign interest as he’d suggested.She could feign interest with the best of them.When it became obvious to him that her resistance had crumbled, Miles affected a courteous nod, took her firmly by the waist and lifted her effortlessly onto the front of the saddle.“Are you in pain?” he asked as he tied his pack to the horse.He looked up when she failed to answer and for the first time since their initial meeting they looked each other in the eye.“Pardon?” he asked in response to her expression.“Quite frankly, I don’t know where to begin,” she said, bewildered and frustrated.“Yes, of course I’m in pain, what do you expect? I have a hole in my thigh, you put it there.However, I’ll manage and when we get to Wildewood, will you tell me what’s really going on?”“There is nothing more to tell.I will send a message to the bishop and when he acquiesces to my request you’ll be returned.” He smiled again and his eyes crinkled with amusement.“Think of it as a little adventure, Mademoiselle.”An adventure! The man was mad.“But I don’t know the bishop and he doesn’t know me.”“No matter,” said Miles, as he swung up behind her and clasped one arm firmly around her tiny waist.“He will not leave one of his little lost nuns in the clutches of a wayward knight.Who knows what might happen [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]